Prabha Atre, vocalist who challenged conventions of classical realm, passes away in Pune at 92

Besides a “sateek awaaz”, for the rasikas, what Atre will be most remembered for, is her famed HMV LP from 1971, one that dazzled the world of classical music with her rendition of raag Maru Bihag and raag Kalavati followed by the tender “Kaun gali gayo shyam”, the much-loved thumri in Mishra Khamaj.

Atre was 43 then, presenting one of her compositions, Tann mann dhan (raag Kalavati), which was not a norm with vocalists at such an early stage. This was a time when another classical singer, Kishori Amonkar, was a rising star in Maharashtra, national music conferences, and was finding a lot of attention and affection.

Atre held her own always and worked slowly and steadily to find her own path, including the idea of questioning her own art form. Probably because she didn’t belong to a family of classical musicians and didn’t face the pressure to act a certain way in and around the system.

Growing up in Pune with parents who were teachers, and no musicians in the family, wherein film songs weren’t considered a good thing, music happened by accident for Atre. Her mother wasn’t keeping very well when her father employed a harmonium guru to keep their minds off the illness. While her mother quit after a few lessons, Atre continued. In her teens, she went on to learn from Sureshbabu Mane, Ustad Abdul Karim Khan’s son, and later, after Mane passed away, from his younger sister, the legendary Hirabai Barodekar. While the Kirana gharana gave her a very strong foundation, Atre’s interest in other forms, especially the thumri, took her to learn from other gharanas as well.

While learning music, Atre graduated in science followed by a law degree. She joined All India Radio, Ranchi, as an assistant producer in 1960, where she was introduced to a variety of musicians and genres, including Carnatic classical and Western pop. She was fascinated by the music of Ustad Amir Khan, the founder of Indore gharana, Patiala gharana legend Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, and Roshan Ara Begum of Kirana gharana. This is when she was attempting to critically analyse classical music and exploring khayal through sargam, considered a more elementary concept in music. Atre headed the music department at SNDT University, Mumbai, from 1980-92. There she turned around the curriculum, making it broader in approach, allowing students to explore various genres of music.

Despite the famous HMV-recorded Maru Bihag, a series of concerts with precise grammar and technique, and a senior position at All India Radio, Atre is perhaps the least recorded artiste of her stature. “It’s all my fault. I just kept postponing it because I was busy with the sadhana of it, writing books, and teaching. I kept myself away from recording for Akashvani and Doordarshan. It just was more comfortable that way,” said Atre in an earlier interview. She never married and did not find it to be a requirement for her life. She performed and taught extensively.

In the world of classical music, there aren’t many examples of someone who was a full-time professor of music and retained much dominance in the performing field. Atre also taught and wrote several books, including Enlightening the Listener — Contemporary North Indian Classical Vocal Music Performance (Coronet Books Inc, 2000) — a guide to understanding the finer details of classical music.

After Pt Bhimssen Joshi retired in 2006, he asked her to take his place as the finale performer for the prestigious Sawai Gandharva Festival in Pune. She headlined the festival for 16 years, till 2022, a year when she also walked up on stage to receive her Padma Vibhushan. She won the Padma Shri in 1990, and a Padma Bhushan in 2022. During her headliner performance of Sawai Gandharva Festival in 2022, Atre presented raag Bhairavi — the raga of separation that always brings down the curtains to a mehfil — her voice a tad strident but with flourishes of brilliance still, as she smiled and pulled the presentation together for those who came in droves to listen to her.

In her autobiography titled Along the Path of Music, Atre wrote, “When I look at my life as a singer, I feel that my entire life has been a mehfil…. One walks ahead in life all alone, one experiences moments of success and failure with equanimity…. One starts seeing the other shore and is inwardly astounded that one has reached up to the point all alone when one suddenly turns around and glances behind to see a crowd of well-wishers bidding goodbye with tearful eyes and before one realises what is happening, the soul merges into the divine. This is what I have ever been wishing for.”