Documenting a forgotten legend

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI, APRIL 5. This story about a legend had to be told. A man who mesmerised many in the audience with feminine roles is forgotten today. A whole generation of theatre buffs, caught up in a wide range of theatre productions in Marathi, do not remember Bal Gandharva, who was ``born to play feminine roles''.

The year 1989 was his centenary. But only those who knew him in his post-theatre period remembered him and, unfortunately, even their memories were faint.

But a documentary on him by Ms Haimanti Banerjee revives the memories of those who had not seen him act, but only heard of him. He played 35 roles in 30 years and then withered away.

The 36-minute documentary, made over three years, won her a national award recently. She focusses on the legendary artist, not on the person who in his later stage of life was crippled by financial woes and paralysis. It is the ``artist in him I wanted to be remembered. People who knew him wish to speak only of his troubles,'' she told The Hindu.

Originally known as Narayan Sreepad Rajhan, he got the name Bal Gandharva from Lokmanya Tilak after the latter listened to his rendition.

So captivating were Bal Gandharva's performances that aristocratic women tried to model their hairstyle after the characters he played.

In fact, the caps he wore, the soaps he used and the scents he preferred were branded and sold. Ms. Banerjee documents all these. But for want of enough first-person material from the past, the documentary leaves a viewer somewhat unfulfilled; but it meets the need of recording the greatness of an artist.

With the advent of talkies, Bal Gandharva performed many roles for Pune's famous Prabhat Pictures. His films like `Dharmatma', in which he played Saint Eknath, bombed. His admirers were so enamoured by his stage performances that they could not accept him in the role of Meerabai on the big screen. Bal Gandharva was disillusioned and abandoned films.

But he left behind a vast repertoire of natya sangeet - a typical Marathi genre - in which classical-mould music enraptured theatre-goers of the early 20th century.

As the saying goes, great stories are difficult to tell. Ms. Banerjee has tried hard to tell one.

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