Gauhar Jaan, the flambuoyant Hindustani musician who cut the first gramophone record in India, was resurrected and brought back into currency by the young writer, Vikram Sampath.
What is now making news is that the apparently academicorineted book, ‘My name is Gauhar Jaan!--the life and times of a musician’ , is going into re-print, the first edition having sold over 2,000 copies.
“India seems to be once again waking up to the strains of the first diva and superstar of the country”, is the reponse of this die-hard fan of Indian history and culture.
As interesting is that Vikram has begun working on his next book — an authorised biography of an Indian musician, a legend in his times. He is the only Indian among 45 scholars drawn from across the world from varied disciplines, for the visiting fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Study in Berlin. “The three-month fellowship will help me unearth some early recordings of Indian music, as the archives of Indian music are supposed to be very well-maintained there. This will be another source for my prospective book”, says Vikram.
Some well-known filmakers have approached Vikram, seeking rights to make a feature film on the life of Gauhar, based on his book. There have also been enquiries to adapt the book to theatre. “I would be thrilled to see my heroine Gauhar on celluloid and recreating for us the magic that her life was!”, says the writer. It is 80 years since Gauhar died in anonymity in Mysore, and her cult status is now being rekindled.