Mukul Shivputra

Classical Music of North India
Post Reply
cienu
Posts: 2387
Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 11:40

Post by cienu »

I read this in the online issue of "Outlook" Magazine and wish to share the link with other rasikas:

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fo ... F%29&sid=1
Last edited by cienu on 02 Jun 2009, 18:00, edited 1 time in total.

gobilalitha
Posts: 2056
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 07:12

Post by gobilalitha »

Extremely sad to read about his plight.what a terrific loss to hindustani music gobilalitha

coolkarni
Posts: 1729
Joined: 22 Nov 2007, 06:42

Post by coolkarni »

..
Last edited by coolkarni on 27 Nov 2009, 07:12, edited 1 time in total.

coolkarni
Posts: 1729
Joined: 22 Nov 2007, 06:42

Post by coolkarni »

..
Last edited by coolkarni on 23 Nov 2009, 21:03, edited 1 time in total.

lifeisasong
Posts: 53
Joined: 19 Apr 2008, 23:36

Post by lifeisasong »

Have always loved his Tilak Kamod. Also love the Bhanumatey album.

cienu
Posts: 2387
Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 11:40

Post by cienu »

That was a brilliant Tilak Kamod,

Thanks a lot Coolji :)

Shivadasan
Posts: 251
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 07:52

Post by Shivadasan »

Coolji wrote on Mali.

http://rasikas.org/forums/post122281.html#p122281

Humphrey Trevelyan on Goethe :
It seems that two qualities are necessary if a great artist is to remain creative to the end of a long life : he must on the one hand retain an abnormally keen awareness of life , must never grow complacent , ,never be content with life ,must always demand the impossible and when he cannot have it ,must despair.
The burden of mystery must be with him, day and night. He must be shaken by the naked truths that will not be comforted. This divine discontent , this disequilibrium , this state of inner tension is the source of artistic energy.
Many lesser poets have it only in their youth : some of the greatest lose it in middle life .
Wordsworth lost the courage to despair and with it , his poetic power.But more often the dynamic tensions are so powerful that they destroy the man before he reaches the end.

Is this also applicable to Mukul ?

VK RAMAN
Posts: 5009
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:29

Post by VK RAMAN »

coolkarniji: How true the Oscar Wilde statement.!

Shivadasan
Posts: 251
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 07:52

Post by Shivadasan »

Mukul's Tilak kamod was enchanting and original. A faultless voice too ! Is it too early to say that he has attained the capacities of his father ? Repeated listening does not bore you. Can Coolji upload some more of his wonderful music ?

Is there a similar gifted musician in CM ?

coolkarni
Posts: 1729
Joined: 22 Nov 2007, 06:42

Post by coolkarni »

..
Last edited by coolkarni on 27 Nov 2009, 07:10, edited 1 time in total.

ragam-talam
Posts: 1896
Joined: 28 Sep 2006, 02:15

Post by ragam-talam »

a very brief clip of Mukul Shivputra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWAiQIdPO1A

ragam-talam
Posts: 1896
Joined: 28 Sep 2006, 02:15

Post by ragam-talam »


cienu
Posts: 2387
Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 11:40

Post by cienu »

Another article from "Indian Express."

Interesting to note that the genius had also trained for a short while with the great MDR.

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/stor ... eKn3LcnQ==

coolkarni
Posts: 1729
Joined: 22 Nov 2007, 06:42

Post by coolkarni »

..
Last edited by coolkarni on 27 Nov 2009, 07:02, edited 1 time in total.

matterwaves
Posts: 130
Joined: 24 Aug 2007, 18:26

Post by matterwaves »

Seems much like the kannada 'Bhaavaartha' of the Humphrey Trevelyan quote you posted on the mali link. Alvaa Coolji?

Avroha
Posts: 2
Joined: 10 Jul 2009, 08:27

Post by Avroha »

Have a look at the discussion on the google groups. For me, all music, but most especially Hindustani classical vocal, is many things happening simultaneously, particularly in a live concert. One of Pt Kumar Gandharva's great qualities, and the one least appreciated, was his complete professionalism. He never started a concert late. He never cancelled at the last minute unless he was himself incapacitated and that, too, with the greatest reluctance. He always finished exactly on time and never took a farmaish, because his concerts were, he once explained, never random but carefully planned as a master chef plans a meal. In a lec-dem in Mumbai (for a marvellous singer and a musical genius he had a very poor speaking voice), he once explained that to be out of control in personal life and on a public stage were not signs of creativity or genius but rank indiscipline. He himself claimed that genius only accounted for so much; the rest was sheer hard work and discipline. Most of all, misbehaviour in a public concert was profoundly disrespectful to the audience, the organizers and most of all, to himself.

