Violin maestro remembered

Musicians share their thoughts about Kerala-based violinist Balabhaskar who passed away recently

Musicians and music enthusiasts are reeling in shock at the untimely demise of violinist Balabhaskar.

The 40-year-old Balabhaskar, credited with popularising fusion music among Malayalis, was battling for life ever since he and his family met with an accident on September 25.

His two-year-old daughter Thejaswini Bala had died in the accident. His wife Lakshmi and friend Arjun, who was driving the Toyota Innova at the time of the accident, are still in the hospital.

Metrolife got musicians to share their thoughts about the wizard who left us too soon.

Dennis George

‘Gigs on Wheels’

“He touched people’s lives with not only his violin but also his pure smile. This is a huge loss for the industry as well as his family.”

Psy Didge

Founder, Zero Gravity Festival and Mind Map

“I got introduced to his music by my Malayali friends and I was always inspired by the emotion he used to add in his compositions. I liked most of his live concerts with Stephen Devassy and I had a chance to watch him live in Bengaluru once.”

Stephen Devassy

“He was a very fun-loving and happy guy. He enjoyed everything he experienced. We had a good connection, musically and personally. We had a lot of fun together and shared many personal things with each other — from musical attributes to thoughts about life. Balu and I have performed in about 100 shows together, out of which around half were abroad, because people loved our combination. So I have many great memories of us travelling together, sharing a room and so on. Three days back, I spent an hour with him in the ICU. I was talking to him and I told him that he had to come back soon. He promised me he would. And after giving me that hope, he tricked us all and went away.”

Shivaraj Natraj

‘Project Mishram’

“The first video that I saw of Balabhaskar was him performing ‘Mahaganapathim’ at a Ganesha Utsava. I had seen a lot of violin performances before but I was mesmerised by him. I have watched a lot of his videos, even of the rare times when he only played Carnatic compositions. I wanted to meet him at least once because he seemed like a jovial person; he always had a beautiful smile on his face. In many ways, he was like Mandolin U Srinivas. Both of them were musical geniuses who left us too soon.”

Harish Sivaramakrishnan

Agam

“I was deeply shocked and saddened by the untimely passing of Balabhaskar. I met him for the first time in 1995 during the Kerala State School Youth Festival where he was competing in the solo violin category. From that day I have watched his incredible musicianship and stage personality and have always been charmed by his smile that he sports throughout. He leaves us with a rich musical legacy that all of us musicians can learn from. He will live on through his music.