On a higher note

Musical maestro Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt talks to us about his love for music and how he’s not afraid to experiment

It takes real gumption to confidently take a musical instrument, alter it and still create heavenly music out of it. But then things are on a different level if the musician making the changes is also the inventor of the musical instrument —Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. When a young Vishwa Mohan Bhatt held a guitar in his hands and decided to Indianise it by creating the Mohan Veena, nothing prepared him for what awaited him in the future.

Speaking of his latest invention, “I have a reverb unit that can create three octaves. The Mandra Saptak, Madhya Saptak and Tar Saptak is achieved in a single stroke. This gives the sound an effect of Rudra Veena,” he strums on an imaginary Mohan Veena while explaining.

Clad in his trademark kurta, the maestro sat on the cosy couch of a hotel lobby with no airs of a Grammy award winner. A soft spoken Bhatt says, “At my last show in London, after an hour of performance, I paid a tribute to our Rashtrapita by playing his favourite bhajan, then Vande Mataram and then our national anthem. It was wonderful.”

For him, it is always about evolving his musical style. This year, he won the GiMA award (Global Indian Music Award) for the Best Hindustani Classical Album — Instrumental segment for the album Moods.

But he was happier to share that he had created an album inspired from his grandson last year. “My older son who created the Satvik Veena came out with two albums named after his two children and I came out with Vihaan — it means the first rays of the sun. That is also my grandson's name,” says the elated musician.

As someone who has stood up and faced the wrath of classical music fraternity, he admits, “They are orthodox and strict”. But that did not stop him from continually collaborating and evolving his style and his instrument.

“Although classical is my forte I love Bollywood. I like the new kind of music,” he says. So do today’s musicians fear to experiment “Artists especially are scared. They think more about their image, it is important for them.” He reminisces about his guru Pt Ravishankar and says, “Even his image was hampered because he collaborated with international artists. Indian classical fraternity complained that he diluted our music. Truth is the Indianised western musicians. There is also a fear of creating new instruments because of the orthodox classical musicians,especially down south it is very strict.”

“The youth is very intelligent. I have been getting a good young crowd here. They know to enjoy classical music. I think Spicmacay has played a good role in introducing classical musicians to children.These days they have the internet,YouTube and downloading. Music is in your pocket now! Listening has multiplied, which I agree and I like. But from a commercial angle, it is dangerous for artists. Royalty has completely stopped. I remember hearing that George Harrison used to get nearly 200 pounds a day back then as royalty,”he laughs. Bhatt goes into a nostalgic dive and says, “Harrison’s favorite raag was Kirwani. He once came to Jaipur with guruji and said he wanted to listen to me play. I gifted him a Mohan Veena as well.”

His upcoming collaborations are with Canadian Jazz musician Glenn Charles Halls, Tony Banks and Siva Mani. Later this month, he will be heading to Australia for performances there. Doesn’t all these back to back performances tire him “Not at all. Music keeps me going,” he concludes with a laugh.