Mumbai: Business dips, members of dying brass band struggle to survive
The members, all from different states including Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and some from distant districts of Maharashtra, spend their days in the wedding season at the Kalbadevi shop waiting for assignments.
A light moment among the artists of New Gandharva Brass band at Charni road. (Express Photo by Vignesh Krishnamoorthy.30 January 2018, Mumbai) 
A light moment among the artists of New Gandharva Brass band at Charni road.(Express Photo by Vignesh Krishnamoorthy.30, January 2018, Mumbai)
ONE of the 40 members of the New Gandharva Brass Band located in Kalbadevi, Ashram Hussain, says his salary is never enough. “My family depends on the tips we get,” he says. With 40 members including six masters, the New Gandharva Brass band is one of those that still offers services of trained performers with various brass instruments, wind instruments and drummers.
The members, all from different states including Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and some from distant districts of Maharashtra, spend their days in the wedding season at the Kalbadevi shop waiting for assignments.
One of the masters, Mahadev Kalane, 42, belongs to Amravati in Maharashtra. He says his father was a brass band player too, and that’s how he picked up the skills. “I grew up watching my father play with bands at weddings in Amravati. After finishing my basic school, I started accompanying my father to events. In a few years, I became a part of the band company too,” he says.
In the mid-1980s, Kalane decided to shift to Mumbai where the off-season is shorter. “Since 1988, I have been playing with the band in Mumbai. Between the early 1990s and about 2015, the brass bands were very popular. There would be four or five bookings every day during the wedding season. Nowadays business is quite slow,” Kalane says.
While the less expensive dhol-tasha groups are more popular during festivals, the big weddings now have DJs and their ensembles. In addition, the brass bands have also suffered recent losses in business.
“The major problems started since demonetisation. Earlier people use to hand over cash while we were performing, but since demonetisation, we don’t see that kind of money being spent on us by baaratis. Another problem is that these days big events are organised by event managers. I also think a city like Mumbai is not ready for a brass band anymore due to the traffic and noise pollution,” Kalane says.
Then there’s the problem of off-season when most band members return to their hometowns looking for other occupations. “Some of them return home to spend time with their families and perform in some events there, or they take up farming or handicraft. A few stay back and look for other work — some even take up painting jobs or work as labourers, that’s how they survive,” Kalane adds.
Ashraf Hussain, 32, from Madhya Pradesh, says the most important aspect for him is the tip. “We survive on tips we get while performing. That tip money is so important because we send that money to our family – the monthly salary is not enough. Every time we perform, we hope to receive a good tip,” says Hussain.
Pradeep More, owner of the band, says bands are on the verge of dying. “The reason is that the new generation is not much interested in brass bands, and it is not affordable. In the next 5-10 years, this business will be dead. Today we mostly get orders from Sindhis, Gujaratis and people from Uttar Pradesh. We hardly get 10 assignments a season from Maharashtrian families.”
Many band members have left, looking for more lucrative jobs. More has some cherished memories of the New Gandharva Band playing at top weddings, including that of some actors, and at events organised by top corporate houses.
However, for younger performers like Hussain, the off-season is the time to think about an alternative occupation.
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