O(pi)nion Utthappa

I heard the Veer Zaara songs yesterday…. The soundtrack of the new Yash Chopra movie… based on the tunes composed by Madan Mohan and sung by Lata and others… You know… Sometimes there comes a moment that reinforces one’s belief… this was one of those moments. I had a conversation with a friend of mine the other day… about a biography of Balgandharva that I was reading at the time. I told him about how, in the twilight days of his career, he still used to perform his pet role of Sindhu in Ram Ganesh Gadakari’s ‘Ekach Pyaala’. He was paralyzed in one side of his body and could not even stand at times… and then he used to perform sitting in a chair!! And the shows were still sold out… (Or ‘house full’ as we call them)!!! No doubt it shows the enormous affection he commanded from a Marathi man and mind….and no doubt what people were there for was his singing and not the ‘play’ per say…but we should also note that even his voice was way past its zenith at that time. This is mid 195...