Returning to our series on Hindustani musicians who also worked as film composers for Hindi cinema, we listen to songs composed by sitar player, composer, scholar-musician, author and teacher Bhaskar Chandavarkar. We begin with an interview with Chandavarkar recorded for Doordarshan. Although it is in Marathi, it gives listeners an opportunity to listen to short segments of Chandavarkar’s sitar and surbahar performances. He studied under sitar maestro Ravi Shankar before going on to compose music for theatre and films.
His engagement with Western music is equally evident in other interviews available on the net and in his writings. For instance, here is a short interview describing the impact of the keyboard on Indian music.
Bhaskar Chandavarkar’s music and background score for cinema span films made in several languages, but in the 17th episode of our series we will revisit his work for Hindi films.
The first song is sung by Vani Jayaram for the film Maya Darpan (1972).
The next four tracks are from the film Thodasa Roomani ho Jaye (1990).
The first is sung by Chhaya Ganguli and Vinod Rathod.
The next two are sung by Chhaya Ganguli.
According to the text accompanying the next track, the singers are Meena Tadkar and Sagarika Mukherjee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHUqldlOgOg
One of India’s leading tabla players, Aneesh Pradhan is a widely recognised performer, teacher, composer and scholar of Hindustani music. Visit his website here.
