Pandit Kedar Bodas, is a musician of rare breed belonging primarily to the Gwalior gharana but with a wide exposure to other gharanas as well. Bodas is a grandson of one of the many “missionaries” that Pt. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar sent out to propagate Khayal in the early parts of the last century. Lakshman Sripad Bodas, grandfather of Kedar Bodas, worked for this cause from Karachi until Partition.
Kedar Bodas was thus born into music. His teachers have been his grandfather, Dr Ashok Ranade, C.P. Rele, T.D. Janorikar of the Bhendi Bazaar Gharana, and now his father Narayan Rao Bodas. Kedar Bodas says that he has the fortune of being able to see the various aspects of beauty that each gharana carries within it. “If one examines the music of the maestros of any gharana, we see many differences in approach. Each is beautiful in its own way, but the foundation is the same larger approach to music that the Gharana stands for. Gharana as a system to impart cohesiveness to music making seems to be crumbling. It needs patience and perseverance to absorb a Gharana’s aesthetic and technical vision. But patience is the first casualty today with its unthinking quest for ‘success.” Bodas cites the Bhendi Bazaar gharana as an example. “Their approach to music is deeply impacted by the Been technique,” he says. he adds. Raag, according to Bodas, is not just about presentation in some set ways.
“When one sings a raag, one must listen to it and let it come out. Not violate it by singing a dazzling taan here or an acrobatic sargam there simply because others have done it and it captures the audience’s fancy. I try to let the raga emerge by working with the bandish whose import too must be respected,” he explains.
