Pannalal Ghosh

Few words about Pt. Pannalal Ghosh
Contributed by Vishvas M. Kulkarni (PhD)

The great flute maestro of India and pioneer of classical music on flute, late Pt. Pannalal Ghosh (Amal Jyoti Ghosh) was born on July 31, 1911.
Today, every Indian flautist remains thankful to him because he was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a novel bamboo flute (32 inches long with 7 holes for fingering) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and bring it to a stature ¡§at par¡¨ with other classical music instruments. Not only that, he also mastered the technique with such a great proficiency that could present at ease, in the concerts, the ¡§heavy¡¨ raagas like Miyan kee Todee, Darabaree Kanada, Miyan Malhar, Pooriya, Shree, Pooriya Dhanashree, Kedar, etc. retaining intact the entire ¡§beauty¡¨ and the ¡§grammer¡¨. He also created and popularized several new raagas including Deepawali, Pushpachandrika, Hansanarayani, Chandramauli, Panchavati and Nupurdwani.
His contribution has great significance also because there have been rare examples in the world¡¦s modern history of music when a musical instrument was ¡§created¡¨ as well as ¡§popularly accepted¡¨ (at par with other instruments) for playing classical music. To his credit also have been the special bass flute, the 6-stringed Taanpura, high-pitched Tanpuri and the Surpeti or Shruti box into Hindustani music.
After joining the All India Radio, Delhi, as the Conductor of National Orchestra in 1956, he composed several orchestras such as ¡§Kalinga Vijay¡¨. His contribution in semi-classical as well as film music also was equally significant, and his name is permanently linked to several famous movies such as Aandolan, Anjan, Basant, Duhai, Munna, Mughal-e-Azam, Police, Nandkishor and many more.
Before he could breath his last on April 20, 1960, at an early age of 49 years, had already left behind a large number of disciples and admirers. His noteworthy students had been Haripad Choudhari, Aminur Rehman (Bangla Desh), Fakirchand Samanta, Gaur Goswami, Shreeram Joshi, Mahesh Mastfakir, Devendra Murdeshwar, Niranjan Haldipur, Bhailal Barot, Prabhakar Nachane , K.D. Desai, and Mohan Nadkarni.
Amongst the still living (as on today i.e. July, 2004) students have been Rashbihari Desai (Baroda), Hari K. Chabria (Madras), Suraj Narayan Purohit (Jodhpur) and Sharad Mohalay (Mumbai). One of his best disciples and also the seniormost flautist of India, Pt. V.G. Karnad (Pune, Phone : 0091 - 20 - 2538 1671) has still been performing in the concerts.
The current batch in ¡§Pannalal Ghosh Tradition¡¨ is capably represented by several professionals viz; Naresh Kumta, Harishchandra Kokare, Keshav Ginde, Nityanand Haldipur, Azizul Islam (Bangla Desh), Vijay Kabinittal, Lyon Leifer (USA), David Philipson (USA), Anand Murdeshwar, Ravindra Samant, Harshawardhan Kaulgi, Abdul Bari Siddiqui (Bangla Desh), Vishvas Kulkarni and several
others.

 

 

LatePt. Pannalal Ghosh (Amal Jyoti Ghosh) was born in Barisal (now in Bangla Desh) on July 31, 1911. He designed a novel bamboo flute suitable for playing Hindusthani Classical Music. Not only that, he also mastered the technique with such a great proficiency that could present at ease in the concerts, the ¡§heavy¡¨ ragas like Miyan kee Todee, Darabaree Kanada, Miyan Malhar, Pooriya, Shree, Pooriya Dhanashree, Kedar, and retaining intact the entire ¡§beauty¡¨ as well as the ¡§grammer¡¨.
After joining the All India Radio, Delhi, as the Conductor of National Orchestra in 1956, he composed several orchestras such as ¡§Kalinga Vijay¡¨. His contribution in semi-classical as well as film music also was equally significant, and his name is permanently linked to several famous movies such as Aandolan, Anjan, Basant, Duhai, Munna, Mughal-e-Azam, Police, Nandkishor and many more.
Although he breathed his last on April 20, 1960, at a very early age of 49 years only, had already left behind a large number of descendents and admirers. Amongst his noteworthy ¡§students¡¨ and ¡§followers¡¨ have been Haripad Choudhari, Aminur Rehman (Mintoo da), Fakirchand Samanta, Gaur Goswami, Shreeram Joshi, Rashbihari Desai, Mahesh Mastfakir, Devendra Murdeshwar, V.G. Karnad, Niranjan Haldipur, Lalitha Rao, Bhailal Barot, Prabhakar Nachane, Sharad Mohalay, K.D. Desai, Suraj Narayan Purohit, Hari K. Chabria, Mohan Nadkarni and others. The current batch in ¡§Pannalal Ghosh Tradition¡¨ is capably represented by Naresh Kumta, Harishchandra Kokare, Keshav Ginde, Nityanand Haldipur, Vijay Kabinittal, Lyon Lipher, David Philipson, Anand Murdeshwar, Ravindra Samant, Harshawardhan Kaulgi and several others.
Dr. Vishvas M. Kulkarni has been receiving lessons in the ¡§Pannalal Ghosh Tradition¡¨ from Keshav Ginde and V.G. Karnad since 1988. He has a feeling that the present and the upcoming generation of music students / music lovers are not well aware of details and significance of the contributions made by the great maestro. This induced him to work on collecting all possible information concerning Pannalal Ghosh, such as - published / unpublished documents and recordings, photographs, opinions / memories of various persons (his students, fans, relatives, contemporary musicians and critics, etc.). Over the past few years, some progress has already been made in this regard, but Vishvas intends to collect a lot more in order to prepare a standard, authentic and freely accessible source of information on Pannalal Ghosh. This collection shall possibly be expected to serve as one of the guidelines for the students of music.
The collected information is intended to classify and present under the following heads -
ƒæ Pannalal Ghosh"s extended biography ¡K
ƒæ The structure of bamboo flute ¡K
ƒæ His experimentation to design the novel flutes and the technique of playing it ¡K
ƒæ His classical music on flute ¡K
ƒæ Contributions towards semi-classical and light music ¡K
ƒæ Pannababu as a human ¡K
ƒæ About his descendents and other important styles of flute playing ¡K
ľ Conclusions.
An appeal is made to all who can contribute towards this project by parting the information such as - ANY memories, FRANK and HONEST opinions, documents such as published / unpublished articles, letters, photographs, recordings, personal belongings, information regarding his orchestra compositions or films / movies where he gave music or accompanied on flute, and also the probable sources of such information, etc.
Please do not hesitate to mention about if there are any expectations (in monitory terms or in any other form) for parting these valuable things / information.
Suggestions for improving the quality of the work and to bring it towards perfection are also most welcome.
With warm regards and sincere thanks in anticipation ¡K
Vishvas M. Kulkarni (PhD)
Scientific Officer
Nuclear Agriculture & Biotechnology Division Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
Trombay, Mumbai - 400 085, India. Residence
1002, Akash Ganga, Anushakti Nagar,
Mumbai ¡V 400 094, India.
PHONE : Office: (0091-22) 2559 3276
Residence: (0091-22) 2556 0409
FAX : (0091-22) 2550 5151 / 2551 9613
Email : < for_pannalal_ghosh@yahoo.com >

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