Vishal Bhardwaj
My learning with Vishal ji
I still remember the year 1996 when I bought the audio cassette of “Maachis”. I was highly mesmerised and I am still in awe of all the songs and background score composed by Vishal Sir. I think the music of Maachis really was the beginning of a new musical era. I have witnessed Vishal Sir closely while working with him as an assistant and accompanist for various projects. I have learnt so much from him. Whenever I think about him, he seems like an ocean of knowledge, discipline, and hard work. For me he is an enlightened soul carrying a never ending spirit and thirst for creativity. He is an example of true spirit for the youth of our country. His persona and his work keep inspiring us to learn and explore more.
I am always amazed with his approach to looking at poetry, selecting a specific chord for a certain mood, designing an interesting chord progression that suits the emotion of the composition, extremely well designed thoughts of Indian music embedded with beautifully arranged western harmony. His selection of words and their sounds, the way he justifies the words in terms of phonetics and pronunciation, the way he narrates the story in his compositions, the way he does the ornamentation of a particular phrase, his own rendition of a melody where he rides the melody with his unique expression, and many things will stay with me forever as lessons.
His extreme sensibility that he expresses through his works keeps on inspiring the young musicians of our country. I am blessed and thankful to Vishal Sir for every bit of poetry, music, discussions, debates, teachings, laughter, and an unconditional love for me. I will try my best Sir. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
