Reliving the music and memories of Mallikarjun Mansur

NEW DELHI - Mallikarjun Mansur was so “full of music” that each time he opened his mouth music would flow out of him. He would often sing at the top of his voice at railway stations, bus stops, airports, betel shops - oblivious to his surroundings, recall celebrities who knew the legendary classical musician.

Lovers of north Indian classical music paid tributes to the doyen of Jaipur and Gwalior gharana during his two-day birth centenary celebrations in the capital that began Friday.

Reminiscences by associates, 18 black and white images, a 20-minute video of a live concert presented by the Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA) and a recorded interview opened the door to the life of Mallikarjun Mansur, one of the greatest Hindustani classical exponents of the 20th century, at the function.

One of the main attractions of the celebrations was an exhibition documenting the musical journey of Mansur - in 18 large format black and white portraits contributed by photographer Raghu Rai, Shobha Deepak Singh, director of the Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra, and Parthiv Rai, filmmaker.

“I met Mansur at the house of artist and culture activist J. Swaminathan (founder of Bharat Bhavan) where he stayed when he visited Delhi in the mid-1980s and the nineties. I started photographing him at Swaminathan’s home and then followed him with my camera to his concerts. I subsequently went to Dharwad to capture his life. He battled illness to keep his music alive,” Rai told IANS.

“He was a creative musician who could make great varieties in one raga,” Rai said.

“He was so full of music that he could sing any time. Every he opened his mouth, music would flow out of him,” Rai recalled.

Mansur was born in 1910 in Dharwad district and died in 1992. “He ran away from his village home as a boy to work in a theatre company in north Karnataka. He was discovered by a classical musician at the repertory company and he decided to train Mansur,” S. Kalisas, Mansur researcher and musician, told IANS.

At 21, Mansur cut his first album with HMV after which he was discovered by guru Manji Khan. He initially trained under Ayappaswamy in Carnatic music after which he was initiated to Hindustani classical music.

Kalidas remembers his “unaffected ways”.

“He would often sing at the top of his voice at railway stations, bus stops, airports, betel shops - completely oblivious to his surroundings. He brought a new genre of music - mellifluous khayal marked by the influences of at least seven gharanas - which we had not heard before,” he said.

Shobha Deepak Singh said she has 10 DVDs “full of Mansur’s recordings and photographs”. “I recorded his concerts on my walkman in the 1980s and then transferred them to a disc,” she said.

Mansur was a man who never showed his hurt and did not not lust for fame, she reminisced. “Once he accompanied me to a memorial concert in Delhi and stood at the gate because he was not offered a seat. I was overwhelmed by his humility.”

Mansur was known for his renditions of rare ragas like Shuddh Nat, Asa Jogiya, Hem Nat, Lachchhasakh, Khat, Shivmat Bhairav, Bihari, Sampoorna Malkauns, Adambari Kedar and Bahadur Todi.

The legacy of the musician is travelling across the country in this centenary year, said vocalist Priyadarshini Kulkarni, who has been hosting a Mansur Festival in Pune since 2008.

“I began listening to Mallikarjun Mansur during the eighties and tried to understand the difference between the ragas that he sang and the different gharanas that influenced him. Each gharana had its fine nuances that I tried to identify and appreciate. I attended all his concerts in Delhi throughout the eighties and the nineties - and inevitably sat in the last row - to comprehend his brand of ‘khyal gayaki’,” secretary of culture Jawhar Sircar told IANS.

Sircar said Dharwad, to which Mansur belonged, was a “confluence of Carnatic and north Indian classical music”.

“Though he was a south Indian, he trained in north Indian Jaipur and Gwalior gharana. When I came to know him, he was a big man,” Sircar said.

Writes another classical music stalwart from Dharwad, (late) Gangubai Hangal in, “Mallikarjun Mansur: Words, Texts and Oral Recall”, an ode to the musician on his centenary: “I must have been 17 or 18 then. Vamana Rao’s drama company had come to Hubli. Sri Mallikarjun was playing the part of the Narada. I liked his role. Narada was a music lover, a master of Bhakti Sangeet. As the goddess of knowledge Sharada herself had blessed Mallikarjun Mansur, the role of Narada had to be realised.”

The celebrations also featured vocal renditions by Priyadarshini Kulkarni, Ulhas Kushalkar, Biswajit Roy Chowdhury and Rajsekhar Mansur, the musician’s son.

(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)