Keshavrao Vaman Bhole (1896-1967)

Music director born in Amravati, Maharashtra. Exposure to Western orchestras accompanying silent films prompted him to experiment successfully with orchestral compositions: ‘The tones of the instruments, their timbre and how such diverse instruments could play together without sounding atonal, engaged my mind,’ he wrote in his book Mazhe Sangeet: Rachana Ani Digdarshan (1964). First introduced piano, Hawaiian guitar and violin for Vartak’s vanguard play Andhalyanchi Shala, staged by the Natyamanwantar group (1933). The music also performed the unusual function of tying the play to a fixed running time. Moved to Prabhat Studio (1933), replacing the more orthodox Govindrao Tembe, and scored some of the studio’s best-known hits. For Amritmanthan, the actors rehearsed to a score played live, tuning their performance rhythm to the music. The scales were also chosen to counterpoint the actors’ speaking voices. Bhole’s impact on performance idioms is most evident in ​Sant Tukaram, where Vishnupant Pagnis’s outstanding achievement owes much to the score. Left Prabhat with Raja Nene, Dharmadhikari et al., working with them independently for some years.

FILMOGRAPHY: 1932: Sant Sakhubai; Krishnavatar; 1934: Amritmanthan; 1935: Chandrasena; 1936: Rajput Ramani; Sant Tukaram; 1937: Kunku/Duniya? Na Mane; 1938: Mazha Mulga/Mera? Ladka; 1940: Sant Dnyaneshwar; 1941: Sant Sakhu; 1942: Daha Wajta/Dus? Baje; 1944: Ramshastri; 1945: Taramati; 1947: Kuber; 1948: Bhagyarekha; 1951: Parijatak/Shri? Krishna Satyabhama.

Music