The poignant voice of Begum Akhtar

Fri, 12 Feb 2021 09:30:35 +0000

There was a time when Doordarshan was the only television channel in India and there was no competition for TRPs. The state-run channel was used for government propaganda, but it also featured some of the country’s best-known Hindustani musicians. We had studio concerts in the presence of an invited audience, maestros were interviewed and there were also regular studio sessions without an audience that often left performers ill at ease. More importantly, these recordings were made only because knowledgeable producers, who were at times artistes in their right, took the pains to curate innovative programmes. Mercifully, some of these recordings have been resurrected and made available to music lovers.