‘I feel bad about it…’

While every parent would want their children to carry forward their legacy, due to the independent thinking that most youngsters have today, they choose to go in the opposite direction.

The case is the same in classical music maestro Pt. Pandharinath Kolhapure’s life. Being a father of three children – actor Padmini, Shivangi (wife of actor Shakti Kapoor) and actor Tejaswini, this 79-year-old gentleman goes down memory lane and tells us about his anguish. Though he’s a satisfied father today, now that his daughters are settled, sometimes he is a little unhappy about the fact that his children did not follow in his footsteps and learn classical music from him.

Pt. Pandharinath possesses a 100-year-old rudra veena that has been passed down to him by his father Pt Krishnarao (who used to play at Raja Phatesinghrao Gaikwad’s darbar) who got this priced possession from his guruji Khansahib Murad Khan (from Indore darbar).

Unfortunately for him, none of his children have learnt how to play the rudra veIena and so he doesn’t have a choice but to give it to someone who is passionate about playing this instrument.
He says, “Shivangi, Padmini and Tejaswini – kissi ne nahi sikha isse bajana. I feel bad about it. But yeh natural gift hota hai. Even if you look at Lata’s (Mangeshkar, who is Pt. Pandharinath’s cousin) house and my house, Hridayanath (Mangeshkar, Lata and Asha Bhosle’s younger brother) and I are the only ones who ventured into classical music. Even Lata got so busy with playback singing. But sometimes I feel, agar mere bacche mere peeche taanpura le kar gaate toh mazaa aata!”

He adds, “There is nothing like a family type of environment now. Everywhere families are separating. Everyone’s life is so busy. They don’t have even an hour to do riyaaz. But I believe that because I’m there, they (my children) have stayed well connected.”

Pt. Pandharinath is passionate about passing on his expertise — he has  dedicated disciples like actor Juhi Chawla and latest entrant Asha Parekh learning from him.