RMIM Archive Article "63".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM/C Archives..
# Subject: Great Master's series
# Great Masters #3: Pandit D.V. Paluskar - talent extraordinaire!
#
# Posted by: Rajan Parrikar (parrikar@colorado.edu)
# Sources: "Down Melody Lane" (1984) by G.N. Joshi
#
#
Namashkaar! The saga of the Great Masters series continues.
Today's entree brings home the flavour of the musical genius of
Pandit D.V. Paluskar. A prodigy of sorts, Pandit Paluskar's
forte was the presentation of Ragas "in a nutshell". To expound a
Raga in all its ramifications in a 3 to 4 minute timespan is a
formidable task. And D.V. Paluskar had no equal in this business.
His recordings of short, brisk pieces are a collector's item. To
those who have problems digesting vocal Indian classical music,
Pandit Paluskar's treatment of Ragas constitutes the ideal hors
d'oeuvre. It has the essence of technique, beauty and by conse-
quence, simplicity. Err..sorry about the meanderings above. Got
carried away. Before I quit, here's one of Pandit Paluskar's im-
mortal cheezs set to Raga Gaud Saarang:
Piyu palan laage mori akhiyaan
Alibin piyu moraa jiya ghabaraave
Chaiin na nahin aave, ghadi pal cHhin cHhin raina
Palan laage mori...
Veer pathakvaa lejaa sandeshwaa
Piyasan kahiye, hamri bina tumare daras ko
Birahaaaa...
Palan laage mori .....
Rajan
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Pandit D.V. Paluskar
by
G.N. Joshi
(extracted from "Down Melody Lane" (1984))
pp 86-91
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I first saw Pandit D.V. Paluskar as a little boy in the Shree Ram
Mandir at Panchavati, Nasik in the year 1925. He was then about 5
or 6 years old and had come with his father, Sangeet Bhaskar
Vishnu Digambar Paluskar. Vishnu Digambar was singing the bhajan
Raghupati Raghav Rajaram. The atmosphere all around was intense-
ly devotional. Looking at the boy who was staring at his father
with rapt attention, I wondered whether the lad had inherited any
of his father's gifts, and whether he would carry on the tradi-
tion of Vishnu Digambar. In due course he did become a very bril-
liant and accomplished singer in his own right; a worthy succes-
sor to his most illustrious father.
At the time of his father's death, D.V. was only 10 years old. He
had studied music under the guidance of Pandit Vinayakrao Patwar-
dhan and Pandit Narayanrao Vyas but he did not adopt or copy the
peculiar gayaki of the Gandhrava Mahavidhyalaya. Instead he
evolved and developed his own style. He had a clear and melodious
voice, admirably suited to the type of music he favoured. His
alap clearly outlined the raga he sang; then followed the bandish
embellished by beautiful taans in an effortless enchanting style.
Both Pandit Vinayakrao Patwardhan and Pandit Narayan Vyas prob-
ably connived at his spirit of independence because he was the
son of their guru. This was a blessing in disguise as it en-
couraged the young D.V. to develop his own independent style.
D.V. Paluskar was very, very modest. He was known to his inti-
mates as them. He never spoke ill of anyone, was of a quiet
disposition and completely free from any vice. He arrived for
recordings punctually and fully prepared. Recording sessions with
him were therefore most enjoyable and not in the least bother-
some. He had complete mastery over his art and sang with perfec-
tion, ease and confidence, while we captured his magic artistry
on our discs.
He cut his first disc in 1944. Like Pandit Narayanrao Vyas,
Bapurao mastered the technique of presenting an attractive and
complete picture of any raga in just 3 minutes and 15 seconds,
for recording. For his first recording he chose to sing four
khayals in the ragas Bahar, Tilak Kamod, Kedar and Bilaskhani
Todi. He also rendered his father's favourite bhajan Raghupati
Raghav Rajaram along with another one by Sant Surdas. I got him
for recording again in 1947 when he recorded ragas Gaud Malhar,
Ramkali, Hans Kinkini and Marwa. This time also he recorded two
bhajans - Chalo mana Ganga Jamuna tir and Lachiman dhire chalo.
