Takraye Unse Naina

The song which seems from the 1950s was actually recorded in 2011 for a play by Manaswini Lata Ravindra - LAKH LAKH CHANDERI. The song has been written and composed by Kaushal S. Inamdar. It has been arranged by Kamlesh Bhadkamkar. Hamsika and Shruti Bhave have sung this song and Shruti herself has played the violin. Tabla - Mandar Gogate. The song was mixed in Ajivasan Studios by Mandar Wadkar. The entire song - lyrics, tune and arrangement and even the singing was so designed that it seems straight from the Hindi films of the 1950s. Shot brilliantly by Dnyanesh Zoting and Tanmayee Deo... the actors are Mukta Barve and Sharvani Pillai

Some of my favourite musicians - Part 1

The best part of being a music composer in Mumbai is that you get to work with a lot of talented musicians. While doing Marathi Abhimaangeet and then later BALGANDHARVA, I worked with a lot of musicians who gave immense pleasure to the composer in me. I thought of writing a mini-series about the musicians that I have enjoyed working with and this post can be considered to be Part One of this exercise.

Today, I wish to write about two musicians who most of the Marathi Mumbaikars are familiar with - the extremely talented keyboardist and accordion player - Satyajit Prabhu and the flamboyant rhythmist Nilesh Parab.

Satyajit Prabhu 


I remember to have first met Satyajit (Sattu as we call him fondly) at a rehearsal at Ashok Hande's office in Mahim. He was a bespectacled, unassuming boy who quietly sat at his keyboard. It was only when his fingers touched the keyboard that I actually noticed him. As his fingers ran up and down on the keyboard with amazing ease and accuracy, I realised that I was watching a genius at work.

After that initial meeting I met Satyajit a lot at various concerts and programmes. Our association as a musician and a music composer began with Sonali Karnik's album - CHAPHYACHE SHIMPAN in which he played the accordion. Since then, Satyajit has been an indispensable musician in my arsenal. Now, it is extremely difficult to imagine what a recording would be like if Satyajit is not there.

Satyajit is also the backbone of SAREGAMAPA Marathi, the reality show on Zee Marathi. I don't think the programme will be able to function without the current set of musicians aspecially Satyajit. His understanding of Marathi music is acute and he gives a different dimension to the music of SAREGAMAPA.

Satyajit also played a few lines in the MARATHI ABHIMAANGEET's instrumental version. His playing on the accordion is akin to singing. What makes him unique is presenting pure Indian music on a western instrument. I always wonder how he manages to keep a poker face, while playing so beautifully! If I was him, I would have kept applauding myself!

Nilesh Parab

Another familiar name in the Marathi households these days is Nilesh Parab, who has been playing percussions in SAREGAMAPA's all seven or eight schedules. Nilesh is a flamboyant player and like Satyajit, I know him since a long long time. Nilesh's mastery on the dholki is simply terrific, and while Nilesh has been a part of most of my concerts, I don't remember a single programme where he did not command a rousing applause.

My team of rhythmists - all exceptionally talented! Nilesh in red T-shirt

Nilesh's expertise lies in the understanding the nuances of folk music and he becomes the mandatory part of the recording if there is any folk-based song. Both Satyajit and Nilesh have been the part of my music making from my early days as a music composer to my latest project BALGANDHARVA. I thank them for always being there for me and express my belief that they will always be a part of whatever I do.

© Kaushal S. Inamdar, 2007

Marathi Abhimaangeet Caller Tune Codes

Click on the link to get the codes for Marathi Abhimaangeet Caller Tunes for mobile.

MARATHI ABHIMAANGEET CALLER TUNES

© Kaushal S. Inamdar, 2007

A Pat on the Back!

© Kaushal S. Inamdar, 2007

Marathi Abhiman Geet - The Video

When Life Kills…

Water… what picture does that word create in front of your eyes? It's such a harmless word… water… and ninety-nine times in a hundred we get a cool, refreshing feeling… even quiet and contented. Water is called 'Jeevan' in Sanskrit or Marathi. Jeevan also means Life… such a beautiful interpretation.

And today when it rained… the first rains of the year, I glided into the arms of the beautiful but unreal lady called Nostalgia. I raked up a few pages of my old diary and found a page that I thought I must reproduce here. Written four and a half years ago.




January 04, 2005 12:48 PM


There is a terrible cloud of gloom – one on the outside, and one within me. My emotional state has improved since the 31st December and yet I am feeling disturbed.
We had already decided to meet at Ram and Udaya's place on the 31st. On the 26th the Tsunami wave hit the shores of multiple countries. I read the news on the internet and knew at once that this was perhaps the biggest tragedy of the millennium.
On the 31st as I was driving towards Ram and Udaya's place, I felt a pang of guilt. What was I doing? Why was I even thinking of a celebration with such a big tragedy hitting mankind? I have never felt so helpless. What was this compulsion of meeting friends on the eve of the New Year? As we arrived at Ram and Udaya's place, the mood there too was sombre. The conversation for the first part of the evening hovered on the cruelties of Nature and the Tsunami. I was lost in my own thoughts for most of the time. Is it because we are cruel to Nature that it sometimes lashes back at us? Is it Nature's way of telling mankind that it has had enough of our atrocities? But then does not it distinguish between the guilty and the innocent.
Then a session of music followed. But I was somehow uncomfortable singing cheerful songs. So when everybody got up for dinner, I went to the other room. I desperately wanted to pen my feelings, perhaps in form of an essay or a diary entry. But when I sat alone for some time, it slowly came to me in music and lyrics. And this is what I wrote.

