AIR sitting on Ravi Shankar recordings

Pandit Ravi Shankar worked as a music director for All India Radio (AIR), New Delhi, from February 1949 to January 1956. That���s when he founded the Indian National Orchestra and composed for it. Now, for the first time, Prasar Bharati has released some of his priceless orchestra compositions. But none of maestro���s 29 other recordings for AIR that are equally valuable are available for the general public.On the maestro���s 96th birth anniversary today, TOI finds out the hitch that���s preventing the government from sharing this treasure trove with the public.
A random search on the Prasar Bharati site throws up one Shankar album in its list of 160 CDs that are up for sale. Against six albums of Pt Bhimsen Joshi, four albums of Vidushi Gangubai Hangal and two of Pt Nikhil Banerjee, Shankar���s only released CD from Prasar Bharati isn���t even a pure classical raga rendition. The second volume of the Akashvani Sangeet series has Shankar���s orchestral compositions titled ���AIR Vadya Vrinda���. A description of this album states: ���ORCHESTRAL COMPOSITIONS VOL-2 Inspired by the orchestra of Shri Uday Shankar���s dances, Pt Ravi Shankar experimented with pure orchestra and his endeavours bore fruit during his tenure as Music Composer at All India Radio. He divided the orchestra format into four parts: classical, light classical, folk and story-based, and laid down ground rules for the performance of each of these forms.���
Ironically, the last line of the album description is garbled although one can pick up names of compositions like ���Awakening', ���Gaon ki Gori', `Adi Basant', ���Rangavali' and ���Kari Badariya'.
Sarod maestro Ustad Aasish Khan has vivid memories of listening to the radio orchestra of Shankar when he was a teenager in Maihar. ���Pishima (Vidushi Annapurna Devi) and I would tune into the radio at night to listen to the orchestra. The compositions were rich in melodic content and had an attractive mix of North and South Indian talas,��� Khan said from Los Angeles. Those who had played in the orchestra include Nandalal Ghosh (sarod), Gopal Krishna (vichitra veena), Chaturlal (table) and Satyadev Pawar (violin).
Other connoisseurs like Shankar���s long-time associate Rabin Pal and sarod player Pt Tejendra Narayan Majumdar are happy with the access to this recording. ���This is the first time that I am hearing that this recording is available for Rs 195 only. That���s a very good news. But I wonder what happened to his other recordings in the AIR archives,��� Pal said. Some of the recordings of Shankar available in the Prasar Bharati archives include a 1962-recording of ���Hem Bihag���, a 1964-recording of ���Palas Kafi���, a 1966-recording of ���Mishra Gara��� and a 1974-recording of ���Puriya���. Other recitals include raag ���Hemant���, ���Todi���, ���Tilak Shyam���, ���Shuddha Sarang���, ���Nand���, ���Darbari Kanada���, ���Aheer Bhairav���, ���Anand Bhairav���, ���Maru Bihag���, ���Shyam Kalyan���, ���Jhinjhoti���, ���Bhopali���, ���Khamaj���, ���Malkauns���, ���Basant Mukhari���, ���Maru Bihag���, ���Manjh Khamaj���, ���Kirwani��� and ���Yaman Manjh���.
Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia insisted that Prasar Bharati play a proactive role in getting these recordings out. ���Recordings of legends like Baba Allauddin Khan, Pt Ravi Shankar and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan should be released at the earliest,��� Chaurasia said. Incidentally, only two recordings of Chaurasia are available for the general public. ���But I have worked in AIR and have so many recordings with them. What does Prasar Bharati gain by sitting on the recordings? That���s a waste. Who makes their policies? If they are kept in the right condition, the recordings should be released for the public,��� he said.
Debasish Mukherjee, who was the former assistant director of AIR Kolkata, said approximately seven recordings of the maestro are there with the Kolkata station. Off-hand, he recalled two of them ��� an alaap on ���Bilashkhani Todi��� and a ���Pancham Se Gara��� recital where Shankar was accompanied by Ustad Karamatullah Khan. ���I have released Bengali albums of artistes like Sandhya Mukherjee, Nirmala Mishra, Madhuri Chatterjee, Arati Mukherjee, Supreeti Ghosh and Krishna Dasgupta, among others. It���s not that we didn���t think about releasing Pt Ravi Shankar���s albums. But plans never materialised,��� said Mukherjee, while insisting that once released these albums will sell like ���hot cakes���. Majumdar said these priceless recordings ought to get released soon. ���The ���Bilashkhani Todi��� recital is so good that it is impossible for anyone to budge without listening to the complete rendition. Why sit on them?��� Majumdar wondered.
Khan added, ���Prasar Bharati has no interest in supporting Indian classical music. Why else would they not release such priceless collections? I wonder in what condition they are in.��� Sources in AIR���s archival division said that CDs are released there is a team that gives a feedback on the marketability of the recordings. Based on that the CDs are released. Does that mean this team has suggested that these recordings are low in the pecking order? ���No, that���s not the case. Sometimes, there are IPRS issues too,��� said a programme executive of the Prasar Bharati Archives.
When TOI got in touch with MS Thomas, additional director general (Prog), Prasar Bharati, about when the next Shankar album will be available for the general public, he said, ���As of now, we can���t say that. We have a five-year plan for digitisation. That requires huge funds.���