Biography

Krishnaji Ganesh Phulambrikar (1898–1974), popularly known as Master Krishnarao, was a musical genius - an Indian vocalist, classical musician and composer of Hindustani music. He was credited with the creation of three Hindustani ragas and several bandishes. Phulambrikar, a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, was also the music composer of several movies, including Dharmatma, a 1935 Hindi film starring Bal Gandharva, a renowned Marathi singer and Padosi, a 1941 directorial venture of V. Shantaram. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1971, for his contributions to music. Krishnarao Phulambrikar was born in 1898 at Devachi Alandi, a town in the periphery of Pune, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra to the Deshastha Brahmin couple Ganesh Phulambrikar (who was Vedmurti) and Mathura bai. He also ventured into Marathi theatre as a child artist by performing as an actor-singer in Sant Sakhu, a musical drama produced by Natyakalapravartak Mandali. He also acted in other musical dramas produced by this drama company. And at this drama company, he first got a chance to learn Indian classical music from Sawai Gandharva who used to act in the musical dramas of this company. Later, he approached the renowned singer, Bhaskarbuwa Bakhale in 1911 who trained the young boy in Gwalior, Agra and Jaipur gharanas of Hindustani music and their guru-shishya relationship lasted till Bakhale's death in 1922. The tutelage under Bakhale also gave him opportunity to meet and get associated with Bal Gandharva, who would later go on to become a noted Marathi singer. His first solo concert was when he was 13 years of age (he was awarded the title of Sangeet Kalanidhi in 1930 by Jagadguru Shankaracharya Dr.Kurtkoti), which preceded several concerts in India and abroad, including a trip to China as a Government of India delegate in 1953.Phulambrikar served as the director of Pune Bharat Gayan Samaj, a music academy founded by his mentor Bhaskarbuwa Bakhale in Pune. Besides his career as a classical vocalist and as a film music composer, he scored music for several plays which included Menaka, Savitri, Asha-Nirasha, Amritasidhhi, Kanhopatra, Nand Kumar and Vidhi Likhit for Gandharva Sangeet Natak Mandali, a drama company founded by Bal Gandharva, during the period 1915–1933 and acted in a few of them. Later, he also composed music for a few plays such as Kulavadhu, Ek Hota Mhatara, Kone Eke Kali and Bhagyoday for Natyaniketan where the lead singer actress was Jyotsna Bhole. On the academic front, he compiled the compositions taught to him by Bakhale as well as his own compositions and published them as a 7-volume book, Raag Samgraha. Besides his notations are available in print under the titles, Rashtra Sangeet, Shishu Sangeet, Amar Sangeet, Mohan Maal, Natya Geet Notations and Chitra Geet Notations. He also tutored several musicians, film and drama artists. Ram Marathe, Yogini Joglekar, Saraswati Rane, Haribhau Deshpande, Anjanibai Kalgutkar, Madhusudan Kanetkar, Jaymala Shiledar, Dr.Pabalkar, Bapurao Ashtekar, Dattopant Bhope, Pitre buwa, Suhas Datar, Sudhakar Joshi, Ravindra Joshi, Mohan Karve, Rangnath Karkare, Shivram Gadgil, Balwant Dixit and his daughter, Veena Chitko are some of his notable disciples.