Marked by an emphasis on the purity of the note, the Kirana gharana is a major school of Hindustani classical music and one of its great exponents was Mumbai-based vocalist Firoz Dastur. At an upcoming concert, Dastur’s disciple Milind Chittal will celebrate his impeccable vocal style.

By Narendra Kusnur

Born in a Parsi family in the Grant Road area of Mumbai, Firoz Dastur could have easily become a movie star. In fact, he almost did. Born on 30th September 1919, Dastur had an early start on the silver screen, appearing in 14 Urdu films and becoming the highest paid child actor of his time.

Yet, his love for music led him to Kirana gharana doyen Ramachandra Kundgolkar, popularly known as Sawai Gandharva. Under his mentorship, Dastur would pursue his passion and go on to become one of the foremost exponents of the gharana. Among the students of Sawai Gandharva—who was a disciple of the gharana’s founder Abdul Karim Khan—were Bhimsen Joshi and Gangubai Hangal. Dastur is recognised by connoisseurs for having a style very close to that of Khan.

Dastur’s disciple Milind Chittal recalls the 12 years he spent studying under him—two years at the University of Bombay and 10 years at his residence. “The main thing about Kirana is the sur,” he says. “Dasturji taught us how to tune the tanpura properly, and how to match our sur with the tanpura. Another speciality of this gharana is that the raga is developed step by step, methodically. He taught us note by note the vistaar for traditional ragas like Yaman, Bhairav and Malkauns, and how to adapt the same principles in other ragas. Likewise, he gave us elaborate taan exercises. His approach to teaching was simple and easy to understand.”

Chittal says that he also learnt how to bring in a meditative aspect from his guru, especially in the vilambit or slow-paced portion. “At home, it was only one-on-one teaching,” he says. “I heard he was very selective about students. He was patient and would point out mistakes but appreciate us where needed. He would treat us like family.” Dastur’s other students included Girish Sanzgiri, Dhanashree PanditRai, Achyut Abhyankar, Sudha Divekar, Usha Gokarn, Arvind Apte, Shrikant Deshpande, Chandrashekhar Vaze and Vrinda Mundkur.

On Dastur’s 18th death anniversary, Chittal will present a bouquet of compositions in different ragas in Kirana gharana style as a tribute to his guru.

Dastur as a student

Dastur was respected as both a vocalist and a teacher, and his own association with Sawai Gandharva was very special.

When he was a child actor, he considered producer Jamshedji Wadia of Wadia Movietone his mentor. Wadia noticed Dastur’s interest in music and directed him to the renowned tabla player Kamurao Mangeshkar. He began his vocal training under K. D. Jaokar and later, Balkrisanabuva Kapileshwari, both of whom were disciples of Abdul Karim Khan, but eventually Dastur went to Sawai Gandharva.

His audition for Sawai Gandharva was an informal one. He sang a film song set to Raga Bhairavi, and the guru was pleased. His training thus began with Bhairavi, which marked a departure from convention. Dastur was a devoted shishya. Sawai Gandharva would teach at Dastur’s residence from Monday to Friday, and on holidays, the student would go to his teacher’s residence. This taalim went on from 1933 to 1937.

In her book, Musicophilia in Mumbai: Performing Subjects and the Metropolitan Unconscious (Tulika Books, 2020), author Tejaswini Niranjana narrates an interesting incident from Dastur’s life. The area in which he lived in Grant Road would be heavily waterlogged in the monsoons and on one rainy day, Sawai Gandharva waded through knee-deep water to come to teach his student. Dastur’s disciple Nitin Shirodkar narrates the story he heard from Dastur himself. ‘Panditji says: “I went into the kitchen to see what my mother was doing and Sawai Gandharva’s wet leather slippers were being dried on the pan. The pan that my mother used to make rotis, that same pan was being used to dry guruji’s slippers. She felt that if guruji’s slippers remained wet he would get a fever and I would miss my training the next day; this is what my mother did for me. I can never forget this sacrifice that my mother made for me, especially when it came to Guruji”.’

Dastur performed at the age of 17 or 18 at the AllIndia Music Conference in Karachi. The line-up included Faiyaz Khan, Omkarnath Thakur, Gangubai Hangal and Kumar Gandharva. Faiyaz Khan applauded Dastur’s performance. He would go on to have a long career as a full-time concert musician around 1942, ending his stint in the film industry.

Devotion to the guru

Niranjana’s book records another incident. Once while preparing for a radio programme, Dastur wanted to sing Raga Gujari Todi, but realised he did not have the composition and so he went to Sawai Gandharva. “Why don’t you get it from the recording of Khansaheb [Abdul Karim Khan]?” the guru suggested. “But it would be better if you taught me directly,” said Dastur. And so, he did. Right there in the courtyard of the chawl. The book describes what happened next.

“When they finished, they realised that over a hundred people, probably living in that chawl, had surrounded them, listening in absolute silence. Perhaps the setting of the music lesson ensured the silence, [because] if it were an actual performance, the listeners might have been more ready to express their appreciation at different moments in the execution of the raga.”

Sawai Gandharva’s career ended after a sudden paralytic stroke in 1942. Three years later, Dastur performed Raga Desh for All India Radio in Pune. Afterwards he went to see his guru, who was staying in the city with his daughter. He told Dastur he was too weak to sing. He congratulated him on a good performance and in the flow of the conversation pointed out nuances of Desh, singing for more than half an hour.

Sawai Gandharva passed away in 1952. As a mark of respect, Dastur sang at all the Sawai Gandharva Sammelans held in Pune, even when he was ill during his later years. The performances were remembered for years, and anecdotes narrated to future generations. Chittal’s forthcoming tribute is sure to bring back warm memories of Dastur and his music.

The tribute evening

Chittal says, “My guruji was a prolific composer. Though it’s an evening programme, I may also present some late night ragas and some other Kirana gems including some of my guruji’s own compositions.”

Chittal, the son of Kannada writer Yashwant Vithoba Chittal, began by learning the tabla from the blind artiste Mohan Chikermane. After his teacher’s death, there was a lull, but Chittal began to attend concerts with his family. After listening to the Kirana gharana maestro Bhimsen Joshi, he became keen to be a vocalist in the Kirana style.

His initial vocal training, however, began under Rampur-Sahaswan gharana maestro Ghulam Mustafa Khan. When he was around 17 years old, he auditioned for a music course at the University of Bombay, which followed the guru-shishya parampara. The faculty consisted of Firoz Dastur, Govindrao Agni, Ratnakar Pai, Nivruttibua Sarnaik and Dr. Ashok Ranade, who was head of department. “I was lucky to be selected and put under Dasturji,” notes Chittal.

The vocalist, who will be accompanied by Shrinivas Acharya on harmonium and Gurshant Singh on tabla at the NCPA, has also learnt from Yeshwantbua Joshi, Dhondutai Kulkarni, Dinkar Kaikini and Babanrao Haldankar. A qualified chartered accountant, Chittal moved to Dubai in 1999 but continued performing in India and abroad, in addition to recording many classical and devotional albums. After returning to India in 2017, he has been teaching from his Andheri location. “My main style of gayaki today is based on the rigorous training I had from Dasturji for 12 long years,” he says.

This article was originally published in the May 2026 issue of ON Stage.