For Poly Varghese music is a perennial journey within himself to get to the roots of Indian classical music. Twenty-five years of tutelage in Mohan veena under Pandit Viswa Mohan Bhatt, has transformed him into a sought-after instrumentalist. He says it was his Guru’s blessing that helped him to perform thousands of concerts in 40 countries, a rare achievement for any Indian musician of his age. Still, he has an ascetic mindset – no craze for publicity, pelf or award.
Poly hails from Valappad near Thrissur. The alumnus of Kerala Kalamandalam was on a short visit to his ancestral home recently, when Friday Review caught up with him. Excerpts from the conversation…
How did it all begin?
If you feel that I have made ‘giant strides’ in music, it’s all because of the foundation in Carnatic music that I got at Kalamandalam. It is an all-encompassing system of music. A performance of Guruji, which I accidentally watched on Doordarshan, served as a spark. I wrote several letters to him, but received no reply. Finally, when I met him at Shantiniketan, where I was studying Hindustani music, he identified me because of those letters. He advised me to join him at his home in Rajasthan.
Life in Kolkata
Even as learning of Hindustani was progressing, I was attracted by all genres of music, Baul, Sufi, Rabindra Sangeet, Kabir songs, etc. I turned an itinerant musician, very often singing on the streets for subsistence, along with Baul singers. Life was difficult as I had to earn money for learning music by working as an undertaker, white-washing houses and even play the tabla in brothels. This journey enriched both my music and my life.
Learning under Pt. Viswa Mohan Bhatt
Guruji is a difficult taskmaster but is very affectionate. I stayed with him for five years and served him. Teaching was mainly during the evening strolls when he would relate to me the nuances of ragas and the instrument of his own creation – the Mohan veena. It’s an intricate instrument with 22 main and 14 taraf strings that are tuned to the notes of the raga to vibrate sympathetically. As such, the Mohan veena’s ability to express emotional expressions is unparalleled. More than that Guruji trained me to play in the Gayaki ang (vocal style). The large number of strings make the tuning really cumbersome. I trained in Saptha swara tuning alone for the first year. I also trained under the Gundecha brothers in Dhrupad, which is as old as the Carnatic system. I mainly play Dhrupad in my concerts.
On his music
My music is the end-product of all my training under the maestros and the musical journey that includes my once listless past, theatre activity, poetry writing and so on. I don’t play for the audience because it is mere showmanship; I play for myself. I believe that sublime music from a musician is his conversation with himself. The audience shares the chance of listening to that overflowing music. And at one point the artiste and the audience become one and then the communication between the two is complete. Every performance has an imprint of spontaneity and that’s why very often while listening to recorded concerts, I wonder whether I myself had played it.
Concerts abroad
When I played Hindustani Thodi for an hour-and-a-half at the Mozart Chamber in Vienna, I observed that the audience went into meditation. This was an index of the acceptability of Indian music. Understand that my performance followed a symphony orchestra and a rock music concert. I was virtually mobbed after the concert and they said “this is soulful music.” Further, they organised another concert, this time in a church that had superior acoustics. It was only later when I visited China that I came to know that the same performance had been uploaded on YouTube and had more than 1.5 lakh downloads.
In films
While I have scored background music for many Bengali films, I was music director for Malayalam films Jeevan Massai (2001) by the late journalist T. N. Gopakumar and Kala Varkey (2003) by Rajesh Narayanan. I’ve composed a song for Mayya , a Hollywood film that’s under production. It was sung by Rusheed Khan. Films, I feel, are a trap and counterproductive to your musical creativity.
The present
My instrument is under repair in Kolkata. So I practise with this instrument (picture) for hours on end every day at my home in Chennai. Guruji keeps sending new audio strips for me to practice. Guruji’s own ragas are Viswakauns and Viswaranjini. In ‘Valley Again,’ a new album on the lines of ‘Call of the Valley’ by HMV, I am playing the Mohan veena. Also, my book Sound, Silence and Consciousness is nearing completion.
