Ab to Madhav mohe ubaar
Posted on: November 22, 2012
This article is wrtitten by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Among the singers of devotional songs, one name that comes to my mind is Lakshmi Shankar. It was almost a daily ritual for me to listen to one of her devotional (bhajan) songs almost every day in the morning on All India Radio, Bombay (Mumbai). At that time, I had no inkling that she was a classical dancer and later a renowned classical vocalist of Patiala Gharana. I was not even aware that she belonged to the illustrious Shankar family.
Lakshmi Shankar (16/06/1926) was born in a Tamil Brahmin family belonging to Palghat (now in Kerala) but raised in Madras (Chennai). Since her childhood, she was interested in singing but her mother wanted her to be groomed as a Bharat Natyam dancer. At the age of 8, she learnt Bharat Natyam from Guru Kandappa Pillai in Madras. In 1939, Uday Shanker brought his troupe in Madras for a dance performance. Lakshmi Shankar was impressed by his fusion dances based on the classical Indian and the western ballet dances. In 1940, at the age of 14, she joined Uday Shankar’s India Cultural Centre at Almora for training in fusion dances. Apart from her own Guru Kandappa Pillai, the faculties consisted of some of the eminent Gurus like Shankaran Namboodri (Kathakali), Ambi Singh (Manipuri)and Ustad Allauddin Khan (classical music). Her dance classmates included three brothers of Uday Shankar – Rajendra to whom she was married later), Devendra and Ravi and others like Guru Dutt, Zohra Sehgal, Ruma Guha Thakurta etc.
In 1944, due to paucity of funds, the India Cultural Centre was closed down and Lakshmi Shanker’s family shifted to Bombay (Mumbai). She joined Hindi and Tamil film industries as an actor and playback singer. She even directed dance sequences in a couple of Tamil films. Unfortunately, due to a serious health related problem, doctors had forbidden her from dancing. On the advice of Pandit Ravi Shankar, her brother-in-law, she decided to become a Hindustani classical vocalist. Madan Mohan who had taken her as playback singer for the film ‘Mastaana’ (1954), introduced her to Ustad Rehman Khan of Patiala Gharana. She was under his training for nearly four years. During this period, she also completed her graduation in Music under the guidance of Professor B R Deodhar and received musical training from Pandit Ravi Shankar as well. Her earlier training in Carnatic music facilitated her to complete the Hindustani classical music training much earlier than anticipated period of about 5-6 years.
After completion of her training in Hindustani classical music, she gave her first public performance in Calcutta (Kolkatta) in 1957. Since then, she is known for her thumri, khayal and devotional singing. In 1962, she became a part of Pandit Ravi Shankar’s musical troupe and travelled all over the world for assisting him in his performances. Over a period of time, she became one of the lead vocalists in Pandit Ravi Shankar’s troupe. In one of her interviews (probably taken on the occasion of her 75th birthday), she revealed that her first public performance outside India was in London where Pandit Ravi Shankar made her to sing a couple of Hindi devotional songs to the audience who were mainly foreigners. She was very skeptical about this performance to the audience who did not understand a word of Hindi. But to her surprise, her singing went on for nearly two hours and at the end of each of her rendering of devotional songs, she got a huge applause. During the intermission, some of people from the audience told her that though they did not understand Hindi but they could understand the implicit meaning of the songs mainly due to her emotional rendering, expressions and gestures – qualities she inherited from her dance training. A few years later, she recorded some devotional songs in English. I have one LP (1974) containing one of her devotional songs in English written and composed by Pandit Ravi Shankar. The first stanza reads like this :
I am missing you o Krishna
where are you?
though I can’t see you
I hear your flute all the while
please come wipe my tears
and make me smile.
A highlight of this song’s recording was that Pandit Ravi Shankar assembled renowned musicians for orchestration. Apart from George Harrison, who conducted the orchestra and Pandit Ravi Shankar himself at Sitar, Allah Rakka (Percussion), Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma (Santoor), Hari Prasad Chaurasia (Flute), Ustad Aashish Khan (Sarod) and Dr L Subramaniam (Violin) were the part of the orchestra. Probably, this may be one of the rare occasions for any singer and a honour for Lakshmi Shankar to sing the song with a galaxy of high profile musicians providing background music and musical interludes for the song. Here is the audio clip of the Krishna bhajan I am missing you .
For many years now, Lakshmi Shankar has made Los Angeles her home and has been teaching Indian classical music to American students. By the way, Lakshmi Shankar’s daughter Vijaylaxmi was married to Dr L Subramaniam, the renowned Indian classical and fusion violinist. Later, he married playback singer Kavita Krishnamurthy in 1996 after the untimely death of his first wife in 1994.
