Remembering Pandit Ravi Shankar

If you played a word association game, chances are that Pandit Ravi Shankar and the sitar would be synonyms. With his passing away, on 11 December 2012, India lost a Bharat Ratna. The sitar has lost its greatest evangelist.I was a kid when his autobiography Raag Anuraag was serialized in the Bengali literary journal Desh. He describes his enduring love for the Varanasi the city of his birth, his life as a dancer in the dance troupe of his elder brother - Uday Shankar. It was during those years that he studied Western Classical music and jazz. He describes his encounters and relationships with other well known musicians and the women in his life with equal candour.He introduced the alphabet of the Indian Classical Music to the Western audience. That brought him acclaim and criticism. It was described as gimmicky. His association with the Beatles and playing at the Woodstock festival (1969) also had a mixed response. Never the one to shy away from either controversy or the limelight, he became the poster boy for the many flower children of the sixties. Each association with musicians like Yehudi Menuhin, Philip Glass or George Harrison to name a few has resulted in his attempts to bring the Western and Indian music close. While many connoiseurs place other sitar legends such as Nikhil Banerjee or Vilayat Khan as being superior in technique, there is never a doubt as to who made Indian Classical music accessible to a global audience.His contribution to film music is immense. He was the music director for Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy.The other Ray film that was set to the music of Pandit Ravi Shankar was Parash Pathor. He gave the music for Chetan Anand for Neecha Nagar ('46); Khwaja Ahmad Abbas in Dharti Ke Laal ('46), Tapan Sinha's Kabuliwalla ('57) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's film Anuradha ('61), for Utpal Dutt's film Ghoom Bhangar Gaan ('65). Then after a long hiatus came back to compose music for Gulzar's film Meera in 1979. Richard Attenborough's film Gandhi made in 1982 had the music of Pandit Ravi Shankar.It is pointless to pick my favourite raga played by him because there are way too many. If I had to pick one film clip which is a favourite, I would be equally hard pressed to choose just one. Today I just enjoyed listening to this theme music from Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road). Farewell to a legend.-----------Read my take on the beautiful morning Raga Jaunpuri <click here>Read my blog on Times of India