मास्टर कृष्णराव

Master Krishnarao — Krishnarao Ganesh Phulambrikar in full (20 January 1898 – 20 October 1974) — was that rare artist who reached the summit in three streams at once: Hindustani khayal, Marathi natya sangeet, and film music. Born in Alandi with an extraordinary boyhood voice, he received his taleem from the era's great guru Bhaskarbuwa Bakhale, absorbing a khayal style rich with Agra, Gwalior and Jaipur colours. Around 1918 he joined the Gandharva Natak Mandali and became, alongside Bal Gandharva, a shining singer-actor of the Marathi stage; his natya-pads and khayal performances began appearing on gramophone discs from the early 1920s. In the talkie era he became a composer for the Prabhat Film Company — the music of 'Dharmatma' (1935), 'Gopal Krishna' (1938) and 'Manoos' (1939) is his. After Independence his most celebrated campaign concerned 'Vande Mataram' — he arranged it in a simple, mass-singable, band-playable form, demonstrated it before the Constituent Assembly, and advocated all his life for its elevation. Honoured on the classical concert stage to the end, he died in Pune in 1974. The Marathi tradition still remembers him simply as 'Master' — the title given to the boy singer, earned for a lifetime.

Born on 20 January 1898 at Alandi, near Pune, Krishnarao showed prodigious vocal talent as a child and was performing on the Marathi musical stage as a boy — the source of the 'Master' title. His decisive training came under Bhaskarbuwa Bakhale, whose death in 1922 left Krishnarao among the chief carriers of his style.

His career ran on three rails: the concert platform (khayal and light classical, performed across India for five decades), the theatre (lead singer-actor with the Gandharva Natak Mandali from c. 1918, with natya-pad records from the early 1920s), and the studio (composer for Prabhat classics in the 1930s, and music director and recording artist for HMV). His post-1947 'Vande Mataram' arrangements and advocacy made him a public figure beyond music circles.

Master Krishnarao is the model of the complete Maharashtrian musician: classical authority, stage stardom, film craft and public mission in one person. His recordings preserve Bakhale's lineage; his Prabhat scores are early landmarks of Indian film music; and his Vande Mataram campaign remains a famous chapter in the song's national history.

A brilliant, agile tenor with dazzling taan-work, applied to khayal of the Bakhale synthesis (Agra-Gwalior-Jaipur), to raag-based natya-pads, and to crisply melodic film songs. His compositions favour clear raag outlines made singable for the stage and screen.