While Lakshmi Shankar gave playback for about a dozen Hindi films like ‘Aandhiyan’ (1951), ‘Mastaana’ (1954), ‘Teen Bhai’ (1955), ‘Sultana Daaku’ (1956), ‘Yahudi Ki Beti’ (1956), ‘Idd Ka Chaand’ (1964), ‘Do Boond Paani’ (1971), ‘Bawarchi’ (1971) etc, for me, her name is synonymous with devotional singing and she excels in this genre of singing. Listening to her devotional songs with sweet tonal voice at higher octaves take me more closure to the Almighty than visiting the temples. Take for instance her Krishna bhajan ‘ab to Madhav mohe ubaar ……..Nath Deenanath Krishna mat laggao der’. She has rendered this bhajan with such emotions and devotions that if Lord Krishna appears before her, I will not be surprised J.
‘Ab to Madhav mohe ubaar’ was penned by Saraswati Kumar Deepak and composed by Murli Manohar Swarup. Since I had heard this bhajan in my younger days, I guess, the record of this bhajan may have been released sometime in the 60s.
Listening to this non-filmy bhajan is a pure bliss.
Song-Ab to Madhav mohey ubaar (Laxmi Shankar NFS)(1960) singer-Laxmi Shankar, Lyrics-Saraswati Kumar Deepak, MD-Murli Manohar Swarup
Lyrics
aa aa aaa
aa aa aaa
aa aa aa
ab to Madhav mohey ubaar
ab to Madhav mohey ubaar
ab to Madhav mohey ubaar
diwas beete
rain beeti
baar baar pukaar
aa aa aar
ab to Madhav mohey ubaar
naav hai majhdhaar bhagwan
teer kaise paayen
ghiri hai ghangor badli
paar kaun lagaaye
ab to Madhav mohey ubaar
ab to Madhav mohey ubaar
ab to Madhav mohey ubaar
kaam krodh samet trishna
rahi pal chhin gher
Naath Deenaanaath Krishna
mat lagaao der
ab to Madhav mohe ubaar
daud kar aaye bachaane
Draupadi ki laaj
dwaar teraa chhod kar
kis dwaar jaaun aaj
ab to Madhav mohey ubaar
ab to Madhav mohey ubaar
ab to Madhav mohey ubaar
8 Responses to "Ab to Madhav mohe ubaar"
November 22, 2012 at 12:41 pm
Heard many times. Nice to hear her again. And again. She has avery good modulated voice, which as a dulcet quality. Great thing about her is does not sing a typical Tamilian style like the great Subbalaxmi. In fact we feel like she is from Banaras gharana. Great voice full of devotion and empathy.
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November 22, 2012 at 4:00 pm
Thank you so much Sadanand-ji. Though I love this ‘bhajan’ very much, mention Lakshmi Shankar and the song that comes to my mind is that breezy Rafi-Lakshmi duet, “Jhoom jhoomke do deewane gate jaye gali gali…” from ‘Mastana’. And as Nitin-ji has so rightly mentioned, she didn’t have that typical Tamilian style of singing like M S Subbalakshmi. Lakshmi Shankar’s voice was so different from the ‘established’ voices of Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosale and Geeta Dutt. Another singer I love is Lalith Deulkar. Her voice too was so different. Which is probably why I still adore these two singers.
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November 22, 2012 at 4:44 pm
Kamath ji,
Thanks for discussing one of the bhajans I used to hear frequently on Radio,in the 60s.
Laxmi Shankar had a very different type of voice.Neither a south indian nor a north indian-sort of a hybrid.This may be due to her style also which was developed by learning from established stalwarts of north and her original southern tone.
Whatever be the case,her ‘Mastana’ song with Rafi under Madan Mohan’s baton(as Menon ji said),Jhoom Jhoom ke do deewane,has left her indelible stamp over HFM,for ever.
She gave playback in films with long gaps and hence in 21-22 years she sang only about 50 songs in 20 films only.
-AD
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December 2, 2012 at 7:37 pm
Laxhmi Shankar also sang a couple of songs written by Pt. Narendra Sharma in Aandhiyan a Navketan film in 1952. The music of this film was given by Ali Akbar Khan. She also rendered a thumri in the company of Nirmala Devi in that film. Both songs became instant hit those days.
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December 2, 2012 at 7:40 pm
P.S. Both the songs by Laxmi Shankar in Aandhiyan deserve to be included in Atuls song if not included already.
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July 18, 2013 at 7:49 pm
Lovely bhajan so soothing and mesmerising I keep on listening to it again and again
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April 2, 2021 at 12:21 pm
I used to listen this bhajan in my childhood days The sum a:::a:::a::especially touched my heart and was very near to my heart but after words it went into oblivion for a long time as I was totally enveloped and later engulfed by the chores of livelihoods and familylife And one fine morning I suddenly got immersed in the tune and searched Google. Technology has immensely influenced our emotional world It came as a divine grace.The rendition gives me ecstatic experience and heavenly bliss.I feel as if I am not of this world but in the lap of Almighty KrishnaThanks everyone!Vivek Vivek
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
November 22, 2012 at 10:32 am
Sadanandji,
Aabhar shabd bahut chhota padega. Bachpan mein radio pe ye bhajan bahut suna thha. Ab Yt mein sunti hoon. This is one of THE BEST bhajan in my list along with her Kabir bhajan “Maati kahe kumbhar ko tu kya roonde mohe…..” Thank you for the bhajan and info about the singer.
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