Verus Ferreira The Sound of Music

If you thought that the turntable was dead, think again. For 59 year old Thakur Village resident Pilak Bhatt, the turntable is still spinning. Pilak is one of many avid LP record collectors in the country and also around the world who has a passion for music and collecting LP records. VERUS FERREIRA met up with PILAK BHATT at his music shop Music Circle at V Mall in Thakur Complex, Kandivili.

Pilak’s love for vinyl LP records arises from the fact that analogue sound mirrors the original sound’s waveform. This means that no information is lost. Analogue output from vinyl records being more accurate results in rich, pure, warm and natural sound. CD contains compressed data so digital recording is not capturing the complete sound wave. Vinyl last a really, really long time, have beautiful artwork and information about the artists and tracks.

Despite being a small space, the tiny record store boasts of over 5,000 vinyl records including that of top music directors of yesteryears like RD Burman, Madan Mohan, Jaidev, O. P. Nayyar Shankar Jaikishan, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Kalyanji Anandji among others. Later a visit to his residence at Thakur Village showcased Pilak’s innovative hideouts to store his records, from special drawers, racks, and cabinets that extend right upto the ceiling of his house.

Bhatt has been collecting records for about 40 years now. He recalls “I grew up listening to western music of The Beatles, Deep Purple, Santana, Pink Floyd, CCR and many more such artists. In those days it was extremely difficult to get rock records, so I would request my family or friends who lived abroad to send LP records and spares like cartridges, stylus, record cleaners, and things I needed. There used to be an LP library called the Stan’s at Colaba and Vibrations under Kemp’s Corner bridge that used to lend out LPs.”

Till recently, Bhatt used to work in the Non Ferrous Metals line and gave that all up for his love of music. “At present I am devoting all my time arranging, organizing and cataloguingmy huge collection. I feel that unless you catalogue and arrange your records genre wise, artist wise and or alphabetically, it becomes extremely difficult to find records. So music is my profession or rather vocation now.”

Bhatt’s love for records actually began when his elder brother Gautam started collecting LP records after which Pilak took over. They both used to buy from a record dealer Rameshbhai at Flora Fountain, near VT station. “Then one of Gautam’s friends Surendra gave us his entire collection of records for free knowing our passion for music” states Bhatt joyfully.

Bhatt was also exposed to music by his parents who used to attend to “mehfils” or concerts of the likes of Pt. Ravi Shankar, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan regularly. “I was surrounded by sounds of these great artists. We used to have listening sessions in our house and LPs were strewn all over the place. Moreover my uncle Mr. Purohit, was a great lover and collector of records and it was natural for me to take a liking to music and develop a record collecting as a passionate hobby.” says the Gujarati born collector who also has a small flat near his house in Kandivli that also houses a couple of thousand records.

Music being a universal language, one has to listen to all genres of music with an open mind and Bhatt has mastered the art to love all genres of music. “There is beautiful music to be discovered everywhere. Most music lovers stick to a few genres. I don’t understand the reason for this. I have Bollywood, Indian and Western Classical, Qawaalis, Regional and Folk music of India and Western music too” states Bhatt displaying some of his records of the genres.

Bhatt owns five turntables, but prefers using his Audio Technica direct drive player which is connected to his computer to listen to his favorite albums.

At last count what would his collection be, we quiz him. “That’s a scary question as I have not had the guts to do. I dread to think the amount of money I have spent on music. But it must be easily over 1 lac titles and I could probably be one the single largest private collector of LPs in India. My wife Ujwala has been very co-operative, understanding and accommodating. Without her support and the support of my brother Gautam all this would not have been possible” smiles Bhatt.

In fact you would find LP records in every imaginable place in his house, under the beds to even Ujawala’s kitchen cabinets. Does she play any LPs while cooking up a meal for the family? “Yes I do love listening to old Hindi film songs” laughs Pilak’s Maharashtrian wife Ujwala.

Pilak does have his favorites and that would mean his most cherished LP records. He shows us the 78rpms of The Beatles which are very rare. Others he pulls out include many rare records of top Bollywood music directors mentioned earlier. By way of novelty he has several colored discs too, not forgetting rare speech records of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Winston Churchill. He also has 78 RPM records of Gauhar Jaan, who was one of the first recorded artists in India which dates back to 1904.

Though Pilak may have a who’s who of music artists in his LP record collection, his meeting with his favorite Bollywood music director R D Burman is etched in his mind. Reveals Bhatt. “Bollywood’s golden period was the 60’s and 70’s and the songs of that era are so enjoyable even today as they have the depth and soul. Many of the songs then were classical raga based which has timeless appeal”. Besides having a couple ofautographed LPs of some artists including the great Noor Jehan, he yearns for the day he can go and seek blessings of Lataji, Ashaji and have their autographs on his LPs.

So is there a market for record lovers in India and what are the problems faced by LP record lovers. Pilak has all the answers. He states “Records are becoming more expensive. Sadly music shops are closing one by one. Being passionate about music, I am trying my best to keep the physical format alive. Government should remove GST on records and CDs so that they become affordable. We have to try and preserve this beautiful format otherwise people will stick to digital downloads and MP3s. Another problem faced by the music lovers is the sourcing of records. Friday markets like Waghari Bazaar and Chor Bazaar are drying up and one hardly finds decent lots surfacing at such places. Lastly, in a city like Mumbai where each square foot costs thousands, making space available for records becomes unviable. Thankfully turntables are now easily available and many music enthusiasts who were hooked to MP3 sound are turning to vinyl again. I was thrilled to get a turntable for Rs. 3,999/- during last Amazon sale.

Pilak has got many records which are not available on any other formats like CDs and these need to be properly researched, referenced, achieved, catalogued and digitalized. He is sometimes asked to lend certain LP records for transfer onto CDs, but is careful never to do so. “I do get such requests from time to time. But as a policy, I never lend my LPs to anyone because firstly they rarely come back and secondly records need to be handled very carefully and I would not like to jeopardize the records getting scratched or damaged by mishandling.”

Yash, Pilak’s 15year old son has already taken a liking to LP records. “Yes, he is going to get my collection after my demise” laughs Pilak adding “And luckily he has taken to music and enjoys listening to LPs of The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix and other such artists.”

To that we’d say …Long live the Vinyl.

– By Verus Ferreira