Vishwa Mohan Bhatt


Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, known professionally as V. M. Bhatt, is an Indian Hindustani classical music instrumentalist who invented and plays a modified slide guitar that is widely called the Mohan veena.

Personal life

Bhatt lives in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, with his wife and two sons. His elder son Salil Bhatt is a Mohan veena player. His younger son Saurabh Bhatt is a composer who has written music for films, music albums and TV serials. Bhatt's parents, Manmohan Bhatt and Chandrakala Bhatt were teaching and performing musicians, who taught music to V.M Bhatt. His nephew, Krishna Bhatt, plays the sitar and tabla. He is the younger brother of Manju Mehta who is co-founder of Saptak School of Music at Ahmedabad and a trained disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar.

Career

Bhatt is best known for his Grammy Award winning album A Meeting by the River with Ry Cooder released on Water Lily Acoustics label. He is also known for other fusion and pan-cultural collaborations with Western artists such as Taj Mahal, Béla Fleck and Jerry Douglas. Exposure such as an appearance on the 2004 Crossroads Guitar Festival, organised by Eric Clapton, allowed his playing to reach a larger audience. In 2016, he performed a duet that has been released online with Kapil Srivastava, another leading Indian guitarist and the founder of Guitarmonk
The folk musician Harry Manx, who studied with Salil Bhatt for five years, plays a Mohan veena. Counting Crows' bassist Matt Malley also plays a Mohan veena and is a student and friend of Bhatt. Australian musician Lawrie Minson also learned Mohan veena from Salil.

Select discography

Awards