Rewind to Kumar Gandharva

Groomed by his grandmother Vasundhara, Bhuvanesh has a voice deeper in pitch than his grandfather’s, but with shades of the same octave range. The Devas (near Indore)-based musician also values the training he’s getting from Madhup Mudgal. ‘‘I’m a deep admirer of every aspect of Madhupji’s music, like his swar singing and his deep understanding of every raga,’’ says Bhuvanesh.

His father, the charismatic vocalist Mukul Shivputra, too, is no mean influence on the singer. ‘‘Whenever I meet him, Mukulji demonstrates the bandishes that Kumarji composed and sang so beautifully,’’ says Bhuvanesh. But how does he manage to blend the impact of his father and grandfather? The reply is evasive: ‘‘I refuse to agree that Mukulji’s and Kumarji’s music are on different planes. I’m trying to sing the pure classical music for which Kumarji was famous.’’

For all his awareness of the legacy, Bhuvanesh does not believe lineage buys any artiste credibility among the audience. ‘‘I think in the beginning, recognition comes because of the background, but then one has to live up to it,’’ he says. ‘‘There is a lot of pressure on any artiste who tries to carry on a family tradition to fulfill expectations.’’

Kumarji, Bhuvanesh acknowledges, studied Bal Gandharva’s repertoire intensively; his grandmother tried to pass on much of that knowledge to him, but the youth is reluctant to talk about it. ‘‘While there are no particular bandishes that I can enumerate off hand, suffice to say that having heard them from childhood, I remember almost everything that Kumarji put down in notation in two books Anup Raag Vilas parts one and two.’’

The applause has just begun.