At the root of faith
DEEPA GANESH
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Vasundhara Komkali was in more than one sense a befitting companion to the legendary nonconformist Kumar Gandharva. She is not only an outstanding disciple, but also a thinking musician who takes the spirit and the essence of the maverick musician forward
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Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.
TO SIR WITH LOVE Vasundhara Komkali: `When he used to sing, it seemed like I could never get it'
Vasundhara Komkali wasn't an entirely unfamiliar name. Of course you knew she was a leading vocalist of the country and the disciple-wife of the legendary musician Pandit Kumar Gandharva. But that is hardly any backgrounder to set out for an interview. There wasn't much of her music available either. Not too many concerts in these parts. So how does one keep the conversation going? The only route to make inroads into her music and persona was through Pandit Kumar Gandharva, her late guru and husband.
Surely one didn't anticipate the bigger hurdles that were in store. Vasundhara Komkali seemed least interested to dole out information on her life and music. It was a simple "yes" or "no, no... nothing like that". The questions were turned around, a desperate attempt was made to put words in her mouth, but she couldn't be convinced to speak. Her genial daughter Kalapini Komkali volunteered to rescue the situation. "Tell her about that episode, talk about this one, explain how you felt on that particular occasion," she coaxed her mother to invoke a past that she had more or less sealed within herself.
Grand presentation
Vasundhara Komkali is as moody an artiste as they come, I told myself. But at the Dhwani concert the Bangalore Kidney Foundation had organised, I abandoned my hasty conclusions and was drowned in her exquisite music. She sang an exotic Lagan Gandhar, a dhun-ugam raga, creation of Pandit Kumar Gandharva. The raga with its sharp turn of phrases, was so full of grand surprises. During the course of our conversation, Vasundhara Komkali came across as someone possessed by her guru and his music; an unquestioning submission. But the concert was a complete volte-face. With her mesmerising voice that has refused to age, she took you on a voyage that had nearly no traces of the maverick Kumar Gandharva in it. From each of her interpretations it was ringing clear that she was as much a thinking musician as the maestro himself. There was such an unending flow of thought, a seamless reading of music, unlike Kumar Gandharva, who had shaped his music around his physical constraints. And the result was an original understanding of a very significant ideology. A slow, meditative alaap so full of lilt, it seemed as if all those notes, hitherto hidden presented themselves to be delicately unfolded. The intense gandhar (in fact, the raga had all the three variations of gandhar, prevalent only in Lok Sangeet and not in the traditional genres), slightly dissonant, was negotiated in an arresting manner. Probably for Kumar Gandharva, who sought classical roots in the folk, Vasundhara Komkali was a heady combination of a highly imaginative disciple and an inevitable companion. Like a critic put it: "Vasundhara Komkali embodies in her music the incredible range, the tremendous virtuosity, the spiritual resonance and exploration of Kumar Gandharva's great music. She has rare qualities of immense virtuosity, innovative vision and lyrical spirituality."
"My teacher Prof. Deodhar was Kumarji's teacher too. But his teaching style was very different. It had a totally different flavour to it. I was rather struck by his analysis of the ragas, his perspective on each of them, treatment, the mistakes one commonly makes... he was an authority on all this," recalls Vasundhara Komkali.
Vasundhara was barely twelve when she met Kumar Gandharva in Calcutta. He was impressed by her singing and asked her to come over to Mumbai for lessons. By the time she decided to go, World War II had started and Vasundhara couldn't go till 1946. She was broadcasting programmes from AIR and was an established musician by then. It was the same with Kumar Gandharva too, and he didn't have time to take on students. "Go to Prof. Deodhar, he had said. And I had every reason to be angry. I had come all the way from Calcutta and he turned me away... ," she says. Vasundhara did go to Prof. Deodhar but later returned to him.
Kumar Gandharva's unorthodox treatment wasn't much of a problem for Vasundhara. But what posed a difficulty was to remember what he taught. He didn't believe in the repetitive mode, instead he always said: "Music is not just craft, it's also art. So, don't practise endlessly, but also think about your music."
"When he used to sing, it seemed like I could never get it. But he would make it so simple with his explanation that it no longer remained a tough nut to crack," she explains. Kumar Gandharva had a theory to support everything that he did. "He had his own philosophy of how to hold a note.
For instance, if you sing ma, should it have the influence of pa? If so, how much... those kind of nuances. He had tried to incorporate the folk musicians' use of voice in his music. And this I found difficult. It was hard to remember all the details," she stresses.
Vasundhara Komkali collaborated in his research on various saint poets and also on his theme concerts. The musical works they did together were Geet-Varsha, Surdas, Tulsidas-darshan, Triveni and Rituraj Mehfil.
"You can't master his music by mere repetition because there is a lot of work for the mind," she adds. There were times when she did have doubts, but she would never question him. "I was a student first and wife later. And how can you question your guru?"
Undoubtedly, Vasundhara Komkali's life has been one of faith; something that was greater than the self, than her guru.
A faith in music.
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