Music that provoked

Bhaskar Chandawarkar’s death weakens the discipline of creating background scores for theatre

In the last few weeks, several of the greats in the creative arts have passed away, leaving not just a strange vacuum but also the question of whether the next generation has people of similar stature to replace those that have gone. Habib Tanvir, the doyen of Indian theatre, Gangubai Hangal, the legendary vocalist, Ali Akbar Khan, the greatest sarod player, Tyeb Mehta, most admired painter, and now Bhaskar Chandawarkar, a leading personality of theatre music: each one has been a pioneer in his or her field and lived a lifetime devoted totally to their art.

 

With the passing away of Bhaskar Chandawarkar, one feels that an entire generation of artistes, who initiated serious thinking about theatre music, and only recently started conceptualising it as a distinct discipline in contemporary theatre, has left us without fully setting the ground rules. Stalwarts like B V Karanth, Mohan Upreti and Bhaskarji, to name the most eminent in this field, are suddenly no more with us to guide or give direction in this area. This is not to say that there are no young music directors in theatre — there are. But one can say quite categorically that there are almost none at the moment who are innovating vigorously and continuously, and working towards defining the role of music in theatre — setting it apart from classical or folk music, using it as interpretation and a parallel text in a performance, or as subtext — it being not just music but a whole sound design, music as evoking a rich emotional memory, and music as protest not just in the words used but in the way it breaks te established grammar.

Karanthji, with his classical training, believed that music in theatre is applied music, and that it has no independent existence outside the production. It is sound-oriented, not raag- or even melody-oriented. He often quoted a senior actor of Kannada commercial theatre: “When you speak it should seem you are singing, and when you sing it should seem you are speaking.” This became his mantra in theatre music. He strongly believed that playing an instrument as it is usually played is not what music in theatre is all about, it is about breaking rules, as that is what provokes thought. When an instrument loses its essence and starts giving a new meaning according to the situation, theme or characterisation in the play, it creates theatre music. Such ruminations and experiments went on till the end.

Mohan Upreti, coming from the hills and with his IPA background, brought with him a unique combination of the soft and the hard-hitting in theatre music. Apart from creating innumerable Kumaoni musicals, what he gave to theatre music was a firm grounding in the Hindi region, with all the variety and splendour of music that this region has to offer.

Bhaskar Chandawarkar will be remembered most for his music for the famous Marathi production of Vijay Tendulkar’s Ghasiram Kotwal. He drew from various Marathi traditional forms, and very intelligently wove them into the play in such a manner that they evoked ingrained musical memories and associations, but in a contrasting context so as to provide them a rare theatricality and a rich layering over the text. His deep knowledge of both Western and Indian classical music, along with that of the popular tradition, also allowed him the facility of using music as an instrument of ideas.

I remember him directing music for one of my productions where we needed Buddhist music as the base for compositions. I was surprised at his knowledge of and research into that music, and still remember him patiently experimenting with a large variety of instruments to get the right atmosphere to match the text of the play. Also his humility when I disagreed with a composition he had prepared, as he quickly discarded it to try out other alternatives. He finally provided a musical score that will remain quite memorable. I salute his memory and only hope that some of our budding music directors not just create music but take inspiration from these masters and take theatre music, as a discipline, to new heights.