No one doubts Mukulji's innate abilities or gift. But that only goes so far. The mess he has made of his life is downright embarrassing, and can't be excused on the grounds of "genius". Genius of this kind, that produces the odd brilliant recording, is useless. Greatness in music requires consistency, and requires playing above your potential as often as possible. Mukulji constantly plays far, far below his potential. This is true in any walk of life, be it music or sport or accountancy or medicine. Roger Federer is a genius in his own field. Of course he has exceptional talent. But he also works very hard, is consistent, and delivers time after time. In our music this can be said of all our greats and it is true of all our great living performers today. Kishori Amonkar is sometimes given to the most unreasonable conduct on stage, but she consistently produces music of an extraordinarily high calibre. Others do so too. When I go to their concerts, I know I will hear music that is at the very least excellent, and frequently exceptional. With Mukul Shivputra, one doesn't know whether he will even turn up. What use is this?

Here's the surprising thing: I recently had the chance to hear Mukulji's son, Bhuvanesh in Delhi earlier this year. He has a long way to go, but he is also extraordinarily gifted with a surprising command over laya, a sensitivity for bhava and perfect pitch. Kumarji's wife, Vasundharaji is to my mind the single most under-rated artist in the country. I have attended a few concerts and what she produced was staggering by any standards. I had never heard her like this in Kumarji's lifetime. Vasundharaji and Kumarji's daughter, Kalapiniji is a consistent performer who has several concerts a month. I have attended some of them and she, too, has music of exceptional calibre with a superb voice that seems to be getting better and better, a near-perfect sense of balance and rhythm and an ability to hit a note very hard or to caress it with infinite gentleness. I only say this because every member of Kumarji's family performs great music and delivers consistently. Yet we keep talking only about Mukulji, the mad genius, and he is the only one who fails to deliver with any regularity.

I have seen Mukulji completely drunk on stage, singing a single line for 45 minutes. I have seen him stomp off the stage in the middle of a bandish, for no apparent reason. It seems that all attempts to help him are doomed to failure. Even the might of the state machinery can do nothing to contain him. Because of his lineage, and only because of that, we cut him so much slack. If anyone else turned up in that state, disheveled, drunk, incoherent, and you were an organizer, would you not feel insulted? Is it not an insult to the listener to have to witness this on stage? It is like going to see your doctor and finding him in torn clothes and reeking of liquor. You would not trust him with your health, nor would you hand your tax matters to a chartered accountant in such a condition, your building to such an architect, your property dispute to such a lawyer. If a professional cannot look after himself, he cannot be expected to look after his work or his clients, and a musician's clients are his organizers and his audience. Why would I put my interest in music, my search for constant musical education, in the hands of one like this? I have not had the benefit of going to a single concert of Mukul Shivputra's and coming away elated. In every single case, I have left saddened, depressed, dismayed and dejected by this exhibition of a monumental talent gone to waste.

The article in Outlook speaks of Mukulji in the same breath as Van Gogh. But Van Gogh, though mad, produced consistently great work and though I dislike the cheesiness of his Starry Night work, one can't help but be in awe of his revolutionary techniques. But his reputation does not rest on a one work, or even two or three. He produced work. And the analogy is inappropriate, for painting is a solitary activity. Music, by definition, is not. It is interactive, it is a community work, it is a dialogue, and this is nowhere more true than in Indian classical vocal music and in jazz.

One hundred years from now, if a musicologist surveys the field, he will find a vast body of Kumarji's work with its dazzling progression over time. Hopefully, his daughter and grandson will also contribute to this treasure, as his wife has already done. But, if he carries on in this manner, Mukulji's contribution to our music will remain marginal, a mere footnote though he has the ability and the potential to merit not just an entire chapter, but an entire volume to himself.

This is an indescribable loss in every sense: for him personally, for his family, for his fans and listeners, for lovers of music everywhere, and for posterity. But there is only one person who can resolve this, and that is Mukul Shivputra himself. At some point, reading the recent news reports, one gets the impression that his flaky conduct is now calculated. I sincerely hope that isn't so. I do not believe there is any merit in going on and on about one concert here or there at which he performed well. He needs to build a body of work, something that will endure. Even if he doesn't want to do it for us, the audience, he must do it for the one thing that he must surely believe in, and that is the music itself. At the end of the day, that is all that matters. Everything else he does is a gimmick and best ignored. All our talk and sympathy only makes it worse, and encourages his unacceptable conduct.

