Cinemaazi remembers V Balsara on his death anniversary

Legendary pianist, musician, and music director, V Balsara passed away this day, 24 March in 2005. Born Vistas Ardeshir Balsara in 1922, into a Bombay-based Parsi family, his interest in Western music was fuelled at a young age—he gave his first public performance on the pedal harmonium at age 6. His career in films started with the Hindi film Baadal (1942), in which he assisted music director Ustad Mustaq Hussain. He went on to assist Master Ghulam Haider, and Khemchand Prakash. Circus Girl (1943) saw him compose music independently for the first time with another music director, Vasant Kumar Naidu. He went on to compose music for Hindi films such as O Panchi (1944), Rang Mahal (1948), Talash (1952), Char Dost (1956), Vidyapati (1964) and Pyar (1969) in Hindi as well as several Bengali films. Joining HMV as Orchestra Director in 1947, he was also involved in setting up the Cine Musicians Association in Bombay as founder secretary. V Balsara also carved out a successful career as an instrumentalist, music teacher, and composer of non-film songs. He is memorable for successfully presenting Indian classical music on Western instruments.