Forgotten by Bollywood but hopeful still

Prithviraj’s story starts from pre-partition Lahore and continues in Ambala where he learnt music from two `gurus’, Pandit Mathu Ram and Prof Chhote Lal. With sound knowledge of the `bhavas’ and mode of the musical notes, Prithviraj boarded the train to the asprants’ El Dorado in `63. He got wide exposure to the intricacies of Bombay’s film music world. He learnt violin and was an active ingredient of the orchestra for umpteen film scores. But his weak constitution could not withstand the rigours of Bombay life and he returned to Ambala in `69. But not before making an impact as a result of which he was signed up as music director for Karan J. Kumar’s `Atma Paramatma’in `72. “There were three songs sung by Rafi saab. Solo.

The cassette had been released and the songs were a regular feature on radio. Lekin film banee nahi.” And the string of `anbanee’ films followed. His next ventures were for Chandigarh-based directors. `Pawan Basanti’, one of them, had one song by him, sung by two newcomers from the region. Then came Shyam Juneja’s Punjabi film, `Pinga Pyar Diyan’, which had eight songs made by him. Its producer’s untimely death stopped the film midway.

And came the much-hyped film, `Shamma Ek, Parvane Do’, the advertisements of which were flashed on all leading film journals in `90.

But the director’s son died in the Mandal Commission agitation and he lost interest in the film. That film was also shelved.

Strange it may look, but then destiny’s aberrations nobody can stop. The frail man sings the old songs he made with such vigour and perfection that would make the new crop of music directors hang their heads in shame. “ Itna haseen sathi, itni haseen manzil..” when he sings this song Rafi had sung for him, he, at the age of 60, can still carry on with the high-pitched rendition.

Not one to run after work, his stay at the Ramakrishna Peeth campus is due to the kind courtesy of its octogenarian in-charge, Ishwar Devi Gupta. He used to get some money from tuitions but an accident in `96 put and to it. Nevertheless, Prithviraj has not put an end to his music career. Soon he wants to be off to Delhi with a mission to resurrect himself with a zeal that could be the envy of a youngster.

He had made a few cassettes here with local talents who, he says, have great potential.His first priority now is to market them in Delhi and to release albums of his violin recital.