Narrative Spanning Generations of Musicians
Rana Nayar
GHARANA by By Suresh Sundaresan Hyderabad Book Society, Hyderabad, 2024, 306 pp., INR 600.00
January 2025, volume 49, No 1

Gharana is the story of how, in the world of Hindustani classical music, the gharanas are shaped and formed, created and destroyed over successive generations. It’s the story of how the artists live, survive and then die in a world of their own, and how the musicians often create great music out of their aching hearts and personal suffering.

It’s also a story of how art and commerce often collide in the world of glamour and glitz, with disastrous consequences, how ‘icons’ are made or unmade, and how reputations rise and fall like nine pins in a world where permanence is only a chimera, and transience, a sharp, stinging reality.

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