Legendary Indian classical vocalist from Mewati gharana Pandit Jasraj was felicitated with the Pu La Deshpande lifetime achievement award.
“To be feted with the Pu La Deshpande lifetime achievement award is a huge honour for me. The award is not only named after a great writer, but also a legendary musician,” said Pt Jasraj, who was honoured by noted writer Da Ma Mirasdar during the 10th edition of Pulostav on Wednesday.
He added, “Though Padmabhushan awards are given by the government, the importance of the Pu La Deshpande Lifetime achievement award is similar.”
“Pu La was a hasya samrat, musician, actor, director – a chaumukha artiste. Give him a pen, a tanpura or a harmonium, he would do full justice to it,” he said.
Panditji also had the opportunity to have Pu La as his audience. “When I had sung in a mehfil held at Chandrakant Godse’s residence for three hours, Pu La was left speechless.”
Pt Jasraj, who is also judging a reality show said that for youngsters, fame and money is just like a toy. “They get fed up with it soon. Apart from Abhijit Sawant not many have made it big through reality shows,” said the legend.
According to him, classical singers these days don’t perform for long hours. “I have sung for six to eight hours at a stretch but now a days, in big cities, nobody has time to listen to music,” he said
Mirasdar had the audience in splits by narrating the memories of PK Atre and Pu La. “While the humour of Atre used to be personal and hurting, Pu La’s humour was never personal. Though Atre taught Maharashtra to laugh, Pu La gave it a sophisticated status.”
