Bhaskar Chandavarkar Biography 
Bhaskar Chandavarkar was a noted sitar player, music director and theatre composer. He got opportunity to work with many critically acclaimed film directors of Indian cinema belonging to different languages like Marathi, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali and Oriya. He had a unique talent to blend western tunes with Indian classical music. He received National award for best music direction for Marathi short film Chaitra in the year 2002. In 1975, he received Kerala State Film Award for Best Music Director for the movie, Swapnadanam.
Amol Palekar's Aakrit and Thoda Sa Rumani Ho Jaayen, Girish Karnad's Ondanondu Kaladalli, Jabbar Patel's Samna, Mrinal Sen's Khandhar, Vijaya Mehta's Rao Sabeb, Chitra Palekar's Maati Maay and K. G. George's Swapnadanam are among his noted works as a music director for Indian movies of different languages. Paroma (1984) in Bengali, Maya Miriga (1984) in Oriya, Vamsha Vriksha (1971), Ondanondu Kaladalli (1979) in Kannada, Shwaas (2004) in Marathi and Maya Darpan (1972), Khandhar (1984) in Hindi are other works.
Bhaskar was born in Pune in 16 March 1936. His childhood days were spent in his hometown. After graduation, he studied contemporary music. He got opportunity to study under sitar player Pandit Ravi Shankar and Umashankar Misra during late 1950’s. He also learnt Hindustani music, contemporary Western music and jazz. He served as a faculty in Film and Television Institute of India during the period 1965 – 1980. He composed the music of the acclaimed Marathi play Ghashiram Kotwal written by Vijay Tendulkar in 1972. He wisely used Marathi devotional songs to ironic situations for its compositions which was widely appreciated. When the play was adapted to a Marathi feature film, he composed its music as well. At the same time, he started giving music to films of different regional languages. He died on 26 July 2009 in Pune, after a prolonged illness.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 16, 2014
