JOIN US‘Naadada Navaneeta: For classical music lovers
Veteran filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli won his 15th National Film Award for the documentary ‘Naadada Navaneeta Dr Pt Venkatesh Kumar’. The film was adjudged the Best Arts and Culture Film in the non-feature film category recently.
Produced by the Department of Information and Public Relations, Karnataka, the 43-minute documentary mostly talks about the four-decade musical journey of Hindustani classical vocalist Pt Venkatesh Kumar. The striking feature of the film is that each phase of his life is defined through a vachana of Akka Mahadevi, Allama Prabhu and others.
“Girish Kasaravalli is a brilliant director as he conducted in-depth interviews to know about my musical journey. As far as I know, he has been in touch with many artistes for years for this documentary,” Venkatesh Kumar told Showtime.
The documentary shows his life as a music student, his initial days as a musician, and his over three-decade teaching career at the University College of Music, Dharwad.
“I was born in a village and took music lessons from Pt Puttaraja Gawai by staying at his Veereshwara Punyashram in Gadag. The documentary has captured all the key elements of my career very well,” noted Pt Venkatesh Kumar.
Well-known writer-director Girish Karnad and noted tabla artiste Pt Ravindra Yavagal speak about the achievements of the 69-year-old singer, making the documentary a well-researched work of art. Karnad draws a remarkable comparison between the singing styles of legends Pt Bhimsen Joshi, Pt Mallikarjun Mansur and Pt Venkatesh Kumar, and it could take the viewers by surprise.
“I first shot his interviews and then covered his concerts in Bengaluru and other places,” says Kasaravalli. “When we went to the Akashvani office in Dharwad, the retired director explained how Akashvani played a role in his life. We went to the music school to learn about him as a teacher. I realised that Girish Karnad was a good friend of Pt Venkatesh Kumar and so approached him,” recollected the filmmaker.
The tunes of the tanpura, his renditions of classical bandishes and the songs of Dasa Sahitya and vachanas reverberate throughout the documentary, providing a treat to classical music lovers.
“He is more important to me as a classical singer. When people told me that he is popular for singing Dasara padas and vachanas, I added small bits of those as well. We have mostly used classical bandishes in this documentary,” Kasaravalli opines.
As the film is mostly shot in Gadag and Dharwad, we learn about the rich heritage of traditional music being practiced there for generations. A scene in which Pt Venkatesh Kumar teaches a bandish in Raag Bihag to students shows why he is a musical genius.
The documentary has references of him receiving the Padma Shri award, his famous programmes at the All India Radio, Dharwad, and his associations with Hindustani classical legends Pt Bhimsen Joshi and Gangubai Hangal.
The documentary is soon to be released on YouTube.