ऐसा तेरा करम हुआ कि साहिल सारे बहने लगे
सदियों से जो चुप थे नज़ारे अपनी बात कहने लगे

सूनी आँखें, सूखी पलकें, लेकिन पानी चारों ओर
जीवन से जो बाँधे रख्खे ऐसी बची न कोई डोर
ऐसा मचला बरसा पानी
ख़ून का प्यासा तरसा पानी
पानी, पानी, इतना पानी, जिसमें इन्साँ जलने लगे
मिट्टी के पुतले भी क्या हैं, पत्थर भी पिघलने लगे


The next day I told Suchi that we must do whatever was in our power for the Tsunami victims. I sought out the government website that was accepting the online donations for the Tsunami victims. The strange thing was that the payment gateway was so flooded (a tragicomic word under the circumstances) that our payment wouldn't be processed until yesterday.
It was a wake-up call for me, I think. One should not kill optimism. So far my song was incomplete because I had only spelled the magnitude of the tragedy. There were millions of hands of help that rose simultaneously. It reminded me of the line in SOUND OF MUSIC. "If God closes all the doors, he opens a window somewhere!"
After Suchi and Anurag went to sleep, I sat on the computer hoping to write this diary entry. What followed however was the remainder of my song –

एक ही गीला पल था कोई जिसमें सदियाँ गुज़र गईं
एक ही ऐसी लहर उठी और सारी दुनिया बिखर गई
किसकी सज़ा है? किसका सिला है
जो तेरे बन्दों को मिला है
तिनका तिनका जोड़ के फिर ये बिखरे घर सिमटने लगे
हाथ हज़ारों आगे बढे तो ज़ख़्मों के निशाँ भी मिटने लगे

एक ही जज़्बा दुख से बड़ा है और वो अपनी आशा है
सूखे नैनों के कोनों में उम्मीदों की भाषा है
धरती फटे या अंबर टूटे हम फिर से उभर कर आएँगे
सागर चाहे बंधन तोड़े हम सब से तर जाएँगे
हम फिर उभरकर आएँगे
हम फिर उभरकर आएँगे

The lyrics came with the music. After a long time, I felt that this was a song that came from my own heart. I have to record this. It means spending all that I earned in the Mumbai Festival song. But I think this song is the necessity of my soul. I must talk to Sameer about it tomorrow itself. If anybody can do justice to this song, it is he. I am feeling sleepy now... and rather excited at the same time. It's a strange feeling.

Song Credits:
Lyrics & Music - Kaushal S. Inamdar
Arrangements - Sameer Mhatre
Backing Vocals - Suzanne D'Mello and Rishikesh Kamerkar
Recorded & Mixed by - Chinmay Harshe, Swarlata Studio

Marathi Asmita - Marathi Abhimaan Geet

In 2005, I composed and performed a prayer at the inauguration of the Mumbai Festival, "Tuzha Soorya Ugave Aamhi Prakaashaat Nhaato", written by Mangesh Padgaonkar and sung by 63 school children. That, in itself, is good news. The bad news was that after the 7 minutes of that song, apart from a spontaneous speech by Nana Patekar, for the next three hours, not a word of Marathi was spoken on the Mumbai Festival stage.
This is the situation everywhere in the Capital of Maharashtra. Mumbai is in Maharashtra, but Maharashtra is nowhere to be seen in Mumbai! Not a single commercial radio station in Mumbai plays a single Marathi song!! (You may hear a Tamil song here and there and quite a few Punjabi songs, but NEVER a Marathi song. When I asked a few of my friends working in these radio stations, they admitted off the record that 'it makes the station look downmarket'.) Would you like to hear that your mother-tongue is downmarket? In Mumbai, you can't buy vegetables in Marathi or even go from one place to another in Marathi.

This is a conversation that I had with a customer care executive from Vodafone on their Customer Care number.

