Music and his life have no parallels

Ustad Bismillah Khan, shehnai maestro and possibly the most popular Hindustani classical musician of the twentieth century, breathed his last at the age of 90 in Varanasi at 2.20a.m. on August 21. In his death, the nation mourns the fading away of the musical magic that heralded the dawn of Independence at the Red Fort on August 15, 1947 and regaled free India for six decades.

Bismillah Khan was one of the architects of India’s post-Independence music-scape. He elevated the shehnai, a ceremonial instrument, to the status of a concert instrument. Through the 60’s and 70’s, he along with instrumentalists like Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Ustad Vilayat Khan, enabled instrument music to overtake vocal music in stature and popularity. Bismillah Khan, however, achieved greater popularity than other instrumentalists of his generation because he straddled the worlds of classical, folk and popular music with equal ease and distinction.

The key of Bismillah Khan’s musicianship lay in hid having steeped himself in the rich musical tradition of Varanasi. Though born in a family of musicians in Dumrao, Bihan, Bismillah Khan moved to Varanasi to become a disciple and later also son-in-law of his uncle Ustad Ali Baksh. He mastered classical music and the various semi-classical, folk and romanticist genres of the purab (eastern UP) region, like thumree, chaiti kajree and dadra. Over the years, he transformed these genres into distinctive idiom for the shehnai, of which he himself remained the only convincing exponent. His rendition of khayal could transport the cognoscenti into a trance, while his folk renditions could make the laity dance. For over half a century, all major classical music festival featured Bismillah Khan. As Hindustani music acquired a following in the west, his music became an object of serious study in the US and Europe for oboe performers. He remained the first choice of leading music directors for songs requiring the shehnai. His life and music even inspired a few films, the most memorable being Goonj Uthee Shehnai, for which he also composed the music.

Ustad Bismillah Khan receiving Bharat Ratna

Among his musical achievements were hid jugalbandis with some of the greatest musicians of his times violinist Prof. V.G. Jog, sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, thumree exponent Girijadevi and sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan.Bismillah Khan earned all the recognition a musician could yearn for. He was decorated by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, by the Tansen Award Committee and with a Padma Vibhushan and later, the Bharat Ratna.

For all his success and stature, Bismillah Khan was a simple man, who lived frugally, supported a large family of over 60 relatives, and resisted the attraction of metropolitan life. According to press reports, he had once requested the government to grant his family a cooking gas dealership to ease his financial burden, but without success. Despite failing health, he performed till the end because he needed the money for his survival and medical bills. If true, these reports should give all Indians an uncomfortable conscience.

Every village in India has a shehnai player. But the voice Bismillah Khan gave to the instrument will remain the shehnai’s voice for generations to come. The Ustad leaves behind a huge archive of recordings with All India Radio, in the commercial market, and in private collections as evidence that a Bismillah Khan is born only once in a hundred years.

Bismillah Khan with President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam