A very informative essay submitted for the GOA SUDHAROP GOAN SENIORS E-book.
See below.
George
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'DATTARAM' -- THE MAN BEHIND IMMORTAL TUNES... NOW OLD, AILING AND FORGOTTEN
by Frederick Noronha
Do you remember the hit Bollywood film songs like 'Aansoo Bhari Hain Yeh Jeevan
Ki Raahein' (from
the film 'Parvarish'), 'Chun Chun Karti Aayee Chidiya' (from 'Ab Dilli Door
Nahi') or 'Masti Bhara
Hain Sama' (also from 'Parvarish'). The man behind these and scores of other
hit songs of the
yesteryear lies ailing and forgotten in a small village outside Goa's dusty
mining heartland.
Music director Dattaram Wadkar, more popularly known as 'Dattaram', now resides
in Maulinguem in
Goa's Bicholim taluka. The man who did the music for 19 films as the
independent music director
may find his work a refrain on lips across India, but there are few to take
care of his health.
Dattaram has also done music in the languages of Bhojpuri, Magadhi and one
Marathi film ('Preamchi
Savali' which starred prominent cricketer Sunil Gavaskar.) Dattaram undertook
major contribution
was as assistant to Shanker Jaikishan from 1948 to 1974. He was in charge of
the rhythm section
and one can see his name in the credits of most landmark Hindi films of this
period.
This artiste is credited with having improvised and innovated many a rhythm
which are taken as a
standard even today. "Ask a pro from the Hindi film music fraternity in Mumbai
and anyone will
tell you about 'Dattu Ka Theka'," said a fan of his who is trying get help to
help the ailing
musician.
Somewhere in the early 'forties the young Dattaram made his way to Mumbai and
was working in the
docks as a laborer. Obviously, he was poor and not exactly educated. He had
learned the tabla for
a few years mainly encouraged by his mom who was a local singer.
He used to be a gym enthusiast where he met Shanker became his disciple for the
tabla and also
joined the Prithvi Theater as a helping hand with music. He worked on many
films as a 'theka'
player for rehearsals and finally did his first recording for the film 'Nagina'.
After that there was no looking back and he made major contributions under the
'SJ'
(Shanker-Jaikishan) baton. Dattaram became an important member of the RK Group
-- as it -- was
then called and worked closely with the likes of Raj -- Kapoor, Shanker
Jaikishan, Shailendra and
Hasrat Jaipuri. -- A part of this team was also Sebastian D'Souza, the great
arranger who also
hailed from Goa.
Dattaram is the only surviving member of this team. Through the 'fifties and
'sixties, Dattaram
found himself close to Jaikishan, who expired in 1971. After the decline of the
Shanker-Jaikishan
team, Dattaram found himself at sea.
He did work with other music directors like Laxmikant Pyarelal, and was Raj
Kapoor's trusted man
when he worked on the music for 'Bobby' with Laxmikant Pyarelal. Later he chose
to retire and
return to Goa.
Said one of his fans, who has been visiting the artiste's tiny village off the
Goan beaten track,
but spoke on condition that he not be brought into the limelight: "Dattaram's
health too has been
rather unstable ... mind you he otherwise had a robust physique and till tow
years ago was
strong. He underwent two massive heart attacks recently and needs to undergo a
gall bladder
operation for which he does not have the funds."
Veterans in the music world believe that Dattaram's contribution has sadly not
been recognized as
yet. Apart from the music to which he contributed he also gave breaks to
numerous artistes in the
'sixties and seventies'. "The film industry, being what it is, little can be
expected. Even the
governments -- central or Goa -- have not exactly helped this senior artiste,"
said one.
Dattaram's plight was discovered quite by accident. A media professional was
researching for a
film script, on the life and career of Shanker-Jaikishan. Tracing through
newspapers, magazines
and books led him to Dattaram. But it was very difficult to trace this artiste,
and took him a
year to finally reach Dattaram! "I located him and went across to meet him. He
was extremely
gracious and we spent three days together," says Pune-based media professional
Sandeep Apte.
Some others who realised the man's contribution formed a felicitation committee
called the
Dattaram Sanman Samiti. They did a program on April 26, 2003, the Shanker
anniversary.
Dr.Padmanabh Joshi of Ahmedabad who has written a biography of
Shanker-Jaikishan made an
audio-visual presentation about the team. We also featured excerpts of a video
interview of
Dattaram. A collection of a Rs 35,000 purse was collected.
Those involved included biographer of Shanker-Jaikishan, Dr Padmanabh Joshi of
Ahmedabad,
Mumbai-based graphic designer Kamall Mustafa, Pune-based doctor Prakash Kamat,
Internet
entrepreneur Randhir Dange, Institute of Management Development & Research
(Pune) director Dr A P
Bhupatkar, Prof Atul Sapre, Film & TV Institute of India former dean Samar
Nakhate and media
professional Apte.
"We seem to have a terrible apathy about our culture as it gets shaped by these
very people.
Because senior artistes are treated badly it creates the ultimate
misunderstanding about how we
value our people. And in turn we end up not fostering the very things we should
be valuing in the
first place," said one of those closely connected with the event.
It is a known fact that artistes from the tiny state of Goa, 600 kms south of
Mumbai (or Bombay)
have have made immense contributions to Hindi film music. But today, most Goans
themselves seem
unaware of it.
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