Writer, film maker Anjali Kirtane’s docudrama goes back in time.
Dattatreya Vishnu Paluskar was only 34 when he died in 1955. In that short life, the child prodigy, who gave his debut performance in Punjab at the age of 14, enriched the world of Indian classical music. But his contributions have remained largely unnoticed and that’s something Mumbai-based writer and film maker Anjali Kirtane hopes to change through her films, Sangitache Suvarnayug and Ganyogi: Pandit Dattatray Vishnu Paluskar.
It’s a journey Kirtane embarked upon six years ago after she came across a personal diary that D V Paluskar had maintained for 12 years. “After going through it and listening to his music, I felt I couldn’t just sit at home to research his life,” she says.
“I had to travel to the places he had been to, where he was born, where he had sung, and if possible, meet the people whose lives he had touched.”
Her quest took her across India, to Delhi, Kolkatta, Indore, Lucknow, Pune, Banaras, Jalandhar, Patiala and Amritsar. In one diary entry, D V Paluskar had written how he had sung in Banaras at the wedding of the brother of Kishori Raman, “a kingly zamidar”. Kirtane went to Banaras in search of the Raman family, hoping to find somebody who would be able to tell her something more about D V Paluskar. “I called up the first ‘Raman’ I came across in the directory and it turned out to be the brother at whose wedding Paluskar had sung. The charming old man took me around the house and showed me the hall where Paluskar used to sing,” she recalls.
As she travelled and researched, Kirtane says she realised that the age D V Paluskar belonged to was the golden era for Hindustani classical music. It had given India greats like D V Paluskar, his father, Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, and Faiyyaz Khan, one of the best known exponents of Agra gharana. She simply had to document that era. Her 70-minute docudrama, Sangitache Suvarnayug, is that attempt to capture the developments in Indian classical music over a span of hundred years, from 1850 to 1950. The English version of Sangitache Suvarnayug, originally in Marathi, will be screened at the National Centre Performing Arts on May 6.
“Several historically-important developments took place during this period that shaped the future of classical music in India,” says Kirtane. Various gharanas migrated from their places of origin in north India to Maharashtra, she says and lists reasons for that. “Classical music had become very popular in Maharashtra because of the strong Marathi theatre culture. Classical singers used to give music to the dramas.” Radio and recordings further promoted the art, says Kirtane who has also written a book, Ganyogi, on D V Paluskar.
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Besides real-life characters (like vocalist Ram Deshpande) who enact the part of the music legends, Sangitache Suvarnayug weaves together interviews, old documentaries, photographs and music to bring the dramatic era to life. The timing of the film is significant because this year the Gandharva Mahavidyala (set up on May 5, 1901, by V D Paluskar) completes 110 years. One of the first music schools of India to run on donations rather than royal patronage, Gandharva Mahavidyala had challenged the traditional gurukul culture.
Kirtane is in her own way following in the footsteps of the legendary singer who set it up. “I don’t have the money, but I don’t believe in taking government grants.” Instead, she raises funds or asks for donations from likeminded people. The films cost her Rs 25 lakh. “I have raised Rs 22 lakh and will pay back the remaining Rs 3 lakh from the funds collected through the screenings,” she says.
(Sangitache Suvarnayug will be screened at Little Theatre, NCPA, on May 6 at 6.30 pm)
