Prem Dhoj Pradhan
Encyclopedia
Prem Dhoj Pradhan is a Nepalese musician, born in 1938 at Chautara, a small town 28 miles east of Kathmandu.
In 1953, Prem Dhoj was barely sixteen when he participated in a voice test sponsored by Radio Nepal
. Since his enthralling performances with songs like A maun nisha ka tara ho or O chhu galli thaw chhu galli Prem Dhoj became the most sought-for artist by organizers of cultural programmes. It seemed as if Prem Dhoj’s songs had lent self-expression to turbulent inner urge of a whole generation of Nepalese youth. The young artist was, however, groping for adequate style and technique that would help in the flowering of his musical talents. Even up to 1959 he was vacillating between group songs of popular patriotic strain (inaugurated by song like yo Nepali Shir Wuchali) and love-lorn melody of romanee bereavement.
In 1961 Prem Dhoj was physically compelled to stop singing as a non-malignant growth of polyp was detected in his left vocal chord. After a successful operation he refrained for two years from his absorbing pre-occupation. This was sort of landmark for his career, for it gave time to turn inward and search within. It was a landmark, first, because during the forced interval Prem Dhoj discovered the guitar and made it, after constant practice, a part if his new style, and secondly because it was only after the operation that Prem Dhoj started recording his songs in earnest. With fresh areas if inspiration in store, Prem Dhoj had barely re-emerged on local musical scene when he was awarded a prize for the best voice in all Nepal modern songs Competition in 1963. That was for his unageing hit, Goreto tyo gaunko. After having achieved a distinct technical surety Prem Dhoj inaugurated a series of brilliant and successful recordings. It was in autumn 1963 that his first ever discs (two 78 r.p.m.’s with hit numbers like goreto tyo gaunko, Maya na mara mayalu and Timi aayo mero dil ma) were recorded. By the end of 1969 he had already recorded 32 songs almost all to his credit. The intensity of his devotion to Nepali music, no less than the degree of success in it, can be measured only when one realizes that since 1959 he has been working 40 hours a week in Kathmandu U.S.I.S office to scrape a living, while at the same time, attending and evening college, he had very creditably graduated in arts in 1967. More important than either, a devoted artiste like Prem Dhoj had , for quite some time, no one to sponsor his recordings so that out of sixteen discs he has so far recorded eleven were done at his own financial risk and involvement. Prem Dhoj has, thus dedicated himself to Nepal Music, not by flirting with it like an unoccupied amateur, but by literally investing in it his blood and sweat over and above his talents.
Towards the closer of 1964 Prem Dhoj recorded another group of ten songs—eight in Nepali and two in Newari . Altogether he has recorded six songs in Newari—his first language, out if which there are well-Known folk songs of Kathmandu’s festive and frolicsome Newari. His songs like Rajamati kumati have won Prem Dhoj a lasting place in the heart of his people. The new trend set by this group of songs both in Nepali and Newari shows Prem Dhoj as an artiste increasingly drawn towards a rich musical synthesis between Nepal’s traditional folk and pastoral style and modern romantic style. Like the snows behind the sub –Himalayan relief, the idyllic natural landscape is almost always present as a backdrop in Prem Dhoj’s haunting melodies. In number after number he attempts finer variation on the eternal theme of ‘composing woeful ballads to his mistress’s eyebrow’. Love – its solitude, nostalgia and endless complaints against the coyness if idyllic beauty are fused with a deep attachment to Nepal’s soil, and her enchanting pastoral landscape so that a love-song by Prem Dhoj ceases to be a mere love-song. The lyrics of M.B.B Shah, Ravindra Shah, Kiran Kharel, Ratna Shumshere Thapa and Ratna Lal Shrestha are his favourites, and his mellow and refined voice invests their lyric idiom with a cool, bracing and subtle rhythm.
No wonder that in November, 1965 Prem Dhoj was invited by the celebrated Indian music director Jaidev to accompany Usha Mangeshker in a duet for the Nepali film, Maiti Ghar. Prem Dhoj’s duet with Usha, composed by Jaidev, is a classic of its kind in Nepali, particularly for its lyrical atmosphere of romance. It was, however, his last group if sixteen songs (12 Nepali and 4 Newari) in eight 78 r.p.m. discs that firmly established Prem Dhoj among Nepal’s leading modern singers. In this group there is distinct trace of deep sadness and deeper shadows beginning with songs like Yo masuam udas and resolving in the tragic expectancy of Yo Janam ma vet na bhaya. But Prem Dhoj continues with his native strain if woodnotes wild and romantic, coy and pastoral in an intricate mingling if guitar and madal, jhyaure and shayari. The continuous search, it seems, is for making the folk musical idiom new.
This search continued in the group of ten songs recorded here in this first LP by Prem Dhoj. Each number is an experiment of its own kind on bar five instruments which he uses in all the numbers alike. While he dows not abandon his sear old loves-flute, madal and guitar, he makes a very subtle use of saxophone and the electronic organ as well. The new departure is not so much in the use of these distinctly sophisticated instruments: it is in the increasing abandonment and intensity if passionate complaints against the generous cruelty of both nature and the Pastoral Beauty. In his obstinate adoration of both Prem Dhoj bumps in the another disc-full of hit songs.
