{"id":43241,"date":"2015-10-14T18:09:06","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T18:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=43241"},"modified":"2018-01-28T20:37:11","modified_gmt":"2018-01-28T20:37:11","slug":"the-greatest-pretender-korla-pandit-musics-most-magnificent-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=43241","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Pretender: Korla Pandit, music’s most magnificent fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Greatest Pretender: Korla Pandit, music’s most magnificent fraud<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Dead 2 Rights: A Folksy Down-Home Blog<\/a>
\n2013-05-19<\/p>\n

Joe Blevins<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\nA few of Korla’s two dozen albums. You might notice a recurring visual motif on the LP<\/a> covers.<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

“For wisdom is better than rubies, and all things to be desired are not to be compared unto it. We bring you musical gems from near and far, blended into a pattern of glorious harmony, a program based on the universal language of music. It is our pleasure to present to you…”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Korla Pandit<\/a> spoke not a word when he was on camera. He just wore a bejeweled turban, played the organ… and stared. That was the extent of his act. It was all he needed — the shimmery tones of his music, the vague evocation of the Far East, and that indelible Mona Lisa countenance with its piercing dark eyes and intriguing half-smile. It was a potent combination which carried him along for nearly half a century. And yet, Korla Pandit never really existed at all. It depends, I suppose, on your definition of “existed.” Either way, his story is one of the most implausible and oddly inspiring in the history of popular music.<\/p>\n

I first encountered Korla Pandit without any clue to his identity or knowledge of his past. Portraying himself, Korla made a memorable cameo in Tim Burton’s<\/a> 1994 film, Ed Wood<\/em><\/a>. In the scene, notorious director Edward D. Wood, Jr.<\/a> (Johnny Depp<\/a>) is holding a wrap party for his 1955 sci-fi\/horor anti-epic, Bride of the Monster<\/em><\/a>. The wild celebration, attended by Bela Lugosi<\/a> and the other oddballs and grotesques who orbited Wood, is held in the meat-packing plant of the film’s major backer, wealthy rancher Donald McCoy (Rance Howard<\/a>). While the carcasses of slaughtered animals hang from hooks all around them, the revelers are treated to a suggestive dance routine performed by Wood himself, costumed as a harem girl. Korla Pandit, immaculately attired in a Nehru jacket<\/a> and the ever-present turban, accompanies him on the organ with a composition called “Nautch Dance,” referring to a seductive style of dance popularized in early-1900s India…<\/p>\n