An early bridge builder
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Balappa Hukkeri's singing style was unique for the way it wove elements of the classical and the folk traditions into it
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EARTHY GRANDEUR Everything about Balappa Hukkeri was rooted in a native tradition Photo: Courtesy DEPARTMENT OF KANNADA AND CULTURE
Everything about the late Balappa Hukkeri was alluringly earthy. He wore a huge turban and a coat, spoke in the vibrant Dharwad dialect and sang folk songs and bhavageetes in full-throated abandon.
The tradition of sugama sangeeta has come a long way since the days of Balappa, who passed away in 1992. Those of us used to heavy orchestral accompaniment to bhavageete renditions today may find it difficult to fathom the grand old man's horror for any instrument that needed a plug and a power connection. All his life, Balappa never used anything but a tabla and harmonium for accompaniment. In fact he had a robust voice (which remained that way even when he was well into his 70s) which barely needed a mike. When he sang his famous "Butti thakkondu hogthini holaka... ", "Innu yaka barlillavva Hubballiyava... " or "Modalu manavanagu", he savoured every word and ensured that his listeners savoured every word too, infusing a lot of drama into the performance by narrating an anecdote or breaking into a brief banter with the audience every now and then.
Theatrical air
This rare ability to turn a music concert into a "performance" in a literal sense comes, perhaps, from the lively atmosphere of theatre and music that prevailed in his hometown Murgod. Born in this small town in North Karnataka in 1911, Balappa was surrounded by people who acted and sang. He, in fact, was named after a musician uncle.
Young Balappa was naturally drawn to theatre at an early age and worked in several professional drama companies of the region as an actor-singer.
He also started training in Hindustani musician from Shivalingiah Gawai. But it was always the lighter forms of music — such as theatre songs, Marathi abhangs, vachanas and folk songs that his mother sang — that fascinated him the most.
The years of Balappa's youth, the Thirties, were also the years of the freedom struggle and he plunged into it with great enthusiasm. He was a singing soldier of sorts, going from village to village singing patriotic songs. He was arrested and jailed for six months. This sprit of patriotism didn't abandon Balappa even after the country was liberated from colonial rule. He gave away the family's gold and silver to the National Security Fund during the Chinese aggression and later worked as a field worker in the Department of Agriculture, travelling from village to village, singing songs on farming methods and family planning.
It was at this point that Balappa was drawn to the writings of Navodaya poets, specially those from North Karnataka such as Betageri Krishna Sharma, Kavyananda and Da.Ra. Bendre. Just as Kalinga Rao popularised poetry through music in Old Mysore region during the Fifties and Sixties, Balappa initiated the tradition of singing poetry and thereby taking it closer to people in North Karnataka.
Balappa's contribution towards popularising poetry and folk literature has been recognised and several prestigious awards have been conferred on him, including the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the State Sangeeta Nritya Academy Award and the Tulsi Samman instituted by the Madhya Pradesh Government.
Classical and folk
Balappa's singing style was unique for the way he wove both the elements of classical and folk traditions into it. He often broke into taans in the course of his bhavageete or vachana rendition, but never lost his spontaneity and native wit. He was a man with enormous respect for the native idiom and often travelled to villages to collect folk songs.
He knew hundreds of them and all by rote, another feature that lent his concerts a dramatic quality. When he sang in fairs and festivals in remote villages, people came to listen to him in carts from neighbouring villages.
If sugama sangeeta is a bridge form between the high brow and the low brow — both in its musical and literary expression — people like Balappa Hukkeri were the early bridge builders and they built it strong and sturdy.
BAGESHREE S.
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