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VITHAL RAO A Musician Vithal Rao, a wrestler's son, a soldier in the royal army, besides being a ghazal singer without competitors. Born in 1931 to S Atmaram, a wrestler and soldier in the army of the seventh Nizam, Vithal, from the age of seven, began to learn music from Pundit Lakshman Rao Panchpoti. He did so well that he began to be regularly featured on the Hyderabad Radio. At the age of 14, Vithal discontinued his schooling and joined the Nizam's army as a line boy. Fortunately, the army had assembled an orchestra and young Vithal sang all kinds of songs - geets, bhajans and ghazals - to its accompaniment. At the time of Hyderabad's liberation in September 1948, Vithal had risen to the rank of a jawan in the army, besides gaining good reputation for his singing talents. Impressed by his talent, Nizam's second son, Moazzam Jah, who was also a poet, took Vithal under his patronage. For 12 years Vithal stayed in Moazzam Jah's palace, honing his skills. He was guided by such renowned teachers like M A Raoof, Shankari Bai, Badi-uz-Zaman and Shankar Lal. Soon, Vithal Rao developed a unique style that came to be known as Hyderabadi style of ghazal singing. Vithal Rao's concerts began to receive rave reviews and with that, Bombay's filmwalahs began to attract him with tempting offers. He gave music to two Telugu (Nija-nijalu, Yadagiri Swami Mahatmayam) and two Hindi films (Dukh Sukh, Irada). Top singers like Ghantasala, S P Balasubrahamaniam, P Susheela and L R Eshwari from the Telugu field and Asha Bhonsle, Mohammad Rafi and Manna Dey from the Hindi films have lent their voices to Vithal's compositions. These films did not fare well at the box office and Vithal Rao returned to his first love, ghazal singing. Vithal Rao has several talented student-singers under his tutelage. Many of his shishyas (students) have won recognition. Vithal Rao is also doing Hyderabad proud by presenting the nuances of the ghazals written by renowned Hyderabadi poets like Maqdoom Mohiuddin and Shajee in his inimitable style. |