Manju Mehta, doyen in India’s popular music festival breathes her last
Manju Mehta, doyen in India’s popular music festival breathes her last
Manju Mehta, was a fine sitar artiste, and played a crucial role in popularization o Hindustani music in Gujarat through the annual Saptak festival.
She wasn was not only a fine sitar artiste belonging to the Senia Maihar tradition, but was one of India’s most respected patrons of music. Shr is the Co-founder of the country’s largest music festival, the 13-day-long Saptak launched in 1980. Through this event, Manju Mehta returned to the world of classical music what she gained from it as a practitioner.
Jaipur born Manju belonged to a family of musicians. Her parents were Hindustani vocalists. Both her brothers, Shashi Mohan Bhatt was proficient in sitar and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt in Mohan Veena.
Although Manju initially learnt from her brother Shashi, she later trained under sitar maestro Pt Ravi Shankar her brother’s guru.
Manju also learnt from the Jodhpur-based sarodist Pt. Damodar Lal Kabra (the first disciple of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan) in the guru-sishya parampara and often spoke over that era of intense riyaaz, practising around six hours a day, and playing the same raag repeatedly.
After tying the knot to tabla maestro Pt. Nandan Mehta, (disciple of Banaras gharana doyen Pt. Kishen Maharaj), Manju shifted base to Ahmedabad, and along with her husband established Saptak into a formidable cultural organisation. She took a decade’s sabbatical from stage performances. Following the untimely passing away of her husband in 2010, she spent much of her time in managing Saptak, particularly its popular festivals, music school and archival section.
It would be no exaggeration to say that the simple and affable Manju Mehta played a vital role in the promotion of Hindustani music in Gujarat. And she was the first woman performer to be honoured with the Madhya Pradesh Government’s Tansen Samman in 2018, the Kolkata-based ITC Sangeet Research Academy award in 2019 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 2022.
Treasuring the authentic baaj of her gharana, with the focus on the dhrupad ang aalap and jor, Manju Mehta’s sitar playing stood out for its traditional appeal. Her daughter Purvi plays the sitar, and Hetal the tabla, carrying forward the family’s musical legacy.
News Edit K.V.Raman
