With his brilliant technique and beautiful style, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia has become the internationally acclaimed flute (Bansuri) master of India. As a musician, Chaurasia is a rare combination of innovator and traditionalist and has significantly expanded the expressive possibilities of classical North Indian flute through his masterful technique and unique adaptation of alap and jor to the flute.

The master who transformed the simple bamboo flute into an important instrument for interpreting the finer nuances of Indian classical music spoke to Mumbaibest about new experiments in music, MTV trends and his successor.

You have colaborated with artistes like John McLaughlin to Jan Garbarek and, for your recent album, with Spanish guitarist, Vidal Paz. Do you think this fusion trend is going to effect our traditional sangeet in any manner ?

Everything I do has its basis in Indian Classical music. What other musicians and myself are doing is putting together music of different cultures, which enriches our own music . The base in such fusion music is traditionally Indian with a little bit of changes in the background music. It is akin to putting on the attire of a different country , while the soul, the heart never changes. We only change and modify the outer shell.

I have experimented this time with African music in my newly released album Hriday, Maya, Kali and Caravan. It touches the soul with sounds of drums, and a gypsy score. In fact, these albums transcend the boundaries of language and culture.

Today young people are following the MTV trend. Have we lost touch with our traditional culture? What do you have to say about this adopted culture?

Changes takes places, and people's attitude, and nature undergo a change constantly. I agree that we are witnessing a drastic change in our culture, but that I guess is for a very short period. I always believe that changes takes place in a cyclical manner. What is modern or the in thing today will be outdated tomorrow. So Indian classical music which has lost its impact on the Indian mass for the time-being, will be revived . This transformation will take place soon.

You tour the world regularly. What sort of response do you get abroad?

Believe me, the love and respect I get abroad is overwhelming. It is a pity, but it is true, that foreigners know more about our culture and music then we Indians do. They also pay us more (laughs). They have adapted to our style of living and music. They are going for khadi and cotton and we are running after synthetic clothes.

Under the Shiv-Hari banner, you have done the music for various Hindi movies like Silsila and Lamhe. Do you have any plans to return to Hindi Cinema?

Shivji and myself did most of our movies under the Yash Chopra banner. Today too, producers approach us with some good scores, but in today's music there is not much scope for melody. It is not as if I do not wish to perform music for Hindi cinema, but I am waiting for the right time, when the audience would be ready to accept the music..

All noted classical musicians choose a successor, maybe a son, daughter or student. Who is going to be your successor ?

My nephew, Rajesh Chaurasia is capable enough to be my successor. Right now he is learning under my guidance but he has lots more to learn. Anyway (laughing), I am not going to wind up so early. I have lots more to learn, discover, experiment, and I hope to give a lot more to my audience who has loved and encouraged me over the years.

Would you like to give a few words of advice to budding musicians?

Learning is an ongoing process, something that has to be accomplished. Strong determination and dedication, which I found lacking in today's youth, is the only means to reach your goal. All I want to tell the youth is that when you enter this field, do not expect instant success. You have to be patient and learn all the time.

By : Sharmistha Chakraborty
Photographer : Uma Kadam