Casshyap is part of a group that set a world record at the Indian Mouthorgan Players' (IMP) Meet in Indore last year. Around 200 mouthorgan players participated to set a world record in the Gold Book of World Records.
Whenever we reminisce about the golden era of Bollywood songs, legendary tunes such as mere sapno ki rani kab aayegi tu or Amitabh playing a mouth organ in Sholay are hard to miss. Once in its heyday, the mouth organ seems to have taken a beating in the age of beat-boxing. Now 69-year-old Khar resident Vijaykumar J Casshyap has taken it upon himself to revive the fine harmonica. On February 14, Casshyap launched an organisation for the purpose, named Mouth Organists of Mumbai (MOM).
Casshyap is part of a group that set a world record at the Indian Mouthorgan Players' (IMP) Meet in Indore last year. Around 200 mouthorgan players participated to set a world record in the Gold Book of World Records.
Casshyap, who himself has six harmonicas, feels a genuine need for promoting and encouraging harmonica players, and youngsters are his priority. "The whole purpose of MOM is that every mother should promote at least one member of their family to play a mouth organ during an arthy."
With the help of his organisation, Casshyap has managed to rope in renowned veteran harmonica players such as Rustom Karwa, Vishal Shirali, Dilip Patil, Sunil Patil, among others. With a strength of nearly 24 people in just one week, the organisation's first jamming session was held at Casshyup's place last week.
"The harmonica has given a lot to me. Now, I want to give some back. We all get to learn so much from each other in the group. Even though I have been playing ever since I was eight years old, I learn something different each time." Casshyup said.
He added, "I am not a professional player. When I was working and had a little time or when I was stressed, I would play the harmonica." Besides jamming, the association also plans to train amateurs, organise workshops, and, with due sponsorship, organise shows. Rustom Karwa, who has also been invited to join the group, said, "I think it is a good initiative. It will certainly help mouth organists to revive the instrument."
With a belief that the harmonica is an extremely versatile yet distinct instrument, Casshyap said, "You can play all kinds of songs on this little instrument; Bollywood, Hollywood, jazz, western, ghazal, bhajan anything."
Casshyap, who himself can play 350 Bollywood songs and 60 Hollywood classics, added, "I know that if I play a certain tune on a keyboard or a guitar, it will sound the same. With a mouth organ, however, if two people play the same tune, it sounds different. That is how unique this instrument is."
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