What Mukulji does not seem to realize, and what I find that no one here even pauses to mention, is that his conduct must have a terrible effect on others around him. His friends, who families and households are disrupted (as the Outlook article mentions), but most of all his family. I would hate to be in his son's position or, even worse, Vasundharaji's or Kalapiniji's. Imagine what it must feel like to read such awful things being said in the daily media which seems only to take intense pleasure in the misfortunes of others. This is not conduct we would accept from ourselves or those close to us, and yet we make an exception for Mukulji. Why? Genius is a gift, not an excuse for misbehaviour or for hurting others.

If Mukulji would only realize that he needs help, and let someone help him, I imagine all our lives would be immeasurably enriched. That has not yet happened and if it does not happen, or start happening soon, I fear he will be confined to the dustbin of our great musical history. And that would be a real tragedy.

coolkarni
Posts: 1729
Joined: 22 Nov 2007, 06:42

Post by coolkarni »

..
Last edited by coolkarni on 24 Nov 2009, 11:18, edited 1 time in total.

Avroha
Posts: 2
Joined: 10 Jul 2009, 08:27

Post by Avroha »

Coolkarni's post underscores the point I made. To endure, music (or, indeed, all art) must be consistently great. For that to happen, it must be produced in the first place. Mukulji's erratic behaviour, for whatever reason, makes this impossible. I have not ventured to speculate on why he behaves as he does. I do not know enough about his childhood or his life to do that. For all I know, Mukulji had a perfectly happy childhood. I only addressed the consequences of Mukulji's conduct.

However, his father's own life is very well documented from early years when Kumarji was but a child. He was able to survive what he was put through, and emerged not only as an iconic figure in Hindustani classical music, but a great performer, profoundly respectful of his kala and his shrotas and rasikas. Mukulji simply is not. Whether this is misbehaviour or a bad habit is immaterial. What matters is the result and it is the only thing that matters.

I ask myself this question: given Mukulji's prodigious talents and genius, is there a body of work to be studied? One that shows a progression and a development, a pushing of boundaries, working at the cutting edge? I do not believe there is.

Genius, as I said, only counts for so much. It has to be realized. To realize genius (or talent in whatever degree), it has to be honed and refined. That needs work. Work needs discipline. Without that discipline, genius, however great and in whatever quantity, is utterly useless.

Finally, I do not believe that there is any merit in putting music (or any other art) on a pedestal to which no norm applies. Like every other field of endeavour, it is also work. A mathematical proof, a new theory in physics, a breakthrough in medicine, great architecture, great cinema, stirring political speeches and writings, adroit statesmanship, a well-crafted novel, a beautiful ship or airplane; these are all works of art, often by geniuses. There is sheer poetry in the calculus, art in a logarithmic progression. The work of Einstein, Bose and Hawking is as beautiful as the photography of Ansel Adams or the light-play of Rembrandt and the serenity of Vermeer. Genius is everywhere. It is the nature of man. Everything from our beginning is attributable to 'genius'. Those who stand apart are simply those who are best able to refine that genius.

Forget van Gogh. Consider Leonardo da Vinci. An undoubted genius, with his own set of problems, who produced a huge body of consistently high-quality work straddling several disciplines. He didn't achieve that by not showing up at his desk, being inebriated or misbehaving in public. If everybody is a genius, does nobody need to work?

It cannot be seriously suggested that Kumarji, Ganasaraswati Kishori Amonkar, Ustad Mallikarjun Mansur, Pt Bhimsen Joshi, Ustad Amir Khan, Ustad Allah Rakha, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Pt Ravi Shankar, Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan, the Dagar Bandhu, or any of our greats did not work, or that they just suddenly produced such incredible music. I do not believe it is even possible for Kishoriji to produce the kind of music of which she is capable without an incredible amount of work on both her craft and her art. I believe she, and all the others, work very hard, practicing, internalizing, reflecting, thinking. Of all the active musicians today, it is in Kishoriji that (despite her often inexplicable outbursts on stage) I see the greatest amount of meditation and reflection on her music, something that is echoed in her performances. Her jaunpuri, bibhas, todi, and more today are nothing like the ones she recorded in her early years. Try her jaunpuri. The same bandish, 30 years later, but in a distinctly different interpretation. That is simply not possible without work, no matter how much talent or genius she has.

