Pt. Venkatesh Godkhindi passes away

April 15, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:26 pm IST - Bengaluru:

Flautists Venkatesh Godkhindi, his son Praveen Godkhindi and grandson Shadj perform at TMA Pai Convention Centre in Mangaluru. File Photo: R. Eswarraj.

Flautists Venkatesh Godkhindi, his son Praveen Godkhindi and grandson Shadj perform at TMA Pai Convention Centre in Mangaluru. File Photo: R. Eswarraj.

Veteran Bansuri vidwan, Pt. Venkatesh Godkhindi, 75, died at his residence in Bangalore today (April 14) according to his family sources. He was suffering from a kidney ailment for the last four years and the end came at 5 am, confirmed his son, flautist Pravin Godkhindi, on phone. “My father was an ‘Ekalavya’ of sorts, he was a self-taught musician with a rare distinction of being A-graded artist in both vocal and flute in Akashavani,” he said.

Pt. Venkatesh Godkhindi was born in 1940 in Dharwad. He was working for Akashavani-Dharwad from 1970 and worked there until he retired in 2001. He had trained nearly 200 students across the globe and was a recipient of several awards. He is survived by his two sons, flautist Pravin Godkhindi and Kiran Godkhindi, tabla player.

“His music was divine”

“You are the only musician who can sing on the flute, your Shudh Kalyan was heavenly, only you can do this effortlessly on the bamboo reed…,” were some of the words described by Pt. Basavaraj Rajguru in his letter to Venkatesh Godkhindi in 1983, after listening to his concert on the radio.

Godkhindi learnt vocal, harmonium and the flute on his own. “Trial and error were part of his learning methodology, and the self-taught was one artiste, says Pravin, who was very close to Bhimsen Joshi.

Senior Godkhindi was a Harmonium player too and had accompanied most of stalwarts as Jitendra Abhisheki, Kishori Amonkar, Pt. Jasraj, Bhimsen Joshi, Basavaraj Rajguru amongst others. “He was an ardent follower of ‘Kirana Gharana’ and one could see this as he by nature followed the Gaayaki style where the vocalised format is meticulously traced,” explains Pravin. “To have the clarity of the Gaayaki style, he brought in the extra thumb-hole in his flute that made him ‘sing in absolute lucidity’, an inclusion that gained admiration from none other then Pt. Bhimsen Joshi too,” he adds.

Pt. Pannalal Ghosh also used an eight-holed Bansuri to bring in a marked shrill and boom with the two extra ones compared to the normal 6-holed flute, but Godkhindi brought in the invisible thumb-hole for showcasing a distinct identity of his style.

With concerts, awards and students all over to his credit, Pt. Godkhindi wasn’t happy when it came to the recognition of Karnataka artistes by the North Indian music world. “After the frontline artistes as Gangubai, Bhimsen Joshi, Mallikarjun Mansur, Basavaraj Rajguru and Kumar Gandharv, the next generation is still waiting for attention,” he always said. “”My father had accompanied all of them on the Harmonium,” says Pravin.

Apart from training hundreds of students and his own son Pravin on the flute, Mr. Godkhindi trained his young grandson Shadaj and the three have performed together for creating ‘three-generations-on-stage history.’

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.