Passion and commitment spell success for some and satisfaction for others. In case of the music historian Dinesh Ghate, the latter is the case.
A conversation with Mr. Ghate is tough to end – the man has many interesting facts to quote and they are such that you will be stumbled. He will take you by surprise by asking you the most unexpected questions, “Do you know who is the first music arranger in India?” You of course don’t have an answer. “Well, it’s Anthony Gonsalves from Goa!” He exclaims. “That’s the deal you know”, he says further. “No one knows about the men behind the scenes”. We then get to the core of the subject – his project Swar Aalap.
Dinesh Ghate is a musician – a rhythmist who has been performing and even organizing concerts and live music events for the music fraternity in Bollywood. It struck him that no credit was ever given for instrumentalists, accompanists, arrangers – no one except the playback singers and music directors were recognized for their work on a particular song. There were numerous talented composers and musicians who worked on the song but they were always overshadowed. No one cared about the ‘original musicians’, as he calls them. They were lost in oblivion and they never got the appreciation they deserved.
Bollywood films become hits because of their music – many today will happily agree to this fact. In fact, the music is released before the movie and more than often, it is this formula which makes the movie work. There are many people whose combined effort makes a song a hit – there is the vocalist, the composer, the director, the engineer, the arranger and of course, the accompanists. When the credits start rolling, no one cares to see them all, let alone acknowledge the efforts of all. As Ghate would put it, “You must have heard the song Aaj Socha Toh Aansoo Bhar Aaye by Madan Mohan and Lata Mangeshkar. Have you heard how wonderfully the sitar is played? In fact, I think that the credit for the beauty of the song goes to the sitar playing more than Lataji’s rendition of the song. Hear it again and then you will realize what I am saying.”
This is exactly what triggered off Ghate into doing a detailed research on these very accompanists and arrangers who give soul to the song.
Ghate met a lot of senior musicians, spoke to them, visited their homes and tried hard to get the contact details of these musicians. It took him six to eight months to get the research work on the floors and in action in a steady manner. “I used to do this research in the daytime as my shows were usually in the night. It was tough of course. One had to go via other people to get to meet the musicians. And more than often, I found them in terrible conditions- some without a roof over their head, some going hungry…Some of them were suffering from memory loss also. I then managed to get some of my clients who were doctors or corporates to help out these musicians in whatever manner possible – morally, medically or financially.”
Finally, he managed to launch a monthly magazine named Dastak which contained the information he had found during his research. However, the postal charges were too heavy to bear and also the magazine did not have an RNI number. This lead him to change the name from Dastak to Swar Aalap and he got the magazine registered by the government. Swar Aalap did well for a while – Ghate also had functions wherein he would felicitate these musicians and dignitaries. However, due to financial losses and low response, Swar Aalap was stopped. “The magazine was subscription based and it needed a lot of effort which was difficult to put in – I needed advertisements and time – both of which were difficult to invest at that point of time. I am not carved out to be a businessman. I am a musician. It is not in me to have an advertisement department running for my magazine. Thus, I stopped Swar Aalap and started releasing compendiums like Unsung Heroes once a year with shows and events going on alternately.”