New Delhi, Nov 10 (PTI) 'He played sarangi like no other', 'a peaceful and wonderful musician' or the one who gave up the fame and glory of Hindi film industry for the sheer love of classical music is how eminent personalities from the field of music paid tributes to the Sarangi maestro Pandit Ram Narayan. Narayan, widely credited for elevating the status of humble sarangi as a concert solo instrument in Hindustani classical music, died at his Mumbai residence on Saturday. He was 96.
The Padma Vibhushan awardee, who played the bowed instrument in several classic Hindi films including "Mughal-e-Azam", "Madhumati", "Pakeeza", "Gunga Jumna" and "Kashmir ki Kali", worked with the All India Radio in Lahore and Delhi during the mid-1940s, before migrating to Mumbai in 1949. Born in Rajasthan on December 25, 1927, to a family deeply entrenched in classical music, Narayan found immense success in Bollywood before ultimately bidding farewell to the film industry to devote himself fully to classical music. "He was playing in the film industry and there were music directors like Madan Mohan, and others, who would not record if he was not there.
He gave it all up and decided to play Sarangi in concerts across India and internationally," Narayan's student and well known playback singer Kavita Krishnamurty told PTI over phone from Sri Lanka Later, he recorded several albums, and made his first international tour in 1964 to the United States and Europe with his older brother Chatur Lal, a t.
