THE ENIGMATIC VANRAJ BHATIA

Music composer Vanraj Bhatia, who passed away at 93, was surely a musical genius, but behind it all, he was an amusing, quirky, eccentric, offbeat man, living on a tangent

- Sunil Sampat

There exists a direct proportionality between the quantum of genius and the extent of idiosyncrasies that inhabit a person. History has shown enough instances of highly creative individuals, brilliant thinkers, people with concepts ahead of their times, and their particularly eccentric traits. The greater the genius, the more extreme their peculiarities. Vanraj Bhatia, who passed away on May 7 at the age of 93, was one such genius. He was a music composer like none other. Enough has been said about his specific achievements to bear repetition; the only footnote that needs to be added was a comment made by Ustad Zakir Hussain. On the occasion of a felicitation of Bhatia at the NCPA in March 2017, Zakir Hussain said, “Vanraj Bhatia is India’s greatest ever composer. Period.” Pretty definitive praise from one of the greatest musicians India has produced.

Even others who have worked with Vanraj Bhatia — filmmakers, musicians or advertising executives — have expressed a sense of awe about Bhatia’s music. Not just admiration or respect, but a sense of wonderment about how perfect the musical end product has for the context it is meant. One film director has said that when you commission Vanraj Bhatia to do the music for the film, “you get a gift from him, not just music”.