Ramanand, Well said there and I agree with you fully. This year's awards were by far the best national awards in my memory. True, we are all sad that ARR didnt win it, but I do believe that Ashok Patki and others deserved the recognition every bit.
I managed to hear the "Couplets of Heer" which gave Gurudas Mann the award for Best Male singer and I was blown over by his spirited rendition of the song. Btw, I thought it was Louis Banks who composed "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara". Please correct me if I am wrong. -Vinod --- In [email protected], "J Ramanand" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > [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 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >
