MUMBAI: Maybe we need to rethink before we say that the young generation doesn’t connect with the rich legacy of Indian Classical Music. There are lot of talented artists in Indian Classical Music, which we see time and again. However, the bigger problem is the depleting audience for this form music. The basic reason identified is “We don’t understand Classical Music”. The bigger reason is that there is no one to make this generation understand. Welcome, Anuja Kamat.
A young girl, all of 21, started an innovative initiative of starting a YouTube channel which helps you understand Classical Music or at least initiates you in it. Today three years later starting the ‘Out of the Shruti Box Channel’, Anuja is happy she followed her heart. “When I discussed with some of my friends, they advised me to start a channel that has trendier things or does cover songs, but not about classical music. They said you might not even get 100 viewers as this subject is not trendy. But I was sure that I wanted to do this,” says Anuja, a student of Sugam sangeet.
Today, for the unique concept done by a novice, Anuja has got an encouraging response and the channel has a subscriber’s base of over 81,000.
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But how did the idea begin? “While I was doing my Diploma course in Music from Mumbai University, I was trying to research and found that there are no simplified references. That’s when it struck me, that if the young generation wants to get initiated in classical music, there is nothing to look at,” she added.
The expanse of Classical Music is vast and can’t be condensed in episodes. Keeping this in mind, Anuja came up the idea to introduce the viewer to the aesthetics of Indian Classical Music and making more approachable and therefore it is not complex or of tutorial format. “I have tried to keep it general and not a tutorial. There are episodes that present songs in Bollywood based on Ragas, hence making it familiar for a commoner. I have tried to reach out with whatever I know till know.”
Currently Anuja is learning Dhrupad format of music. She was quick to understand the gap between the millennial and the vintage music format. As everything she referred to was in text format, where as this generation is acquainted with internet and YouTube, she decided to bridge with the audio-visual format.
Speaking of her own conditioning, Anuja says, “I grew up in a normal household, where it was filled with Bollywood songs, Sugam or what is called as ‘Light Music’. I started learning light music from Uttara Kelkar at the age of eight and thereon have learned from many teachers. Currently I am learning Dhrupad form of music from Dagar Brothers.”
For a young age, she has maturity to understand the lapses, “I don’t think we appreciate or are proud of our culture. We need to sensitize or make children aware of the culture. Therefore, catching them young is very essential.”
Her innovative enterprise has been lauded by the maestros of the music world like Pt. Dhruba Ghosh, Shubha Mudgal, Aneesh Pradhan, Sudhir Naik and Dhanashree Pandit Rai.
About her future plans, Anuja says, “It’s a long journey. I would love to perform or at least be an appreciator of music.”
