Bhimsen Joshi

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Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi (listen); 4 February 1922 – 24 January 2011) was an Indian vocalist from Karnataka in the Hindustan classical style.

He is best known for his khayal style of singing as well as his popular devotional music (bhajans and abhangs).

Bhimsen Joshi is a member of the Kirana gharana tradition of Hindustani Classical Music.

Pt.Joshi is known for his concerts, but no other artist in India has performed so many concerts as Pt.Joshi.

It's also worth noting that King of Afghanistan, Mohammed Zahir Shah, had himself invited Pt.

Joshi is attending a Kabul concert.

Joshi traveled Italy, France, Canada, and the United States from 1964 to 1982.

He was the first musician from India whose concerts were promoted through posters in New York city, USA.

Bhimsen Joshi was instrumental in organising the Sawai Gandharva Music Festival every year as a tribute to his mentor, Pandit Sawai Gandharva, which was the highest award given by Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance, and Drama in 1998.

In 2009, he received the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award.

He is also known as the 'God of Singing' or 'God of Music,'.

Early life

Bhimsen Joshi was born in Kannada Deshastha Brahmin family to Gururajrao and Godavaribai in Gadag district, which was then in the Bombay Presidency of British India. Gururaj Joshi, his father, was a school teacher. Bhimsen was the oldest of 16 siblings. He lost his mother at an early age.

Joshi was fascinated by music and musical instruments such as the harmonium and tanpura as a youth, and he would often follow processions accompanied by musicians. He would often be exhausted and he'd curl up somewhere and sleep, often prompting his parents to call the cops after attempts to locate him fell short. Fed up, Gururajacharya Joshi came up with the solution, writing "son of teacher Joshi" on Joshi's shirts. This worked, and those who found the boy asleep could safely return him to his house.

Personal life

Joshi married twice. Sunanda Katti, the daughter of his maternal uncle, whom he married in 1944, was his first wife. He had four children from Sunanda; Raghavendra, Usha, Sumangala, and Anand. In 1951, he married Vatsala Mudholkar, his co-actor in the Kannada play Bhagya-Shree. By law in the Bombay Presidency, bigamous marriages were forbidden among Hindus; so, he took up residence in Nagpur (capital of Central Province and Berar in 1951), where bigamy was allowed and married there for the second time. He did not divorce or divorce from Sunanda. He had three children with Vatsala: Jayant, Shubhada, and Shrinivas Joshi. Both his wives and families lived together at first, but when this did not work out, his first wife and the family moved out with the family to live in a house in Sadashiv Peth, Pune, where Joshi continued to visit them.

Joshi suffered with alcoholism, a disorder that he beat in the late 1970s.

Joshi was devoted to cars and had a deep understanding of auto mechanics outside of music.

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Career

Joshi first performed live in 1941 at the age of 19. His debut album, containing a few devotional songs in Marathi and Hindi, was released by HMV the next year in 1942. Later Joshi moved to Mumbai in 1943 and worked as a radio artist. His performance at a concert in 1946 to celebrate his guru Sawai Gandharva's 60th birthday won him accolades both from the audience and his guru. In 1984, he received his 1st Platinum Disc, being the first Hindustani Vocalist to receive the award.

According to Joshi himself, the biggest influence on his singing is of Ustad Amir Khan's.

