Bhimsen Joshi

Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi was born on 4th February 1922, in Ron Karnataka India, to parents Gururaj Joshi ( his father authored the Kannada to English dictionary) and Godavaribai (she was a home maker). He was the eldest among his sixteen siblings. Bhimsen lost his mother at a very young age and was raised by a step mother. Bhimsen had an attraction towards musical instruments like harmonium and tanpura. He would often follow processions that’d be accompanied by Bands. In the process he’d get so tired that he’d sleep somewhere on his way home. His parents would search for him and report to the police.

His father was so tired of the exercise of searching for him every other day that he wrote on Bhimsen's shirt – ‘son of teacher Joshi’. This worked as people who found Bhimsen would bring him back home. When Joshi heard about Abdul Karim Khan's “piya tum bin nahi aavat chain” he got inspired to become a musician and thus began his search for a guru. He travelled to north India and for three years he travelled various states like – Delhi, Gwalior, Lucknow and Rampur. He got admitted to Madhava Music School. A school run by the Maharajas of Gwalior; he got admission with the help of famous sarod player Hafiz Ali Khan.

Somehow his father found him in Jalandhar and got him back home. His first teacher in music was Agasara Channapa of Kurtakotihe who had trained the famous veteran singer Innayat Khan. Then he went to Pandit Samacharya Joshi of Bagalkot, who was a priest and a classical singer. He taught Joshi both singing and playing harnonium. When Pt. Sawai Gandharwa agreed to be his teacher in 1936, Joshi had to stay with him at his house like the traditional Guru and shishya. In the year 1941 when Joshi was just 19 he gave us first live performance. His debut album was released in 1942 which contained devotional songs in Hindi and Marathi.

The album was released by HMV. In 1946 Joshi performed at a concert to celebrate the 60th birthday of his guru. This performance won him appreciation of both his Guru and the audience. Joshi’s performances have been noticed by many critics like S.N. Chansrashekhar from the Deccan Herald; the Hindu published an article dedicated to his Bharat Ratna win. Joshi used to occasionally employ the use of Tihais and sargam and often sang traditional composition by Kiranagharana.

His music often exhibited sudden change in the phrases and some of the most beautiful and popular Ragas by Joshi include – Shuddhakalyan, Bhimpalasi and Darbari. His influence has been on various musicians including Smt. Kesarbai Kerkar Kesarbai Kerkar was a Hindi vocalist based in Indi >> Read More... , Begum Akhtar Begum Akhtar’s birth name was ‘Akhtari Bai Faizaba >> Read More... , and Ustad Umair Khan. Bhimsen Joshi was famous for his Kannada, Marathi and Hindi Bhajans. He included his own singing in various styles and Gharans. Bhimsen sang Patriotic songs like Mile sur mera tumhara (1988), and Jana Gana Mana on the 50th Republic Day with A. R. Rahman. He has sung for various films like – Basant Bahar(1956) with Manna Dey Manna Dey is one of the greatest Indian classical >> Read More... , in Tansen (1958), Birbal My Brother (1973), and Ankhen (1985).

He won a national film award for the best playback for this movie. Bhimsen married twice; his first marriage was in 1944 with the daughter of his maternal uncle Sunanda Katti. The he married his co-star Vatsala Mudholkar. He has kids with both his wives and while all of them stayed in the same house, due to some issues his first wife started living separately eventually and he’d go to meet her and his kids.

Joshi was admitted to Sahyadri Super Speciality Hospital for bacterial infection and gastro intestinal bleeding on 30th December of 2010 where he died 25 days later on 24th January of 2011. He had to his name a Padma Shree (1972), Padma Bhushan (1985), Padma Vibhushan (1999), first platinum disc (1986), Bharat Ratna (2008) among others.