National Award of the Other Kind!

Last year I composed music for a movie called BALGANDHARVA, which was in my mother-tongue, Marathi. The movie was based on a legendary singer and actor on the Marathi stage. He acted in women's roles as in his time stage was taboo for women. Balgandharva himself was a prolific singer and the most difficult task for me was to find the perfect casting for his voice. To say the least Balgandharva was a miracle and miracles cannot be replicated!!

However, after a torrid hunt, I found Anand Bhate, a singer par excellance! Anand had been a child prodigy and had imbibed Balgandharva's style of music at a very young age. 

The movie contained 21 songs, 17 of which were classics which had been sung by Balgandharva himself. We had to recreate the tracks as the original recordings were almost a century old and not in good condition. I had to, apart from these 17 songs, compose 4 new songs for the movie. One of the original compositions was a spiritual song and was to be filmed on the character of Balgandharva himself. 

As luck would have it, it was this original song called CHINMAYA SAKAL HRIDAYA, that won Anand Bhate all his awards including the National Award, the highest award in all languages among Indian films released this year. And as luck would have it, I didn't win a single award for the composition of this song as none of the jury recognised it as an original song!! They all thought that this was actually a Balgandharva song from the bygone era!

My moment of victory came when Anand Bhate, while receiving the National Award was asked to sing this song in the Rashtrapati Bhavan (The residence of the President of India) and he announced that while everybody thought that this was a Balgandharva original this song has actually been composed by me!

I am presenting the song here. The lyrics of the song are spiritual. What the song says is this - "Cleanse me of all my impure thoughts and set me on the path of righteousness."

Do give your feedback and please do share the song if you like it.

http://www.reverbnation.c..pen_graph/song/12460110

Yes, Yes, Yes.




Thanks for sharing this music, it's emotion, and your story of how the project came to be produced.

When the vocals began it gave me a chill and goosebumps. You found a great singer.

This song features fantastic production work... it is so slick I can see why people might take it for granted. It's smooth and luxurious.

Thank you so much for sharing!!!!


all the best,
mike

Awesome! Top shelf. Nice job. 

Very exotic for a change of pace around here.  I agree with all the above statements.  You have a winner.