I - "Namaskaar, Mala maajhya talk-plan baddal kahi mahiti havi hoti."
Vodafone Customer Care Executive - "Sorry sir, we are not allowed to talk in Marathi."
I - "Barobar. Pan mala Marathi bolaychi paravanagi ahe na?"
VCCE - "No sir. We can help you only if you talk in Hindi or English. We are not allowed to talk in Marathi."
I - "Aho pan, Mumbai ahe na hi? Maharashtrat rahato aapan. Rajyachi bhasha rajyaatach bolaychi paravanagi nahi?"
VCCE - "Dekhiye sir, aap Hindi mein baat kijiye ya agar aapko English aati hai to English mein baat kijiye. We are not allowed to talk in Marathi."
I - "Hich policy tumhi Chennaila hi follow karata ka?"
VCCE - "Ji?"
I - "Mi vicharal, hich policy tumhi Chennai kinva itar baaherchya rajyanchya shaharanamadhe hi follow karata ka?"
VCCE - "Sir Main aapko baahar ki koi jaankar nahi de sakta. Aap please Hindi ya English mein baat karenge to hi hum aapki madad kar paayenge."
I - "Aho pan Vodafone Marathit bolanaryanna madatach karnar nahi ka? Maazha talk plan kay aahe evadhach jaanun ghyaychay."
VCCE - "Dekhiye, kripa karke aap Hindi ya English mein hi baat karein."
I - "Pan tumchya Maharashtra Goa circle madhale lok boltat ki Marathit. Mumbai madhech ka nahi?"
The Vodafone Customer Care Executive hangs up the phone.

I would really like to know whether Vodafone has the same policy of not speaking Tamil or entertaining customers who insist that they can express best only in Tamil.
In my own State I am told that if I continue to speak in my mother-tongue, which happens to be the official language of that State, I regard this to be an insult to my State, my people, and even to the Constitution of India which gives me a right to talk in my mother-tongue, at least in my own State. There seems to be no unreasonable demand here! It is no as if I am insisting that I should be spoken to in Marathi when I am in Ahmedabad, for example.
After this conversation I also asked a few of my friends to see if they faced a similar problem and they did. We have recorded some of these conversations. If what Raj Thackeray does is considered to be violence then even this sort of a policy is nothing short of violence against a language - the language of the State and the language of the single largest majority in the city.

That Marathi should face such a problem in its own capital is a matter of shame.
The question is not exclusive to Mumbai. The real problem seems to me to be the indifference of the Marathi people towards their own mother-tongue. The movements that go on in the name of Marathi only result in stray violence, arson, and a terribly unstable atmosphere. This prevents the common Marathi person from participating in such so-called movements. And that does not prevent Marathi getting a raw deal, especially in its own capital city of Mumbai.
I honestly feel that if there has to be a sane movement for Marathi as a language, it has to spring from the common-folk. Never was there such urgency for all the Marathi speaking people to come together and stand together. Before we tell the non-Marathi speaking people to respect Marathi, there is a necessity of sowing seeds of self-respect among the Marathi speaking people themselves. MARATHI NEEDS A SONG OF SELF RESPECT!

Labhale amhas bhagya bolato Marathi
Jaahalo kharech dhannya aikato Marathi
Dharma, pantha, jaat ek jaanato Marathi
Evadhya jagaat Maay maanato Marathi!

I have composed music for this poem by Suresh Bhat. I plan to record this song with around 300 singers and around a 100 musicians. The expense for this song can easily be sponsored by one or two sponsors, but doing that will turn this into a 'commercial' product, which is not the motive. If this has to remain a movement, it has to involve our participation. If at least 2000 people contribute - and I say contribute, NOT donate - at least Rs. 500 each, this expense of recording the song can be covered. If you participate in this movement, I shall be very happy. Please remember, that this is NOT an appeal for help. This is an INVITATION - an invitation to participate in this movement for Marathi.
This movement already has gathered around 400 activists from India and abroad and this number is growing every day. We plan to release this CD on the 1st of May 2009, on the Maharashtra Day. A booklet will also be released along with CD which will contain the names of ALL the contributors so that a signal will be sent to one and all that this MARATHI ABHIMAAN GEET was the result of 2000+ people COMING TOGETHER and WITHOUT any corporate backing, sponsorships, or political initiative. It is a common feeling of the common Marathi speaking person. The booklet will also contain authentic information about the SANYUKTA MAHARASHTRA MOVEMENT, which is not easily available to people of my generation and the coming generations. The language-wise reorganisation of States was done in 1956 and yet it took 4 years for the Marathi speaking people to get a State of their own. Thousands circle the Hutatma Chowk everyday without knowing its significance, and then question the necessity of knowing Marathi in Mumbai! Some blogs refer to Mumbai being "TAKEN AWAY BY MAHARASHTRIANS BY USING STRONG ARM TACTICS!" So it is a requirement that the authentic information about the SANYUKTA MAHARASHTRA MOVEMENT reaches every Marathi speaking person. Prof. Sanjay Ranade, HOD of the Dept. of Journalism & Mass Communication will be authoring this part of the booklet which will be published by MOUJ PRAKASHAN, one of the most credible and distinguished publishing houses in Maharashtra.
Every participant will get a copy of this CD and booklet delivered to their doorstep at no cost.

You may send your cheques or DDs favouring "Marathi Asmita", 102, Triveni, Shuchidham, Film City Marg, Near Dindoshi Bus Depot, Goregaon (E), Mumbai - 400063. For any queries contact Mandar Gogate on 9820877279. You can also go to www.marathiasmita.org.

I urge every person who loves his/her mother-tongue to participate in this movement... and that includes AR Rahman who did his mother-tongue proud by speaking it on the Oscars Stage!

© Kaushal S. Inamdar, 2007