It's called Bansuri Guru, and will go down in history as the authoritative chronicle of flautist Padma Vibhushan Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia's musical journey. The hour long documentary directed by his youngest son Rajeev, released in select theatres last Friday and is the Films Division's first project to release commercially under the PVR Director's Rare banner.
While two biographies on his life and times have already been published — Romance of the Bamboo Reed by Uma Vasudev and the 'authorised' Woodwinds of Change by Surjit Singh — Panditji's eldest son Vinay Chaurasia alleges that Bansuri Guru effectively obliterates the last traces of the 'other' family that they never wanted to acknowledge.
For both Vinay and Ajay Chaurasia, Panditji's sons from his first marriage to Kamala Devi, it's the life they have resigned themselves to: sons who didn't get their share of a father's love because he was busy with the 'other' family — his second wife Anuradha 'Angurbala' Roy and son Rajeev.
While Vasudev's biography published in 2005 mentioned his marriage to Kamala Devi, Singh's book published in 2008, allegedly at Rajeev's behest, paints a different picture. "It suggests that Panditji married my mother after his marriage to Anuradha," says Vinay. This, he argues, implies that he and Ajay are Panditji's illegitimate children.
Fifty nine-year-old Vinay, who works with ACC Cement, calls this the ultimate humiliation for his late mother who had dedicated her life to Panditji. "She was in her early forties when she passed away. Her last days were painful. She had to be hospitalised and although I was not financially stable back then, I did the best I could," he says when we meet at his modest flat in Andheri's JB Nagar.
When the second biography was published, Vinay and his younger brother Ajay filed a suit claiming a token compensation of Rs 1 lakh for misrepresentation of facts, and sought a permanent injunction restraining further publication of Woodwinds of Change in any other language or form. The case continues.
"I have nothing against my father, but why a second biography, what's the reason to try and change history? The truth is that my father married my mother in Allahabad before he moved to Cuttack and met Anuradha Roy. Back then, he was working with All India Radio, and when he was transferred to Mumbai, he and my mother moved here," says Vinay, who spent his early years at a boarding school in Deolali near Nashik.
"In a sense, my brother and I never had a normal childhood with our parents. Both of us lived in hostels, first for schooling and then for post-graduation. We'd come back home only for the holidays," he remembers. It's the reason he put his foot down when his own daughter Shruti, 25, decided she'd move to Bengaluru for a course in physiotherapy.
"Why be far away when she can study here and we can all be together," he asks.
Insiders say while Panditji married Kamala Devi in 1957, he got married to Anuradha on August 15, 1958 at a secret ceremony at the Katak Chandi Mandir. Soon after, he was ordered back to his home town Allahabad by his father. Surjit Singh's lawyer was quoted in the press at the time of the controversy saying that on his return to Mumbai, Panditji was with Kamala Devi, and three years later, on Anuradha's insistence, Kamala Devi, Vinay and Ajay moved in to the Chaurasia residence.
For Vinay, the humiliation is still ripe, when he says, "Our mother never once complained or asserted her rights. We were brought up to be grateful for what we got. Even that could have been denied. When my mother died, we were shifted out of the home to a small flat. It didn't even occur to us to ask why. We had known all along that it was just a matter of time. Being dispossessed was one thing, but to see my father speak to all and sundry without so much as glancing at us when we visited him was too painful. We want nothing from him. Hum to babuji ka sirf naam maangte hain. Today he wants to erase us from his life. He is a great man, a legend, but even he cannot undo history."
In an earlier interview, Rajeev Chaurasia justified the absence of the late Kamala Devi and hers sons from Bansuri Guru because "only those people connected to Panditji's musical journey are featured". Those in the know say attempts to erase Kamala Devi and her children from Chaurasia's life could be to ensure that there are no extra claimants to his fortune. Within weeks of Vinay and Ajay filing the suit, Panditji and Anuradha were at the Bandra court to register their marriage. The reason given was that Rajeev needed the document for official purpose.
Vinay's children, Shruti and Shreyas, 21, an MBA student, don't have it easy either, laments the father. "We make it a point never to discuss this matter in front of the children. They know things aren't normal. They can't visit their grandparents like other children can. I know he (Panditji) has a heart and it might pain him sometimes to see the state of affairs."
What brings a fleeting smile to his face is his daughter's impending wedding, for which he says he will invite Panditji. "Whether he decides to come is another matter."
By Saumit Sinh
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