A Risque afternoon at Prithvi

Yesterday I took my brother and his family (visiting Mumbai for the 1st time) to watch a play at Prithvi.  After all, what better way to expose my brother and his family to the vibrant cultural atmosphere of Mumbai?

To my consternation I realised once the play "Shree Maan Chor" started, that the theme of the play was all about middle class hypocrisy with a liberal dose of spouse swapping thrown in.  It was a Hindi adaptation of a famous Italian satire by the celebrated Dario Fo, with a lot of funny and double entendre dialogues thrown in.

Soon the play reached the hottest scene : one of the women - as part of stimulation - uses a "whip" ("hunter" in Hindi) on her man.  Again all supposed to be in good fun - because the audience was roaring away with laughter.

My brother nervously glanced at his 8 year old son.  And I at my mother.  Both were pictures of rapt concentration.

At the end of the play I asked my mother how she liked it.

"I did not understand the play at all as it was all in Hindi" my mother very diplomatically replied.

My 8 year old nephew was more clear in his verdict. He wrinkled his nose and said :"It was OK - but it reminded me of school when the teacher was using the big whip to beat that person".  

Classical Music : The Debt I Owe YouTube

There was a time when the only artistes I appreciated (and whose cassettes and CDs I bought) were mega-stars such as Bhimsen Joshi, Kishori Amonkar, Zakir Hussain and Ravi Shankar.  The number of artistes I was aware of, and who I listened to, could be counted on the fingers of my hands.

I had no exposure to other artistes, and because space (and money) was limited I did not want to experiment buying cassettes and CDs (or attending concerts) of unknown performers.  Hence I stuck to a short repertoire of performers whose music I patronised.

It did not of course help that for a long time I did not stay in a metro city - hence I was not even exposed to any music circle that would have "educated" me to go beyond my limited repertoire.

Around 2008 I started becoming an active YouTube user.  For the 1st time I started getting exposed to performers outside my "short short-list".  For the 1st time I realised that there are fine artistes who were very talented - but for some reason (poor marketing, bad luck, or lack of supporting patrons) were not simply in the limelight.  Of course they would be known to connoisseurs and other artistes - but these would be a tiny fragment of the classical music listeners.

I am ashamed to admit - but it is a fact - that it is only thanks to YouTube that I got exposed to superbly talented artistes like Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar, Prabha Atre, Shruti Sadolikar, Yogesh Shamsi, and a lot many others.  In fact the size of my repertoire of "acceptable" performers expanded by 10 times sheerly because for the 1st time I could listen to (and view) recorded Live performances.  Because of the unique way YouTube randomly exposes a viewer to different performers I "discovered" young talent like Manjusha Patil and even younger artistes such as Aarti Nayak.

For the 1st time I realised that the world of Harmonium did not begin and end with the talented trio of Pt. Tulsidas Borkar, Pt. Purushottam Walavalkar, and Pt. Appasaheb Jalgaonkar.  For a person who is very passionate about the harmonium it would have been a major loss if I had not realised that there are other incredibly talented harmonium players who were emerging on the horizon bringing in their own creativity and talent.

Since my move to Mumbai 3 years ago, I am now living my dream of actually attending live music concerts of all these tens and tens of talented musicians who I have got to know intimately thanks to YouTube.  When I see them in a live show I already feel I know them intimately because I have watched them and listened to them for hundreds of hours on YouTube.  They have entertained me and raised my spirits while I was sitting in a city thousands of kilometers away where there was the remotest chance of a musician of that caliber ever visiting and performing.

YouTube's major achievement is to level the playing field - talented artistes - whether old or young - now have a platform for a wider audience to "stumble upon" and appreciate diverse talent.

I thank YouTube (and those who took the trouble for laboriously uploading the videos) for making me more aware of the hundereds of talented musicians who - practically speaking - would NOT have existed for me but for YouTube.