At my request he recorded two Marathi songs also but unfortunate-
ly they failed to click commercially. On account of his melodi-
ous voice, chaste style and attractive renderings, all the
recordings of his classical music became immensely popular and
still continue to sell in large numbers.
In 1952 Bapurao introduced me to a fair and handsome teenage boy
who was his close relative and who played well on the violin.
Bapurao requested me to take him on our music staff. Fortunately
we needed a hand just then, so I got him the job. In our studio,
recordings were made in different languages and styles. Ghazals
and qawalis in Urdu, bhavgeets in Marathi, garba and ras in Gu-
jarati, and Hindustani classical music - all these were often
recorded in our studios. It was therefore the job of this young-
ster to provide accompaniment to all these types of music. This
helped him extend his knowledge and constant practice brought
polish to his play. I suggested to him that he should also learn
and practise writing music. Within a short period he assiduosly
mastered this too. It helped him very much later in life. Soon
after he was offered a better job in the Films Division and I
readily relieved him.
The new job had better prospects - both financial and artistic.
This young boy is now a man - the famous violinist D.K. Datar,
popular all over India for his chaste and entertaining violin re-
citals.
A scene in jugalbandi form between Tansen and Baiju is enacted in
the film Baiju Bawra. My friend Naushad Ali who wrote the music
for this picture had requested me to suggest classical singers
for this duet. I suggested the names of Bapurao Paluskar and
Ustad Amir Khan. Bapurao had to be cajoled into accepting the as-
signment. He was afraid that by singing in films he would spoil
his style. I however reasoned with him that he would have abso-
lute freedom to expound and present the composition in his own
style without any interference. Thus assured, he sang in the
jugalbandi form with Ustad Amir Khan. The two great artists
matched in every respect and therefore this jugalbandi perfor-
mance proved to be the most interesting and the highlight of the
film.
The discs used for recording purposes in those days had a serious
drawback. After the recording they could not be played back even
once. The tape recorders introduced later were improvements on
this, as a recorded tape could be played back any number of times
and unwanted parts could be erased. There was another advantage
in the technique of tape recording. Previously all singers from
the film companies had to come to our studio to record their film
songs again. But with the invention of tape recording, we could
transfer the songs to the tape from the soundtrack of the
films.The duration of one side of an ordinary 78 rpm record is
only 3(1/4) minutes whereas the songs in films were sometimes
longer, upto 4 or 5 minutes. A music director therefore would
edit and cut such songs to the required length. This gave me an
idea. Most classical musicians complained that it was very diffi-
cult for them to give a perfectly satisfactory performance in
just 3(1/4) minutes. I therefore felt that if allowed to perform
unrestrained for 15 to 20 minutes, they could be taped and later
an edited version of the performance could be used on a disc. The
artists would be happy and give their best, and the listeners
would enjoy the cream of their artistry. I therefore decided to
conduct this interesting but very difficult experiment.
The experiment was undoubtedly a very complicated one. The opera-
tion required most skilful split second splicing and extremely
careful editing to make a 3(1/4) minute piece out of a 15 to 20
minute performance. It was of the utmost importance that the
edited version contained all the ingredients of a skilled and im-
aginative performance. The editing had to be done so perfectly as
to defy detection. The consistency of the entire gayaki had to be
preserved, the taans had to follow each other in their natural
sequence and the layakari had to be scrupulously maintained in
the perfect rhythmic cycle. All this had to be accomplished
without upsetting the overall structure of the raga and the
gayaki. For the experiment my chioce fell on Bapurao Paluskar.