Joshi's performances have been acknowledged by music critics such as S. N. Chandrashekhar of the Deccan Herald to be marked by spontaneity, accurate notes, dizzyingly-paced taans which make use of his exceptional voice training, and a mastery over rhythm. In his especially mid singing career (i.e. the 60s & 70s) Joshi's most iconic and noticeable trait was his use of swift and long aakar taans, exemplifying tremendous and almost unrivalled breath-control, although he rarely used sargam taans. The Hindu, in an article written after he was awarded the Bharat Ratna, said: Bhimsen Joshi was ever the wanderer, engendering brilliant phrases and tans more intuitively than through deliberation. Joshi occasionally employed the use of sargam and tihai, and often sang traditional compositions of the Kirana gharana. His music often injected surprising and sudden turns of phrase, for example through the unexpected use of boltaans. Over the years, his repertoire tended to favour a relatively small number of complex and serious ragas; however, he remained one of the most prolific exponents of Hindustani classical music. Some of Joshi's more popular ragas include Shuddha Kalyan, Miyan Ki Todi, Puriya Dhanashri, Multani, Bhimpalasi, Darbari, Malkauns, Abhogi, Lalit, Yaman, Asavari Todi, Miyan ki malhar and Ramkali. He was a purist who has not dabbled in experimental forms of music, except for a series of Jugalbandi recordings with the Carnatic singer M. Balamuralikrishna.

Joshi's singing has been influenced by many musicians, including Smt. Kesarbai Kerkar, Begum Akhtar and as aforementioned, Ustad Amir Khan. Joshi assimilated into his own singing various elements that he liked in different musical styles and Gharanas. He along with Smt. Gangubai Hangal along with others took Kirana gharana to heights and are proudly referred as worthy son and daughter of kirana gharana. Both were from Old Dharwad district.

In devotional music, Joshi was most acclaimed for his Hindi and Marathi and Kannada Bhajan singing. He has recorded bhakti songs in Marathi,Santavani, Kannada Dasavani.

Joshi was widely recognised in India due to his performance in the Mile Sur Mera Tumhara music video (1988), which begins with him and which was composed originally by him when he was asked to do so by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The video was created for the purpose of national integration in India, and highlights the diversity of Indian culture. Joshi was also a part of Jana Gana Mana produced by A. R. Rahman on the occasion of the 50th year of Indian Republic.

Joshi sang for several films, including Basant Bahar (1956) with Manna Dey, in Marathi movie "Swayamvar zale Siteche" (1964) for famous song "Ramya Hi Swargahun lanka", in Kannada movie Sandhya Raga (1966) where he has sung extensively. It includes a song "e pariya sobagu" rendered in both Hindustani and Carnatic (Karnataka shastriya sangeetha) styles along with M. Balamuralikrishna. He sang Birbal My Brother (1973) with Pandit Jasraj. He also sang for the Bengali film Tansen (1958) and Bollywood Movie Ankahee (1985) which later fetched him National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer. His song 'Bhagyadalakshmi baaramma', a Purandara Dasa composition, was used by Anant Nag and Shankar Nag in the Kannada film Nodi Swami Naavu Irodhu Heege. He also sang as a playback singer for the Marathi film Gulacha Ganapati, produced and directed by P. L. Deshpande

Joshi and his friend Nanasaheb Deshpande organised the Sawai Gandharva Music Festival as a homage to his guru, Sawai Gandharva, along with the Arya Sangeet Prasarak Mandal in 1953, marking Gandharva's first death anniversary. The festival has been held ever since, typically on the second weekend of December in Pune, Maharashtra also in kundagol Dharwad district and has become not only a cultural event for the city, but an annual pilgrimage for Hindustani Classical music lovers all over the world. Joshi conducted the festival annually since 1953, until his retirement in 2002.

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Awards and recognitions

• 1972 – Padma Shri
• 1976 – Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
• 1985 – Padma Bhushan
• 1985 – National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer
• 1986 – "First platinum disc"
• 1999 – Padma Vibhushan
• 2000 – "Aditya Vikram Birla Kalashikhar Puraskar"
• 2002 – Maharashtra Bhushan
• 2003 – "Swathi Sangeetha Puraskaram" by Government of Kerala
• 2005 – Karnataka Ratna
• 2008 – Bharat Ratna
• 2008 – "Swami Haridas Award"
• 2009 – "Lifetime achievement award" by Delhi government
• 2010 – "S V Narayanaswamy Rao National Award" by Rama Seva Mandali, Bangalore
• 2017 – Bharatratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Hospital By Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation, Bhayander West