India’s original Rock Star (1955-2014)
Nandu Bhende, son of Marathi actor-director Atmaram Bhende and late Dr. Asha Bhende (Lily Ezekiel), had showbiz coursing through his veins. He was one of the pioneers of Rock Music in India. In the 1970s, as the rock music wave engulfed India’s cities and big towns, Nandu Bhende sang with bands such as Velvette Fogg, Brief Encounter and then Savage Encounter in Mumbai.
In 1974, theatre director-producer Alyque Padamsee staged the seminal Jesus Christ Superstar, a Rock Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. According to theatre lore, Madhu Das who played Jesus Christ, was keen to play Judas. But Alyque Padamsee cast Nandu Bhende in the coveted role; he left such an indelible mark with his performance, that no one remembers who played Judas in other productions of Jesus Christ Superstar! Nandu’s performance as Judas, spurred Marathi theatre and film director Dr Jabbar Patel to cast him as Ankush Nagaonkar, the antihero in Teen Paischacha Tamasha, a Marathi musical version of Bertolt Brecht’s Three Penny Opera, adapted by P.L. Deshpande, which played over 200 shows. Audiences still remember it for its path-breaking music which was partly composed by Nandu, who regaled typical Maharashtrian audiences with rock songs in chaste Marathi! The track Aata Aika Mazhi Kahani, remains a classic.
In 1988, Nandu represented India at the Festival of India in the former USSR, where he along with his group performed seven shows in various parts of the country including two in Moscow. He sang in Hindi, Marathi, English and, in Russian to the delight of the Soviets. In 1998, film actor and theatre director-producer Lillete Dubey staged Jaya, the first indigenous Rock Opera in English that presented the key events of the Mahabharata through the eyes of Yudhishtira. Nandu Bhende once again did duty in the lead role as Yudhishtira, piping his co-performers with his excellent voice modulation.
Although rock music remained Nandu Bhende’s forte and passion, he moved to playback for Hindi films with music directors such as R.D. Burman, Laxmikant Pyarelal and Bappi Lahiri. The latter’s film Disco Dancer fetched Nandu a Gold Disc. Cashing in on the disco craze, in 1980, Nandu teamed up with Music India to produce two very successful dance albums Disco Duniya and Disco Nasha; with HMV Nandu recorded two more disco albums — Disco Zamana and Disco Mazaa.
His first English album ‘Get Organized’ featured original compositions, as well as a few songs from a collection of poems specially written for him by the Sahitya Academy Award winning, internationally acclaimed poet Nissim Ezekiel (also his maternal uncle). In 2001, Nandu released ‘Spicy Mango-Raapchick Remix’ a remix album in Marathi, for Universal Music. It became an instant hit among the Marathi speaking youth. Nandu even scored music for many prime time shows across channels like Cats (Sony), Chandrakanta (DD1), Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai (Zee TV) and Kohra (Star Plus), etc. Since music was his passion, Nandu launched Music Software and Spectrum Multimedia which produced popular long running Marathi FM shows Hasat Khelat and Majhi Awadti Gaani along with the Konkani FM show Geetacha Paus for HMV-FM, and prominent Marathi and Konkani artists served as RJs (radio jockeys).
Nobody understood music better than Nandu Bhende. Leslie Lewis attributes his teaming with Hariharan as the Colonial Cousins to Nandu Bhende. In May 1998, he opened InSync Studios, a state-ofthe- art 32 track digital audio recording studio, in Juhu, Mumbai. Much in demand for its facilities and quaint location in a quiet Juhu lane, in March 1999, the studio was upgraded to 64 tracks. In the Indian tradition of guru-shishya, he started the very popular Nandu Bhende Voice Workshops, one of the pioneers in the field of voice culture for effective speaking, the dynamics of music and singing.
His priority till the end remained live shows which he enjoyed immensely. A month before his sudden departure, he rocked the stage at Blue Frog, Mumbai’s seminal venue for live gigs.