Blessed to have inherited the rich musical lineage from the maestro himself, Dilip learnt the nuances of playing the Santoor from his Guru, Padma Vibhushan Pt. Shivkumar Sharma.
Santoor and Pandit Shivkumar Sharma are synonymous. He brought Santoor out of obscurities of Himalayas and through numerous modifications in the precursor and folk music instrument, Guruji has been solely responsible for the position Santoor today holds in the realm of Indian classical music. In the hands of Guruji, Santoor takes on a much wider range of expressiveness leading to its acceptance as a solo instrument. No concert of classical music is complete without Guruji’s performance, which is a treat for the layman and the connoisseur alike. Every raga rendered by Guruji is unique and the audience is lost in the spell created by the charisma and rich musical experience. He always emphasizes that music is meditation for him and the concerts give him opportunity to witness the presence of God. He has also experimented with thematic music and contributed substantially to the Indian film music.
Guruji’s experiments with thematic music are equally exemplary. Guruji and the Santoor made an entry in Indian film industry with the film ‘Janak Janak Payel Baje’ by legendary director V. Shantaram in 1955. He went on to play the Santoor in background scores and in the interludes of songs for almost all the legendary music directors of his time. Guruji takes pride in explaining how demanding an interlude piece of a few seconds is to play with perfection, emotions and expressions.
Words fail Dilip when he tries to express his feelings for his Guru. He says, “Guruji is my ideal not only in the field of music, he is my ideal in life too. His delightful personality alongside the divine music he creates, makes Guruji one of the most loved and respected musician of all times. Inspite of scaling the heights of fame, he continues to experiment with the Santoor. He has a tremendous sense of humour and loves to share experiences with his loved ones. I have been so fortunate to have had the privilege of travelling and spending a lot of time with him and he has always treated me like family.”
CO-PERFORMANCES WITH GURUJI
Dilip has had unique opportunities to co-perform with his Guruji, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma in a few prestigious music festivals. These performances include ‘Swara: Music for Life’, organized by Banyan Tree Events at Nagpur; “Life Story of a Legend” organized by the Times Music group at Mumbai & Delhi; ‘Raga Rasa Rang’, a unique thematic concert at NCPA, Mumbai & ‘Adi Anant’ at Pune; ‘Riyaz Aur Taleem’ organized at Mumbai by NCPA and at Pune organized jointly by the Lalit Kala Kendra & Ganvardhan, Pune.
“Protegee of Pt. Shivkumar Sharma, Dilip Kale from Pune also joined his mentor after some time . The performance of the mentor protegee duo was not only soothing to the ears but also pleasant to the eyes of the audience . The jugalbandi performed by them left the audience awe strucked . ”
LIVE-CONCERTS CELEBRATING GURIJI’S CONTRIBUTION TO FILM MUSIC
Dilip holds the unique distinction of rendering the Santoor and recreating the music Shivji played in the films live by performing in the programs of film music in the presence of Guruji. A few of these programs includes ‘Silsila Santoor ka’, a show in which ~25 songs of Bollywood, originally rendered by Guruji, were performed live at Mumbai; a program to celebrate compositions of notable music director Late Khaiyam saheb at Mumbai in his presence; ‘Naino me badra chaye’ by Hamrahi, a concert of composition by Late Madanmohan ji at Pune; a live performances of the film songs directed by Late O.P. Nayyar ji at Pune in the presence of Guruji.
TALK SHOWS
Dilip was blessed to get an opportunity to interview Guru, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma in a live talk show at Pune which was designed by Dilip in collaboration with Mitra Foundation to offer a tribute to Giruji’s contributions to the Indian film industry. He worked hard from concept to implementation for the program titled ‘Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma - Live in Concert and Conversation: Beyond 100 strings’. This was a formal attempt to document Guruji’s long standing contributions in Indian Film Industry with three sections respectively reviewing his work with other music directors in Hindi, Marathi and SHIVHARI, his own music directions with Pandit Hari Prasad Chourasia.
In the talk show titled, ‘Lamhe’ at Nagpur and Dharwad, organized by Infinity events, and an event organized by Sanket, Mumbai titled ‘Dil Ka Bhavar kare Pukar’, Dilip had interviewed Guruji to unfold memories of associations with legendary music directors of Bollywood.
GURUPORNIMA CELEBRATIONS
Dilip has been instrumental in organising the annual Gurupornima celebration programs from 2006-2009 in Pune and 2009 onwards at the Chinmay Naad Bindu Centre, Kolvan, Pune and he performs every year.
OTHER COLLABORATIONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS
In 2018, Dilip collaborated with Mr. Sateesh Paknikar, a renowned photographer, on creating SwaraMaitra- a thematic feature calendar, celebrating the life and friendship of two legends Padma Vibhushan Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and Padma Vibhushan Pandit Hariprasad Chourasia, and it was published at Sawai Gandharva Music Festival. He also shared his experiences about Guruji in a coffee table book titles ‘The Legend of Santoor’ published by the Sri Satya Sai Premamrutha Prakashana.