When approached he enthusiastically agreed to cooperate. During
the Ganapati festival of 1955 he had a number of singing assign-
ments, the last one being at Vile Parle. He promised to come im-
mediately after the last engagement and accordingly he came but
he was very tires after the exertions of the successful pro-
gramme. He wanted to postpone the experiment to a later date, but
I told hin that it did not matter very much if his voice was not
in good shape because the recording was intended to be for exper-
imental purposes alone and not for issue. It was about 2.30 pm
when we went to the studio and made arrangements for the session.
He was to leave for Pune at 5.00 pm by the Deccan Queen. I per-
suaded him to record a 20 minute long exposition of a raga which
could cover the full length of our tape.
Thereupon he sang and recorded Raga Shri. After the recording I
rushed him off to the station in my car and waved him off. That
was the last I saw of him. Hardly 3 weeks later he was suddenly
taken ill with a mysterious illness and died on 26th October
1955. It was the Dassera day and the news gave the entire music
world a stunning shock. The recording made by me three weeks ear-
lier proved to be his last. >From this 20 minute experimental
tape of Raga Shri, I had to reconstruct a homogenous performance
of the raga to fit ona 78 rpm record. I achieved this intricate
task after listening to the tape repeatedly for over 18 hours.
I dissected the tape into details of artistic presentation and
while joining and reassembling the selected passages I had to be
very alert and meticulous to ensure that the result sounded like
one complete unbroken performance. Taana and boltaans had to come
in their proper order, and the unformity of laya and correctness
of rhythmic accompaniment had to be maintained throughout. Mr.
Madgaonkar, our recording engineer, performed the surgical opera-
tion of cutting and joining the pieces under my direction, and
the entire operation was carried out successfully. When I played
this 6(1/2) recording to the late Pandit S.N. Ratanjankar (who
was then considered to be the greatest authority on Indian clas-
sical music) he never even suspected that it was in fact an
abridged edition of a 20 minute performance. He congratulated me
and our recording engineer and expressed his desire that we
should record his performance in the same way. Accordingly we
recorded Raga Yamani Bilawal sung by him, with V.G. Jog accom-
panying on the violin. Both edited versions - Bapurao Paluskar's
and Ratanjankar's - when put in the market kept selling for years
without a single person discovering that they were edited. This
disc actually consisted of more than 10 pieces of Bapurao's per-
formance joined together. After the advent of the LP records this
method was not necesarry as an artist now had a much longer
recording time than on the original 78 rpm records. Ususally
after a record was issued the original was sent to our factory in
Dumdum. I had kept a copy of the tape of the Raga Shri since this
experiment had been my own. Bapurao died before LP records were
introduced. I therefore thought of issuing the 20 minute perfor-
mance of Raga Shri on an LP. The recording was just long enough
for one side of an LP disc. As the maestro was no more I chose 6
pieces from his earlier 78 rpm recordings for the other side.
However this proposal of mine was rejected by the technical
department in our factory on the ground that the recording of
Raga Shri was technically faulty. Since the recording was only
meant as an experiment, I had ignored the fact that Bapurao's
voice sounded husky and tired. The performance was quite up to
the standard in other respects. A tough controversy ensued
between me and the technical department over this.
I pleaded for the release of this record, pointing out the cir-
cumstances under which the recording was done. The popularity of
the artist who was no more was still very great, as the sales of
his other recordings indicated. Therefore the issue of this
record, though technically imperfect, was justifiable. After a
two-year battle of words my viewpoint was accepted and the LP
disc is, even today, on our prestige repertoire. When I bade
goodbye to Bapurao at V.T. station, he had promised to come back
for recording within a month, but alas, that was not to be. Cru-
el destiny snatched him away suddenly and prematurely, when he
was only 34 and at the height of his career. >From the archives
of the All India Radio in Delhi, years later, I was able to ob-
tain just enough tapes of his radio broadcasts for one more LP.
This contains Ragas Kamod and Bageshri. The two LPs and the few
earlier recordings are the only legacies this inimitable maestro
has left behind as specimens of his scholarship and proficiency
as a classical singer.
*********************************************************************
Rajan Parrikar
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian