Now that the title has (hopefully) got your curiosity going, let me assure you that this post has nothing to do with philosophy or with unraveling the great mystery that is life. After all, neither am I any great shakes in talking about the philosophical and nor do I want to have this post (my first after over a month – the blogging tempo needs to be pushed every now and then !!) to talk about something that I myself am not very adept at. Anyways, before I digress, the title of the post is a close translation of ‘आयुष्यावर बोलू काही..' a musical evening presented by the well-known music director Dr. Salil Kulkarni and the poet Sandeep Khare.
And Salil-Sandeep do a great job of talking of about life in various hues and colours. I had seen the show on TV a couple of times but, to my great delight, got a chance to see it in person during the recent Ganesh festival at my in-laws place (Shastri Hall), as part of their Sarvajanik Ganpati. For about three hours, Salil-Sandeep take the audience through the complete variety of life. Starting with the title track (‘आयुष्यावर बोलू काही...’), they wind their way through the various human experiences, be it romance (‘ढिपाडी ढिपांग....’), pathos (‘नसतेस घरी तू जेव्हा...’), the joy of nature (‘सरीवर सर ...’) or the playful joy of childhood (‘Superman’, ‘अग्गोबाई ढग्गोबाई ...’ – this seems to be their particular specialty). Interspersed with the songs is the poetry recitation by Sandeep in his deep baritone, often adding that extra zing. The show has been going strong since 2003 and it held its 500th show last June in Pune. In fact, the one that I saw in Shastri Hall was the 650th.
Some of my personal favourites are:
a. ‘मी पप्पांचा ढापून फोन ….’: Don’t all children like cellphones and often sneak their parents phone and start playing with it ? Here, Salil-Sandeep bring alive the playfulness of a child randomly calling people with his Pappa’s phone. Watch especially how the mood of the song changes from the playful to the dead-serious in the last stanza (without any change in the background music) when the child accidentally dials the Almighty and asks for his ‘Appa’ (grandfather) to be sent back.
b. ‘मी मोर्चा नेला नाही......’: A poem dedicated to most, if not all, members of the audience: typical middle-class Maharashtrians, content with life has given them and not having the slightest inclination to show aggression, either real of feigned. Sandeep presents the view of ‘just another common man’ with such conviction that the audience instantly identify with it. Note especially the comparison with the inanimate in the last stanza.
c. ‘दमलेल्या बाबाची कहाणी ….’: Probably the high point of the show. Salil-Sandeep take the show to its zenith in terms of raw emotional appeal by describing the gut-wrenching emotions felt by a father unable to devote time to this darling daughter. The lines of the poem are absolute gems, so much so that the audience almost seems shell-shocked by the end of it. Not to mention, hardly any dry eyes around.