Grand Father: Uttar Dhoj Pradhan
Father: Ratna Dhoj Pradhan
Mother: Pran Devi Pradhan
Genre(s): Nepali,Newari and Regional Playback
Occupation(s): Singer
Instrument(s): Vocalist and composer
Years active: 1944–present
Newari
Sang for Nepali feature film, viz; Maitighar, Jeevan Rekha, Mayalu, Pachchis Basanta, Anayaya, Shantideep, Rajamati (Neweri historical film) Jeevan Sangharsha, Phare Vatoula Badledo aakash ..etc. Mem Nepal Assoc of Performing Arts (NEPA), 1991.
Musical Career
Brought up by his mother in an environment where music was synonymous with meaningful living, Prem Dhoj grew up to love it. His mother, Mrs. Pran Devi Pradhan, taught him his first lessons of music. He went to school for eight months in 1954 with the late Mr. Ganesh Lal. It was from Nepal’s laureate of music that Prem Dhoj learnt fundamentals of classical music. However, Prem Dhoj remains a self-educated artist, for he takes music both as discipline and relaxation. His musical career has, therefore, been a stretch of deep search for self-expression, relieved only by constant practice and cultivation invariably culmination in a string of enduring numbers.In 1953, Prem Dhoj was barely sixteen when he participated in a voice test sponsored by Radio Nepal
Radio Nepal
Radio Nepal was established on 1 April 1951. Initially, the transmission lasted for 4 hours and 30 minutes through a 250 Watt short-wave transmitter. Over the years, Radio Nepal has strengthened its institutional capacity considerably and diversified itself in terms of programme format, technical...
. Since his enthralling performances with songs like A maun nisha ka tara ho or O chhu galli thaw chhu galli Prem Dhoj became the most sought-for artist by organizers of cultural programmes. It seemed as if Prem Dhoj’s songs had lent self-expression to turbulent inner urge of a whole generation of Nepalese youth. The young artist was, however, groping for adequate style and technique that would help in the flowering of his musical talents. Even up to 1959 he was vacillating between group songs of popular patriotic strain (inaugurated by song like yo Nepali Shir Wuchali) and love-lorn melody of romanee bereavement.
In 1961 Prem Dhoj was physically compelled to stop singing as a non-malignant growth of polyp was detected in his left vocal chord. After a successful operation he refrained for two years from his absorbing pre-occupation. This was sort of landmark for his career, for it gave time to turn inward and search within. It was a landmark, first, because during the forced interval Prem Dhoj discovered the guitar and made it, after constant practice, a part if his new style, and secondly because it was only after the operation that Prem Dhoj started recording his songs in earnest. With fresh areas if inspiration in store, Prem Dhoj had barely re-emerged on local musical scene when he was awarded a prize for the best voice in all Nepal modern songs Competition in 1963. That was for his unageing hit, Goreto tyo gaunko. After having achieved a distinct technical surety Prem Dhoj inaugurated a series of brilliant and successful recordings. It was in autumn 1963 that his first ever discs (two 78 r.p.m.’s with hit numbers like goreto tyo gaunko, Maya na mara mayalu and Timi aayo mero dil ma) were recorded. By the end of 1969 he had already recorded 32 songs almost all to his credit. The intensity of his devotion to Nepali music, no less than the degree of success in it, can be measured only when one realizes that since 1959 he has been working 40 hours a week in Kathmandu U.S.I.S office to scrape a living, while at the same time, attending and evening college, he had very creditably graduated in arts in 1967. More important than either, a devoted artiste like Prem Dhoj had , for quite some time, no one to sponsor his recordings so that out of sixteen discs he has so far recorded eleven were done at his own financial risk and involvement. Prem Dhoj has, thus dedicated himself to Nepal Music, not by flirting with it like an unoccupied amateur, but by literally investing in it his blood and sweat over and above his talents.
Towards the closer of 1964 Prem Dhoj recorded another group of ten songs—eight in Nepali and two in Newari . Altogether he has recorded six songs in Newari—his first language, out if which there are well-Known folk songs of Kathmandu’s festive and frolicsome Newari. His songs like Rajamati kumati have won Prem Dhoj a lasting place in the heart of his people. The new trend set by this group of songs both in Nepali and Newari shows Prem Dhoj as an artiste increasingly drawn towards a rich musical synthesis between Nepal’s traditional folk and pastoral style and modern romantic style. Like the snows behind the sub –Himalayan relief, the idyllic natural landscape is almost always present as a backdrop in Prem Dhoj’s haunting melodies. In number after number he attempts finer variation on the eternal theme of ‘composing woeful ballads to his mistress’s eyebrow’. Love – its solitude, nostalgia and endless complaints against the coyness if idyllic beauty are fused with a deep attachment to Nepal’s soil, and her enchanting pastoral landscape so that a love-song by Prem Dhoj ceases to be a mere love-song. The lyrics of M.B.B Shah, Ravindra Shah, Kiran Kharel, Ratna Shumshere Thapa and Ratna Lal Shrestha are his favourites, and his mellow and refined voice invests their lyric idiom with a cool, bracing and subtle rhythm.
