This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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The Marathi film, ‘Mee Vasantrao’ (2022) is a biopic on Dr Vasantrao Deshpande, the Hindustani classical vocalist who was reluctant to take this on the profession level during his younger days due to domestic compulsion. His close friends included P L Deshpande, Pandit Kumar Gandharva, Begum Akhtar, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. After he left the Govt service, Vasantrao attained the fame mainly as an actor-singer in many Marathi musical plays. In the later part of his life, Vasantrao devoted mainly as a Hindustani classical vocalist.
The film was directed by Nipun Dharmadhikari who also wrote the screenplay. The role of Vasantrao Deshpande in the film was performed by his grandson, Rahul Deshpande who sang for himself in the film. He is also a Hindustani classical vocalist and an actor. There were as many as 72 actors in the film essaying the roles who were associated with Dr Vasantrao Deshpande at various stages of his life. The film was to be released in May 01, 2020, in theatres. But due to Covid, the release was postponed indefinitely. It was only after Covid guidelines were relaxed, the film was released in theatres in April 01, 2022. I, however, watched the film on one of the OTT platforms.
In my article on the song, o mrignayani chandramukhi, I had covered the biography of Pandit (Dr) Vasantrao Deshpande in detail. Since the article had become very lengthy, I did not touch upon one of his close friends and the career guide, Begum Akhtar and decided to cover this in a separate article. It is almost after a decade that I have got a right context to write about the special bond between Pandit Vasantrao Deshpande and Begum Akhtar which is covered in the film in a condensed version of what is available in a Marathi article written by one of his aqaintances.
Begum Akhtar met Vasantrao Deshpande for the first time sometime in 1935 when he was 15 and had come to Nagpur to visit the dargah of Hazarat Tajuddin Auliya to seek his blessing. Begum Akhtar has also come there for the same reason and to sing at the Dargah. During one point in her recital, she beautifully rendered a difficult turn and in the whole crowd of listeners, only Vasantrao Deshpande loudly appreciated it, which she noticed. After her recital, Begum Akhtar met him and appreciated his knowledge about music at such a young age. Later on, they became very good friends. Vasantrao shifted to Poona (Pune) when he got a job in Controller of Defence Accounts, an army posting. He would meet her whenever she would visit Pune or Bombay (Mumbai). Both of them often exchange correspondence in which she would urge him to leave the job and become a full time Hindustani classical vocalist for, she had realised the potential in him as such.
Sometime in 1964, Vasantrao Deshpande was transferred to NEFA (North-East Frontier Agency, now Assam and other Eastern States). At that time, one had to change trains at Lucknow to reach Dibrugarh. As soon as Vasantrao got off the train at Lucknow, to his surprise, Begum Akhtar was present at the station to receive him. In her hand was a reservation of first-class ticket to Dibrugarh after 2 days in his name, though the connecting train was after about 18 hours. She invited him to stay in his house for two days. Vasantrao was travelling with his Commanding Officer and his convoy. He told Begum Akhtar that he was extremely sorry that he could not stay with her. If he breaks journey at Lucknow for two days, he will be arrested for defying the Commandant’s order. Vasantrao left Lucknow in the next connecting train to Dibrugarh. Begum Akhtar did not understand Vasantrao’s predicament. She felt bad that he has left without accepting her hospitality.
After a fortnight or so, the Commandant received a telegram addressed to Vasantrao Deshpande. The Commandant read it and called Vasantrao and gave it to him which read ‘Mother Serious Start Immediately’. The sender was mentioned as ‘B’. Vasantrao understood as to who had sent this telegram. The Commandant asked him as to who B’ was. Vasantrao replied that it was his daughter, and he calls her pet name, Baby. The Commandant was satisfied. He granted Vasantrao 10 day’s leave. He was lucky that the Commandant did not notice the stamp of Lucknow post office.