Mukulji has now built himself a reputation for erratic behaviour. It surrounds him like an aura and he seems to thrive on it. I question why this is so. If he genuinely has exceptional talent (which I believe he does), then he does not need this nonsense. It is irrelevant. Worse, it is distracting and a waste of time. It diminishes him, his talent and his work. He needs to focus on the one thing that matters to him and to us: his music. We are much too forgiving, I think. But for his undoubted talent and lineage, and if it were anybody else, I'd say he was a mere pretender. Other artists, as you point out, worked, produced consistently, and died in poverty. Mukulji has the support of the state. Yet he does nothing but continue to be irrational, unpredictable, erratic and, yes, even offensive. There is something deeply insulting to sit and wait and wait and wait in an auditorium and then to hear some utterly ordinary rubbish from this "genius".

Life is too short, and there are too many wonderful things in it. I, for one, don't propose to waste one minute of my time chasing an erratic "genius" in the faint hope that he might, someday, someplace, perhaps, maybe, produce something of quality. There are enough others producing work, consistently, of as high a calibre or greater, and there are enough others who will, in the years ahead, also match and surpass him. This is nothing but feeding off the label of a genius. And that is a very poor excuse for indiscipline, whatever the cause.

lifeisasong
Posts: 53
Joined: 19 Apr 2008, 23:36

Post by lifeisasong »

I agree with you Avroha, that such such as these must cause families untold pain. If I was Bhuvanesh Komkali or my father had abandoned me, I know I would have suffered huge emotional distress.

But as far as the music is concerned, though Vasundharaji and Kalapiniji are far more consistent and Mukulji far more erratic, his music, when he DOES sing and doesn't wander off, manages to touch me far more than their music ever has. IMHO they copy Kumarji when there can be no copy, whereas he has found his own idiom, and has managed to harness his father's genius to create something new. Totally subjective opinion of course. Even if brilliant those pieces from him are few and far between I will keep hoping for more from him, even if it is chasing a lost cause. This of course, does not amount to excusing his indiscipline or to minimise any pain he might have caused others. Indeed, he causes himself a lot of pain.

knandago2001
Posts: 645
Joined: 05 Sep 2006, 10:09

Post by knandago2001 »

Mukul Shivaputra's Bageshri, Patamanjari, Shukla Bilawal, and Bihagada
http://indianraga.wordpress.com/2009/05 ... d-begging/
http://www.esnips.com/web/MukulShivputra/

ragam-talam
Posts: 1896
Joined: 28 Sep 2006, 02:15

Re: Mukul Shivputra

Post by ragam-talam »

Interesting article on Mukul Shivputra: http://beta.thehindu.com/arts/music/article434414.ece
Excerpt:
"Shivputra transcends stagnation with every sunrise. He feels the objectivity of a truth lies in repeatability. He is convinced that he can realise the truth of a raga the way his elders realised. A raga itself is a means to salvation for a vocalist, he believes. And he lives what he realises."

smala
Posts: 3223
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:55

Re: Mukul Shivputra

Post by smala »

.....I do not know enough about his childhood or his life to do that. For all I know, Mukulji had a perfectly happy childhood.....

One of the hallmarks of a genius is extreme and heightened sensitivity. More pertinent, I would think, if s/he is an artist, musician.

Some life occurrences are intensely traumatic and life-changing. In an unforgiving way an essential part of us is paralyzed forever. We might limp along in life with the occasional flash of genius, with no catharsis possible. Two such incidents for Mukul-ji were the loss of his mother when he was at a tender impressionable age, the other, his wife, after a very brief marriage. The bonds of women, their intimate soft nurturing ways is something that defines and guides some sensitive souls. While tragedy and loss are everyday occurrences, grief is something a few experience, for some it is debilitating. The capacity to cope varies as do the methods to drown overpowering moments of grief - resorting to drink, sadly, is seen as one way to numb the feelings.
Last edited by smala on 29 Sep 2010, 00:26, edited 7 times in total.

smala
Posts: 3223
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:55

Re: Mukul Shivputra

Post by smala »

....If I was Bhuvanesh Komkali or my father had abandoned me, I know I would have suffered huge emotional distress.....


We do not know that Mukul-ji abandoned him - Bhuvanesh was an infant when his mother died. Mulkul-ji already shocked and traumatised by his own mother's death would have been in a worse position to care for the young child. My guess is that Vasundhara Komkali stepped in and took over the upbringing at a crucial time. She has groomed him well, hope Bhuvanesh finds the capacity to reconnect and learn from his genius father as well.

cienu
Posts: 2387
Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 11:40

Re: Mukul Shivputra

Post by cienu »

What a wonderful Kedar from Mukul Shivputra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPjDObORD3s

gobilalitha
Posts: 2056
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 07:12

Re: Mukul Shivputra

Post by gobilalitha »

Mesmerising voice.Rendering Kedar,A favourite of mine.Thanks ,Cienu, you made me make a note of his prowess. searching youtube for other songs by this maestro

Post Reply