Na. Dho.

 I first met Na. Dho. Mahanor twelve years earlier at Shri Ramdas Bhatkal's residence. I was just out with my second album, Ratra Bhizali, and it was a closed gathering with Ramdasji, Na. Dho. and Saumitra (Kishor Kadam). Ramdasji asked me to sing something for Na. Dho. and I remember having sung Divelaganichi Vel, Na. Dho's own poem from his collection, Raanaatlya Kavita. For years, I have began my concerts with this song.

Last month, when I met the farmer poet again in Nitin Desai's office in Powai, the last thing I expected was for him to recognise me. Not only did Na. Dho. recognise me, he also reminded me of the songs that I had sung that evening twelve years ago. Great men become greater when they put ordinary people at ease. That is precisely what Na. Dho. did to me. I felt confident that I could do this job.

Because Ajintha was on my mind for the last several years, I had got that strange feeling in my stomach. I was tentative and edgy and felt more responsible after Balgandharva because Nitin Dada had repeated me. It was a compliment as well as a challenge and I had warmed up to it. Mandar Joshi read out his first draft of the screenplay and I instantly knew that a great deal of this film would rest on the music. The story of Ajintha has the potential to be poetry on celluloid and music would play a major part to bring that effect. After the story session, Na. Dho. called me near him and said:
"I am certain you are the right man for the job. You'll do well."
His words have gone a long way in boosting my confidence. For the person who has worked with the likes of Hridaynath Mangeshkar and Anand Modak, I knew very well that for him I was as good as a rookie composer. I took his blessings and said I would do my best.

Well, this was one month back and in my next post, I would like to describe our visit to Ajintha and Palaskhed. 

Preface

I first heard of AJINTHA in the year 1994. I was initiated into theatre by Late Chetan Datar, the prolific playwright and director and it was a time I was bursting with opinions. If there was an idea, I had an opinion! Chetan Datar mentioned Ajintha to me when he expressed his wish to make it into a musical. That was ten years after the epic poem was written by Na. Dho. Mahanor in 1984. I remember that we had read the entire poem on the campus of the Ruparel College. After the reading, I remember being excited to get it onto the stage. I was impatient and prodded Chetan to write the play immediately, but Chetan, cautious as he was, was not to be hurried. I wonder if I should have prodded harder. Like many other theatre enthusiasts, it remained a dream for Chetan.

Since then and may be even before that a lot of artistes tried to interpret Ajintha into theatre. Attempts were made to turn the poem into a screenplay and show the epic love-story of Paru and Major Robert Gill on the silver screen. Works of art come with their own destiny and as destiny would have it, 17 years after Chetan first mentioned his wish to bring Paru and Robert Gill alive on stage, I am now composing music for the movie Ajintha, being produced and directed by the veteran Art Director and Production Designer, Nitin Chandrakant Desai.

The past seventeen years have changed me a lot. I have gained a few kilos and shed a lot of opinions! So when I was approached for the music of Ajintha, the film, I proceeded with caution. The one thing that I have learnt in these past seventeen years is that with every new project, one has to unlearn one's own previous success or failure. As the artist starts a new painting on a new canvas, one must start with a blank mind.

What I am about to share with you is a learner's diary. Read it with sympathy. Like a child, I am going to fall, stumble, hold on to whatever comes to hand while falling, cry, get up again, and like a child I am going to walk and then run... and get there!

Kaushal S. Inamdar
Mumbai
30th September