Ravi - An icon in Indian celluloid musical world

K.S. Sivakumaran

Humility sat on his aging frame. The inward soul blossomed with beaming smiles when one spoke with him at close quarters, Yes, the rare opportunity of meeting the evergreen maestro of Hindi film music - Ravi Shankar Sharma - occurred on Monday last (March 2, 2010) when we met him at Colombo Hilton with a score of special admirers of him making their way to shower their exuberant enthusiasm towards his soul music that had haunted young and old since the 1950s.

Not to be confused with the internationally known sitarist Ravi Shankar, the celluloid music magician, as one would call him, is simply called himself "Ravi" who created melodies in more than 200 films in many languages in India.

This Grand Old man of 83 with a youngish countenance and an impish smile was telling us all (it was difficult to have a one to one interview with him, as he was tied having arrived only that morning from Mumbai) how an electrician from Dilli (Delhi) came to the then Bombay in late 1940s to act in films that could not materialize. Ravi could sing beautiful songs even in the 1930s when he was a boy. He still looks handsome with a curly haired 'Yankee Bump' in fashion those days. He could have become an actor like the indomitable Dev Anand or a character actor like Dilip Kumar, but that was not to be, because he was destined to be a music director of immense talent and originality. When he reminisced his glorious past his indelible memories came to the fore thus radiating his inner soul as he underscored the fact that it was the Almighty's entire gift.

His musical career spans a period between 1930 and 1975. He started his career as an assistant music director in films and blossomed to be a lovable composer of superior melodies that still linger in our ears if we are now senior citizens. But the young amongst us know his music, the tunes in the form of songs in Sinhala rendered by our own singers. The breakthrough as a fully fledged music director came in 1953 when he composed the music for the film"Vachan". Since then he has composed film music in many Indian language films. But he said that he enjoyed tuning up the melodies bereft of heavy orchestration as blasted in contemporary film music. He feels that in Malayalam language films the modern day 'beat music' is absent and therefore he prefers to direct his innate talents towards composing music for Kerala films.

When asked whether he was instrumental in discovering Mahendra Kapoor as a singer he modestly said M K had his own gift to project. Ravi estimates the music of the late Chitalkar Ramachandra is to his liking. In Lanka there are innumerable listeners that love Hindi film music, particularly the haunting melodic songs of nearly half a century ago.

Among them are Ravi's compositions. The list is too long but songs in such films as Gumrah, just to mention one are marvelously enchanting.

With a brief 10 minute conversation with him one could gather only a few traits of his personality, but the totality of his humble nature and his creativity in those hard times came to light.

Admirers of Ravi's evergreen melodies would have the opportunity to listen to the songs composed by him sung by our local artistes on March 07 at the Sugathadasa Stadium sponsored by the Cultural Affairs and National Heritage Ministry and presented by the Old Hindi Film and Music Society.

Ravi who celebrated his 83rd birthday on March 03 would grace the occasion. Music lovers would be there to pay tribute to the modest but celebrated turner of lovely rhythms that would enliven us all.