Pandit Phiroze Dastoor : An Actor turned as Hindustani Classical Vocalist

Pandit Phiroze Dastoor : An Actor turned as Hindustani Classical Vocalist

Raag Kalavati is a simple but melodious Raaga which is being sung in the late night belongs to Khamaj thaat. While singing this Raaga Rishabh and Madhyama get omitted. This is romantic raaga which gives stress relief and serenity. Many hold the opinion that Kalavati is derived from Carnatic classical music and it is a new entrant in Hindustani Classical music. Even though this Raaga is not the part of the Kirana repertoire, many singers who have stabilized in Kirana Gharana popularised this Raaga. And Pandit Phiroze Bejanji Dastoor from Kirana Gharana has made it more popular. Normally, Kirana Gharana prefers to have slow-moving melodic elaboration and Pandit Dastoor elaborated this with slow emphasis on notes without undue repetition by using Taal  Jhaptal for small composition. His famous composition in this Raaga was Kahe Karat Raat.

From Yogesh Gogwekar.

Pandit Phiroze Bejanji Dastoor was born on 30^th September 1919 in middle class Parsi family in Mumbai. In that period, Parsi community used to follow the British model. Father of Pandit Dastoor was billiard player and used to run billiard parlor. He was fond of music and was having a good collection of music. Pandit Phiroze Dastoor started taking interest to listen the songs. After recognising his son’s talent, his father asked his friend film producer Jamshedji Wadia to offer him a role in film. Thus, he started acting in film from 1933 to 1947. He performed classical song as a child actor in film La-E-Yaman released in 1933. He acted in twenty films, but his passion was Hindustani classical songs. Therefore, he decided to concentrate on Hindustani classical Music.

After seeing his passion in classical music, film producer Jamshedji Wadia insisted him to learn the classical music and sent him to the Tabala Player Kamurao Mangeshkar who has introduced him to Sawai Gandharva who was Kirana maestro. In their first meeting Pandit Dastoor sang the composition of Raaga Bhairavi. Therefore, his master decided to teach him the same raaga instead of regular raagas taught to beginners. In the span of four years, Pandit Dastoor received rigorous training from Sawai Gandharva and at the age of 17, he performed on stage in All India Music conference held in Karachi. He was appreciated by Ustad Faiyyaz Khan and Pandit Omkarnath who were also participated as performer in this conference. His next best performance was in 1945 for All India radio Pune where he performed Raag Desi.

Besides Sawai Gandharva, Pandit Dastoor also learnt the music from Pandit Javkar and Pandit Kapileshwar. He had a sweet voice and slightly nasal and clear pronunciation. He always used to favour such raagas  which elaborated alap and fond of singing thumri. He was a scholar of Hindustani classical Music and never ever criticized other singers. He always used to say that before making any comments about any singer, we must hear him or her more than three times.

He had been appointed as a Professor in the Music Department by Mumbai University on 14^th February 1969 where he worked for 35 years. Based on his knowledge over swaras and shruties, he was very soft teacher and never used to lose the temper and would not stop till his student got the music in right way.

Pandit Dastoor was doyen of Kirana Gharana and also an expert in light classical music like Thumri and Dadra. He had been respected from all his contemporary singers. To give the respect to his Guru  Sawai Gandharva, Pandit Dastoor performed in Sawai Gandharva Sammelans which was being in Pune on every year from 1953  to 2008 and also work with Pandit Bhimsen Joshi to develop the Hindustani Classical Music. His disciples Pandit Shrikant Deshpande, Sudha Divekar, Usha Gokarn, Girish Sanzeiri and Uttara Kelkar are carrying out his music to next generations.

Pandit Dastoor had been honored by Sangeet Natak Academy Award, Mian Tansen Award and Gaurav Purskar of Maharashtra state. He died on 9^th May 2008 at his residence in Grant Road , Mumbai.

If anyone wants to know much more about him, please read the book titled as Freddy written by Dakshayani Ahthalye and Mandar Karanjakar.

I always enjoy his famous melody “Gopala Mori Karuna”. Salute to this great Hindustani classical singer.

Mumbai

29/05/2020