The Sixth String of Vilayat Khan

by Namita Devidayal

Film studios became playgrounds for some of the most talented music directors of all time. Hindi film music grew out of a confluence of the Bengal stream, the Marathi stream and Western music, which came from Anglo-Indians and later Goans. The Bengal stream came from Calcutta, where composers like Pankaj Mullick and R.C. Boral had been working in New Theatres studio, and had made some bold experiments fusing elements of Western harmony and orchestra with traditional Indian classical music. Mullick was influenced by Rabindra Sangeet, and Boral was a well-established tabla player who was close to Enayat Khan and had even accompanied him on several concerts. The Marathi stream, which was the more dominant one initially, came out of Pune and Kolhapur, and had much more of a Hindustani classical element, thanks to playback artistes like Saraswati Devi, a Parsi dhrupad singer who worked for Bombay Talkies. When Bengali composers like Anil Biswas migrated to the thriving Bombay industry, they started changing the music scene, eliminating the Marathi elements, bringing in other melodies, introducing Western instruments.