Immediately, Vasantrao boarded a military convoy to Dibrugarh from his campsite to catch a train to Lucknow. Begum Akhtar was on the Lucknow railway station to receive him. After reserving two days for return journey to Dibrugarh, Vasantrao was the guest of Begum Akhtar in her house in Lucknow for 8 days. During his stay in her house, every day there would be mehfil with her students singing one by one for him. In the evening, Begum Akhtar would sing for him which would continue till late night with Vasantrao joining her in singing and rendering his songs. He listened to her songs, and she listened to his songs to heart’s content. And the only audience to their recitals was Begum Akhtar’s husband, Barrister Ishtiaq Ahmed Abbasi. On the eighth day, when Vasantrao was getting ready to take her leave to join his duty, Begum Akhtar once again urged him to resign from the job and devote fully to the singing.
Vasantrao did not have to resign. In less than a year (sometime in 1965), he was deemed unfit for the military service due to his frequent illness in Assam. He was relieved from the service and thus became eligible for invalid’s pension. Begum Akhtar and another close friend, P L Deshpande, ensured that Vasantrao was proceeding as per their plan in his career path.
Vasantrao’s professional career as a concert singer of Hindustani classical vocalist in public concert started much later as he got actively involved with Marathi musical plays, especially ‘Katyaar Kaljat Ghusali’ (1967) as an singer-actor. It may be just a coincidence that after the death of Begum Akhtar in October 1974, Vasantrao gradually started shifting his career path from Marathi musical plays to Hindustani classical music.
‘Mee Vasantrao’ (2022) had 22 songs most of which were the recreated songs rendered by Dr Vasantrao Deshpande during the course of his musical career. Some fresh songs including 4 songs in Hindi were set to music by Rahul Deshpande who made his debut as a music director as well as an actor in this film. I am presenting one of the 4 Hindi songs in the film which is a ghazal, ‘tere dar se koi kahaan jaayen’ written by Vaibhav Joshi. The ghazal is rendered by Himani Kapoor and Rahul Deshpande which is set to music by Rahul Deshpande. The ghazal is picturised on Durga Jasraj in the role of Begum Akhtar and Rahul Deshpande in the role of Dr Vasantrao Deshpande. Sumant Nitturkar in the role of Barrister Ishtiaq Ahmed Abbasi, Begum Akhtar’s husband is also present in the scene.
The context of the song is that during his posting in Assam, Vasantrao Deshpande (Rahul Deshpande) stays for few days as a guest of Begum Akhtar (Durga Jasraj) in Lucknow. During this period, they have musical soiree every day. This ghazal represents their admiration for each other as vocalists. The ghazal ends with Vasantrao boarding a train back to Assam for resuming his duties and Begam Akhtar bidding him a good bye, both in a sombre mood.
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Acknowledgement: The information used in this article on the friendship between Vasantrao Deshpande and Begum Akhtar is based on English translation by Veena Nayak of Ramkrishna Bakre’s original article in Marathi ‘Vasantrao Deshpande’, which appeared in Rajan Parrikar Music Archive.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Tere dar se koi kahaan jaaye (Mee Vasantrao)(Marathi)(2022) Singer-Himani Kapoor, Rahul Deshpande, Lyrics-Vaibhav Joshi, MD-Rahul Deshpande
Lyrics:
aaaaaaaaa aa aaa
aa aa aaa aaa aa
aaaa aa aa aaaa
tere dar se koi kahaan jaaye
tere dar se koi kahaan jaaye
tu hi tu hai nazar jahaan jaaye
tere dar se koi kahaan jaaye
aise niklee hai dil se aah nayee…ee ee ee
aise niklee hai dil se aah nayee…ee ee ee
jaise mehfil se uthh ke jaan jaaye ae
jaise mehfil se uthh ke jaan jaaye ae
tere dar se ae koi kahaan jaaye
aaaaaaaaa aa aaa
aa aa aa aa aa aaaa
aaaa aaaa aaaa aaa
aaaa aaaa aaaa aaa
chand yaaden bator lene do o o
chand yaaden bator lene do o o
phir makeen jaaye yaa makaan jaaye
phir makeen jaaye yaa makaan jaaye
tere dar se ae koi kahaan jaaye
tu hi tu hai nazar jahaan jaaaa…ye
tere dar se ae koi kahaan jaaye
tu hi tu hai nazar jahaan jaaaa…ye
tere dar se….ae ae
koi kahaan jaaye