When jeremiads were being sung for classical music in changing times, Bhimsen Joshi sang with abandon and people just thronged to listen to him. He was a flamboyant classical singer.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

For many that would have been a contradiction in terms, but the maestro pulled it off with ease. He was popular without being populist, a purist who rendered the nuances of a raaga with great tenderness. His death in Pune on Monday, just short of his 89th birthday next month, may seem to mark the end of an era, but as some fellow classical musicians spanning generations have rightly said, he would remain a shining example for a long time to come.

What is it that made him the commanding singer that he was? He had a melodic voice and that alone would have given him the stardom in the classical music arena. But he did what every true artist always does. He put the voice in the service of the reign of raaga, the basic mode of classical singing. It was the timbre of the voice, which did not remain merely mellifluous, that gave his singing that lasting quality. The notes lingered after he finished with them. The histrionics of his performance — and there was plenty of it, which the photographers and TV camerapersons had captured over the years for posterity — that captured in a graphic way his singing, was not the act of an uncanny performer. Joshi let himself go whichever the way the raaga went and the audience followed it faithfully. He was fully immersed in his singing, the quality that distinguishes a great singer from the ordinary. While the uninitiated were enchanted by his passionate recital, the connoisseurs were left speechless.

Joshi did not dominate the scene because he had not much of a competition. He shone in a galaxy of brilliant stars — Mallikarjun Mansur, Kumar Gandharva, Gangubai Hangal, Kishori Amonkar, et al. And he would survive comparison with giants of the past like Omkarnath Thakur. Though he did not let himself be imprisoned in the gharana tradition of Hindustani classical music, the deep, rich tenor of his own Kirana gharana was there for all to hear. Joshi showed that there is no other way to keep the tradition of classical music alive except by singing it with all the passion at one’s command. That is what he did through his life with unmatched robustness of spirit.