Documenting a woman of note

t may seem absurd to quote Winston Churchill to describe the phenomenon called Kishori Amonkar. Trying to understand Communist Russia, he had said, “Russia is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. But perhaps there is a key.”

The same puzzle can perhaps describe Amonkar — both her music and her personality. But there is a key. And Amol Palekar and Sandhya Gokhale have, it seems, located that key, judging by the documentary they have made on her.

It is not easy to make a documentary on Amonkar. She is known for her temper and tantrums, moods and attitudes, complexities and charisma. She is aware that she has worshippers, not just fans and followers. Sometimes she is embarrassed by the deification of her persona and glorification of her style and substance. But perhaps she also knows in her heart of hearts that she deserves that glory.

Philosophical roots
She is unique in her ability to explain the mystery of Hindustani Classical music in its philosophical and spiritual language. She not only sings, she creates an ambience that elevates the listener to an ethereal level. Even in her conversations, she raises the intellectual and conceptual level.

The documentary on her, titled Bhinna Shadja (Note Extraordinaire), is a beautiful tapestry of her rendering of ragas, and a commentary on their philosophical history. She has clearly done a lot of research on almost all aspects of  rasas and ragas and their presentation in various forms and phases. The beauty and depth of her music is revealed in this documentary through conversations with many stalwarts. She elaborately, though simply, explains the role of the Shadja, which may be a manifestation in music of Advaita (non-duality of the universe) although she does not say so explicitly.

Zakir Husain, Amjad Ali Khan, Shivkumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia et al try to capture in words the magic of Kishori Amonkar in their conversations with her. It requires concentration to comprehend what they say because sometimes they too go into a sort of trance while discussing her music.

But the interviews are skillfully woven together by Palekar and Gokhale, along with Amonkar’s thoughts on her music and the way  she reached her exalted position.

Before her time
Indeed, she did not achieve the stage she could have, she says, because her mother, Mogubai Kurdikar, could not really train her. In an affectionate way, she says that her mother too was rather unfortunate as she was born before her time. But there are no regrets, because what matters is a “Tapashcharya” and realisation, not fame, money and certainly not awards.

She is a Ganasaraswati and Padmabhushan, but that hardly elevates her position in the world of Indian music. When one hears of her early traumas, illnesses and her acute loneliness, her struggle with each note and voice culture, one is anguished. The anguish is mixed with awe because of the devotion and dedication that has gone behind the beauty of her music.

It is not easy to penetrate her mind, and certainly not easy to enter into that mind with her music. But the way Gokhale and Palekar enter her enigmatic soul to draw a portrait is a feat.

Amonkar comes through in this documentary as a human and also as a superhuman. Her biography is stitched together delicately through her memoirs and archival footage of her mother. As she nostalgically connects us with her past, we can begin to comprehend her present as well.

She turned 80 a couple of months ago but when she talks and goes frequently into flashback, we tend to forget she is just 20 short of reaching 100. She perhaps will not like to be reminded of her age. We too while watching the documentary, do not feel her age. She and her music are ageless and will bring to future generations the same spiritual delight that she brought to us.   

Bhinna Shadja, a new documentary on Kishori Amonkar made by Amol Palekar and Sandhya Gokhale, will be screened in Mumbai at Savarkar Bhavan Auditorium, Shivaji Park, Dadar, at 6 pm in Marathi and 7.45 pm in Hindi on Monday, August 29, and on Tuesday, August 30, at the National Film Archives, Prabhat Road, at 5 pm and 7.15 pm respectively