Opinion Express View on Prabha Atre: Rebel with a raga
Atre questioned tradition, but also explored it through her music
The pièce de résistance was a bandish in Raag Kalavati, Tan man dhan, which has become one of the raga’s most popular renditions — much like Kishori Amonkar’s stellar presentation of another specimen of night music, Raag Bhoop. 
In the early 1970s, when the world of Hindustani classical music was swept by the Kishori Amonkar wave, an HMV record, Night Melodies by Prabha Atre, a 43-year-old singer from Pune, made a splash. Comprising three presentations — Raag Maru Bihag, Raag Kalavati and a thumri in Mishra Khamaj — that cut across gharanas, the record struck a chord with classical music enthusiasts across the country.
The pièce de résistance was a bandish in Raag Kalavati, Tan man dhan, which has become one of the raga’s most popular renditions — much like Kishori Amonkar’s stellar presentation of another specimen of night music, Raag Bhoop.
Atre, the Kirana gharana doyenne and among the more progressive Hindustani classical music artistes passed away in Pune at 91, just before she was to leave for Mumbai for a concert. She spent her life not just upholding the classical tradition but also questioning it.
Describing the idea of singing a raga at a particular time as redundant, Atre didn’t want to live in the inwardly world of sadhana alone. Riyaaz mattered, but so did her audience. She also liked delineating a raga through the use of sargam, considered declasse in the serious world of Hindustani khayal gayaki — also the topic of her PhD thesis.
After questioning the system — like Amonkar and Kumar Gandharva — Atre decided to speak about it through her books, conversations, performances and lectures, riling many musicians and critics. She was called a rebel.
Born to teacher parents, with no musicians or interest in music in the family, Atre’s singing talent was discovered by her father’s friend, who took her to Mumbai to learn from Sureshbabu Mane, Ustad Abdul Karim Khan’s son. After his unforeseen death, his sister, the legendary Hirabai Barodekar took over.
A science and law graduate, Atre had a long stint with the AIR, before heading the SNDT University’s music department, where she flipped the music curriculum, allowing students to explore various genres. “Why should they stick to only classical music,” she’d ask.
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