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Surahi’ for Asha Bhosle in the 1976 film
Kadambari. Flautists Pandit Vijay Raghav
Rao and Pandit Raghunath Seth composed
a lot for documentaries. Later, tabla maestro
Ustad Zakir Hussain composed for Sai
Paranjpe’s Saaz, besides the English films
Heat And Dust and Mr And Mrs Iyer. Santoor
exponent Rahul Sharma had a brief stint with
Hindi films, composing for Mujhse Dosti
Karoge.
Kishori Amonkar composed and sang four songs for
Drishti, but was put off on realising the film was about an While these were all examples of classical
affair, and did not touch film music after that instrumentalists as music directors, many
Prestigious projects also played the role of performers. In sitar,
As music directors, the work done by classical Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan had some
musicians was sporadic. But they had some great pieces, specially Naushad’s raag
prestigious projects. Ravi Shankar, for Hameer composition ‘Madhuban Mein
instance, began with the 1940s films Neecha Radhika Naache’ in Kohinoor, besides songs
Nagar and Dharti Ke Lal. In 1960, he worked in Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, Goonj Uthi
with Lata Mangeshkar in Anuradha. While Shehnai and Mughal-e-Azam. In the 1960s,
‘Jaane Kaise Sapnon Mein’ was composed in sitar maestro Ustad Rais Khan played
raag Tilak Shyam, ‘Sanware Sanware’ was in extensively, specially with Madan Mohan.
Bhairavi. Other Hindi films included Godaan Shivkumar Sharma did a lot of santoor
in 1964 and Meera in 1979, where he had a work in films, and later, Ulhas Bapat played
wonderful collaboration with singer Vani the instrument often. The flautists included
Jairam. These are besides his Bengali work Chaurasia and later Ronu Majumdar, who
with Satyajit Ray in the Apu Trilogy and was a regular with RD Burman. Shehnai
Richard Attenborough’s epic Gandhi. maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan played
Shankar’s contemporaries were less prolific. prominently in Shantaram’s Goonj Uthi
While Ali Akbar Khan did Aandhiyan and Shehnai besides the Kannada film Sannadi
Humsafar in the 1950s, sitar maestro Ustad Appanna. Later, music director AR Rahman
Vilayat Khan composed ‘Ambar Ki Ek Pak used shehnai player S Ballesh quite often.
For many musicians, of course, the priority
was classical music, and many found it
difficult to divide their time between the
two. If anything, they attempt lighter forms
through fusion music experiments, which
also give them scope to improvise and
display their technical wizardry. And though
many youngsters are playing in Hindi films
and even in ad jingles these days, they see
film music as something that will provide
financial backing, rather than a regular
The legendary Begum Akhtar sang for composer
Anil Biswas as early as in 1942 creative pursuit.
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #18 | DECEMBER 2020 45
