Music lovers across the world revere him. Some even see him as the incarnation of Lord Krishna. Such is Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia’s musical association with the flute. Now, people will know lesser-known facts about the maestro’s life in Bansuri Guru, a film made by his son, Rajeev Chaurasia. The documentary film was released by Films Division on April 12 took three years to materialise.
Not many people are aware that Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia was born in a family that had very little to do with music. That, he grew up in Allahabad without a mother; expected to become a wrestler instead of a musician. A young Hariprasad would practise kushti under his father’s guidance and then hide himself for his music riyaz. Rajeev, who has co-founded a start-up travel channel Explore Broadcasting after his long time association with Sony and MTV says he was disappointed initially when the family, given the responsibility by Films Division, couldn’t find a film-maker who could get into the skin of the subject. Rajeev decided to direct the film and the result was a 60 minute documentary, his directorial debut.
Bansuri Guru unravels Chaurasia’s childhood in Allahabad from 1938 to 1948. It explores his teen years in the same city as a young apprentice till 1958; his life in his 20s as an All India Radio musician in Cuttack from 1958 to 1961 and his stint in the Hindi film industry. “Glorifying him through the film would be a personal failure. I wanted to show the world what it does not know about Panditji. It’s about a boy who chases his dreams...a boy who is now 75 and is still chasing his dreams. It’s about his quest for excellence, his triumph against odds to achieve that one thing closest to him, his perseverance to excel and his destiny to master his passion,” he says. Rajeev has also captured Pandit Chaurasia’s eternal search for a guru. “I was an outsider to his world. Thanks to this film, we synthesized on the matters of the mind and the heart. This journey has added a new dimension to our father-son relationship,” adds Rajeev.
The film was shot in Allahabad, Mumbai, Bhubaneswar and The Netherlands. Amitabh Bachchan is one of the faceless voices in the movie. “It is a very personal film,” says Rajeev, “it shows Panditji, his students, his friends and well-wishers. One gets to see him doing a ballroom dance, having idlis with the son of his gardener, walking on the beaches of Ramchandi in Odisha.” Pandit Chaurasia has paid a tribute to Odisha in the film as this is where his musical career began.
Rajeev says his father allowed him freedom in filming. Was the hero of Bansuri Guru nervous during his first take? “Yes, like every hero in his debut film. But then I thought if Amitabh Bachchan can do it, why can’t I? At least I don’t have to do fight sequences like him...I just have to speak. After I saw the movie, I told myself arey wah, even I can act,” Pandit Chaurasia breaks into laughter. Today, the maestro continues to perform across the globe and trains disciples at his gurukuls in Mumbai and Bhubaneswar. Rajeev hopes that the audiences draws inspiration from his father’s life and experience their own journeys with Bansuri Guru.