| A virtuoso of Hindustani classical music on the transverse flute, Pt. Pannalal Ghosh was born on July 31, 1911. Born in Barisal, East Bengal now Bangladesh the family first lived in the village of Amarnathganj and later moved to the town of Fatehpur.He was brought up in a family of musicians. His grandfather, Hari Kumar Ghosh, father, Akshaya Kumar Ghosh, and maternal uncle, Bhavaranjan, were proficient musicians. Mother, Sukumari (daughter of Mr. Muzumdar of Dhaka), was a singer. His younger brother Nikhil Ghosh was a distinguished tabl player. Young Pannalal was highly receptive and absorbed good music from various sources. He regarded the "Harmonium Wizard", Khurshid Ahmad Khan, as his first guru, and was fortunate also to have had the blessings and systematic training from the legendary Ustad Allauddin Khan, with whom he studied beginning in 1947.
As the music director of the dance troupe of the princely state of Seraikella, Pannalal Ghosh visited and performed in Europe in 1938, and was one of the first classical musicians to have crossed the boundaries of India.
After joining All India Radio, Delhi, as Conductor of the National Orchestra in 1956, he composed path-breaking orchestral pieces such as Kalinga Vijay and Andolika. His contribution in semi-classical as well as film music also was equally significant, and his name is permanently linked to many famous movies such as Aandolan, Anjan, Basant, Basant-Bahar, Duhai, Munna, Mughal-e-Azam, Police and Nandkishor.
On breathing his last on April 20, 1960, Pannalal Ghosh left behind a large number of disciples and admirers. Amongst his noteworthy students and followers have been Haripad Choudhari, Aminur Rehman (Bangla Desh), Fakirchand Samanta, Gaur Goswami, Shreeram Joshi, Rashbihari Desai, Mahesh Mastfakir, Devendra Murdeshwar, V.G. Karnad, Niranjan Haldipur, Bhailal Barot, Prabhakar Nachane, Sharad Mohalay, K.D. Desai, Suraj Narayan Purohit, Hari K. Chabria, and Lalitha Rao and Mohan Nadkarni. Because of his humble and helpful nature, Pannalal has always remained a very popular and respected personality among the music connoisseurs, and endeared many senior musicians as well.
Pannalal Ghosh 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 also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. Also to his credit are the introduction of the special tenor flute, 6-stringed Taanpura, high-pitched Taanpuri and Surpeti into Hindustani music.
He also mastered the technique with such a great proficiency that he could present with ease the heavy ragas (melodies) like Todee, Darabaree, Miyan Malhar, Pooriya, Shree, Pooriya Dhanashree, Kedar, etc., retaining intact the entire beauty as well as the grammar. These ragas are now the speciality of the flautists of his Gharana (tradition). He also created and popularized several new ragas (melodies) including Deepawali, Pushpachandrika, Hansanarayani, Chandramauli, Panchavati and Noopurdwani.
His playing style was a uniform and balanced blend of both the Gayaki (vocal style) and Tatkari (stringed instrument style). This is evident from his available recordings; his understanding of the Taal (rhythm) was appreciated by many renowned tabl players (percussionists) including Ustaad Amir Hussain Khan, Ustaad Allarkha, and Pt. Nikhil Ghosh. To quote, Pt. Lalji Gokhale has exclaimed that "it was impossible that Pannababujee would make a mistake in Taal" ! |
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