[Couldn't resist writing in, as I was a little surprised by some of the comments on this topic.]
Ashok Patki, who won this year's National Award for Music, is no greenhorn. Even though some of you may have not heard of him, he's a veteran with several albums to his credit. I wonder how many of you, who have dismissed the award as not being meritorious, have actually heard the music of Antarnad (I'll readily confess I haven't, but then I'm not saying his work is inferior). This is not to say that the National Awards are flawless. I myself find some of the awards in the last few years, and even this year, to be eyebrow-raising. But I think many people will admit that most of the awards (especially the less glamourous ones) go to fairly talented people, even if they are not popular, or even if it wasn't their best work. In comparison, I (and again, I'm sure, others would agree) find that some of the mainstream 'Bollywood' awards seem to degenerate into fraternal backscratching. Rahman wins a lot of these awards, but no one is silly enough to suggest lack of merit in these choices, even if they didn't like who won the other awards in those shows. The same courtesy should be extended to these awardees as well. Ashok Patki's pedigree isn't diminished by our ignorance of his work, nor is Rahman's genius shadowed by not winning an award. IIRC, I read in this very group that Rahman was quoted as saying that the music of Omkara was among the best that year, so some of you should have been canvassing for that film to win, given that it was among Rahman's own choices. (BTW, some of you have mentioned Rang De Basanti in this context. FYI, that film was a 2005 submission, and you may recall Naresh Iyer winning for that film last year.) I guess a man of Rahman's stature would like us to broaden our musical horizons, especially w.r.t Indian musicians, and not be so blinded by affection for him. Disappointment is understandable, dismissal isn't :-) The list of national awardees for Best Music is almost a who's who of musical talent, especially lesser known talent, and is a good place to begin such explorations, is it not? Returning to Ashok Patki. His website is at http://www.ashokpatki.com, but unfortunately no non-Marathi version seems to exist. I can't find the music of Antarnaad online, but his "Savalee" (or "Savalii", meaning 'shadow'), a recent Marathi film, is said to have some good classical numbers. They can be heard at www.musicindiaonline.com/music/hindi_bollywood/s/movie_name.9074/ And finally, most of you must have heard at least one famous creation by Ashok Patki. That happens to be "mile sur meraa tumhaara". happy aural adventures, Ramanand -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Webpage: http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/~ramanand Weblogs: Personal: http://quatrainman.blogspot.com Interrobang (the quiz blog): http://notesandstones.blogspot.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
