Shahir Sabale’s works in digitised format

Pune, March 4 Maharashtrachi Lokdhara, a landmark in Maharashtra’s folk tradition, is now in a safe format and out of danger of getting destroyed. The old recordings of veteran folksinger Shahir Sabale, who spent considerable time in preserving the folk tradition, have been converted into digital format. A recordist, Sunil Patkar has done this job free of cost and the digitised work has been handed over to the State Directorate of Cultural Affairs.

The work is of great significance as it consists of the many forgotten folk songs of Maharashtra and also some speeches by prominent Marathi leaders like Balasaheb Thackeray and Sharad Pawar on the programme Maharashtrachi Lokdhara.

Sabale started Maharashtrachi Lokdhara for the promotion of Marathi folk tradition. He has been awarded Padmashree for his great work in promoting folk tradition, especially Shahiri, a Marathi folk form of singing. He has a collection of his work in the form spools. Since it began getting damaged, he was looking for someone to convert it into digital format so that it can be preserved for long time. Patkar, who runs a studio called Studio 24 in the city, rushed forth as he gave his nod as soon as he came to know about the project.

“The whole recording is of great importance as it has an archival value. Around 60 hours of recording was available on the spools. It consisted of recordings as old as 40 years. It took me 210 hours to convert it into digital format,” said Patkar. “There are some interesting recordings. Sabale’s interview with Amin Sayani and Sabale singing Bhojpuri songs are some of the highlights,” said Sabale’s nephew Sanjay Sabale.

Shahir Sabale is also elated about the project. “The folk tradition is slowly dying out. There is a need to preserve it so as to pass it to the next generation. In this backdrop, this project is made me very happy. I also appreciate Patkar’s dedication towards this project as he did not take any money for it,” he said.