Family Matters

Rajiv,who is an independent filmmaker,has written the screenplay for the documentary and will begin filming soon. “I had thought of doing this on a relatively bigger format when Baba was alive. But now that he is no more,we will have to make-do with old footage and photographs. As it is,there are not many interviews available of him since he was an extremely private person,” he says.

This film will include some old recordings of Khan’s workshops and classes in the US and India,apart from some rare pictures of him with his sister Annapurna Devi and guru bhai Pandit Ravi Shankar. There will be interviews with the doyens of classical music talking about Khan saheb. “Apart from his professional life,the film will also touch upon his personal life. I want to show that behind a strict guru and a reclusive musician,there was an extremely loving father and grandfather,who would be a completely different person around his grandchildren,” says Aneesha.

The documentary will give a peek into Khan’s childhood too,including his training under his father and guru,Ustad Allauddin Khan. It will trail him to Jodhpur where he became the court musician in Maharaja of Jodhpur’s palace and then move on to Mumbai where he went on to work as a salaried musician with Navketan films. He founded the Ali Akbar College of Music in Kolkata in 1956 and later began teaching in California and Switzerland. The documentary is expected to be ready by January 2011.

The film apart,Aneesha will also host a two-day tribute concert in October,in Mumbai,where her brother Aashish Khan and Asha Bhosle will perform Ali Akbar Khan’s bandishes.