No wonder that in November, 1965 Prem Dhoj was invited by the celebrated Indian music director Jaidev to accompany Usha Mangeshker in a duet for the Nepali film, Maiti Ghar. Prem Dhoj’s duet with Usha, composed by Jaidev, is a classic of its kind in Nepali, particularly for its lyrical atmosphere of romance. It was, however, his last group if sixteen songs (12 Nepali and 4 Newari) in eight 78 r.p.m. discs that firmly established Prem Dhoj among Nepal’s leading modern singers. In this group there is distinct trace of deep sadness and deeper shadows beginning with songs like Yo masuam udas and resolving in the tragic expectancy of Yo Janam ma vet na bhaya. But Prem Dhoj continues with his native strain if woodnotes wild and romantic, coy and pastoral in an intricate mingling if guitar and madal, jhyaure and shayari. The continuous search, it seems, is for making the folk musical idiom new.
This search continued in the group of ten songs recorded here in this first LP by Prem Dhoj. Each number is an experiment of its own kind on bar five instruments which he uses in all the numbers alike. While he dows not abandon his sear old loves-flute, madal and guitar, he makes a very subtle use of saxophone and the electronic organ as well. The new departure is not so much in the use of these distinctly sophisticated instruments: it is in the increasing abandonment and intensity if passionate complaints against the generous cruelty of both nature and the Pastoral Beauty. In his obstinate adoration of both Prem Dhoj bumps in the another disc-full of hit songs.
Personal details
DOB: 6 June 1938 WED, Sindhupalchowk, Chautara.Grand Father: Uttar Dhoj Pradhan
Father: Ratna Dhoj Pradhan
Mother: Pran Devi Pradhan
Genre(s): Nepali,Newari and Regional Playback
Occupation(s): Singer
Instrument(s): Vocalist and composer
Years active: 1944–present
Trainings
- In Classical music from Late Badhye Siromani Ustad Ganesh Lal Shrestha in 1952(B.S. 2010)for 16 months.
- Training in Light music from Music Director Jaidev.. Bombay , India from Nov.1969 – June 1970.
Popular recordings
Nepali- Goreto Tyo Gaunko
- Timi Aye Mero Dilma
- Ghumtima Naau Hai
- Tara Matrai Haina Timilai
- Para Laijau Fulaharu
- Hasne Raharharu Anshuma
- Tadha Bhaigayau Feri
Newari
- Balabala Chingu Mikha Ohu
- Wachu Galli Tochu Galli
- Rajamati Kumati
- Wanghu Lapte Tuyu Baji
- Kichah Jigu Jeeven Ya Sah, etc.
Albums
- Golden Voice of Prem Dhoj Pradhan
- Ghaite Jawani
- Kichah
- Balabala Chingu MIkha 1989
- Katai Yo Sahar Ma
- Maya Namara and 48 modern songs on disc records including one LP and more than 700 songs which include modern songs, bhajans and patriotic songs,nearly one hundred Newari songs and CDs etc...
Public life
Started singing at Radio Nepal since 1952, sang the first song ‘Yad Kasaiko Aairahechechha Yo Aundheri Raatma’ from Radio Nepal, 1952. Cultural Asst United States Information Service (USIS) kath; retired from the USIS, 1994; Letter of Appreciation received for the participation in Cultural Program titled “ Samjhana Sanj” held by Radio Nepal Karmachari Sangh to help the families of Martyrs and casualties during Jana Andolan (Movement) for democracy.Sang for Nepali feature film, viz; Maitighar, Jeevan Rekha, Mayalu, Pachchis Basanta, Anayaya, Shantideep, Rajamati (Neweri historical film) Jeevan Sangharsha, Phare Vatoula Badledo aakash ..etc. Mem Nepal Assoc of Performing Arts (NEPA), 1991.
Honours & awards
- Recevied best Professional Singer Award from His Majesty King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva for the participation in Chaitra 20,2021 program “Jeevan Sangeet Sammelan” held for the 13th anniversary of Radio Nepal.
- Gorkha Dakshin Bahu Chautha(4th) presented by His Majesty King Birendra on push 14, 2044 for his contribution in Nepalese Music.
- Received best Playback Singer Award among the films produced from 2035to2045 B.S.
- Received Award (Padak with their respective symbols) for singing National songs to Royal Nepal Army Gans such as Sabuj Gan in 2039; Gorakh Nath Gan in 2039; Kali Prasad Gan in 2039 B.S; Bhairav Nath Gan in 2040; Shree Nath Gan in 2040; Raj dal Gan in 2042; Devidutta Gan in 2039;
- Recevied Chhinnalata Puraskar in 2047 B.S.
- Received Bhupal Man Singh Karki Puraskar in 2058 B.S.
- Received B.S 2062 Rastriya Pratibha puraskar ( National Talent Award) from Nepal Government.
- Received Narayan Gopal Sangeet Samman from LGCSKM, Nov,2002
- Received Sor- Samrat Esmriti Samman from Narayan Gopal Sangeet Kosh B.S.2064. and many other Sammans.