M.K (Mun Kurippu)
When I saw the note from Thala about a guest post, it was the piravippayan scenario for this blog. With great pleasure, immense happiness and honor, hosting this heartfelt tribute from Thala for his most favorite host.
Here you go.
Whose is the most recognised voice in India ?
For forty years, the answer to this question was the same. Ameen Sayani. Readers of this blog, and of course this blog’s owner, were not born when this phenomenon happened and can be forgiven for asking Ameen who ? Read on, for this is the story of India’s finest broadcaster from a bygone era.
Gils might find it difficult to believe, but there was a world before OTT. Forget OTT, there was a world before YouTube. Forget YouTube, there was a world before Cable TV. Forget Cable TV, there was a world before TV, period. When the only entertainment option was the radio.
There was, of course, only one Radio broadcaster – All India Radio. These were the days of Nehruvian socialism, when any form of entertainment or joy was considered not appropriate for India. AIR’s remit was to broadcast Farmer’s programme non stop – the only exception was when somebody important died and a wailing shehnai record was played instead.
We were all uniformly poor. Nobody could afford a gramophone player or buy LP records. The new revolutionary cassette was coming, but of course we couldn’t afford to buy a cassette player either.
The only way to listen to music, was to tune in to Radio Ceylon. Specifically on Wednesdays from 8.00 PM to 9.00 PM. You finished dinner early, took the transistor set to the “mottai madi” for better short wave reception and amid the static, glued it to your ear. To catch the greatest radio program of all time, at least for Indians , Binaca Geetmala. And the silken voice of Ameen Sayani – “Namaste behno aur bhaiyo, main aapka dost Ameen Sayani bol raha hoon”.
When the Indian government banned Hindi film songs on radio in 1952, Radio Ceylon saw the opportunity. Hamid Sayani and Daniel Molina were the pioneers who thought a countdown show of the most popular songs of the year would be a hit. Hamid enlisted his younger brother Ameen to be the compere. And a legend was born.
The show was revolutionary for the times. They based the popularity of a song on how many records were sold. And they counted down the hits. The No 1 was a coveted spot every film, singer and musician aspired to. It was like the Grammys. The year end show which declared the No 1 for the year was probably the most heard radio programme every year. It conferred enormous prestige on which ever song topped the charts that year.
We tuned in as much to hear Ameen Sayani as to listen to the songs. His style was inimitable and he had the unmatched talent to sound as if he was talking to you personally. Everything was alright with the world, at least on Wednesdays between 8.00 PM and 9.00 PM ! Ameen bhai was on the air.
Binaca Geetmala ruled the airwaves from 1952 to 1988 at Radio Ceylon. It got a second lease of life in Vividh Bharathi till 1992 when it was retired. Television had come and it was time for radio to take a graceful bow. For 40 years Ameen Sayani and Binaca Geetmala had brought cheer to India.
Listen to this compilation of the No 1 songs on Binaca Geetmala from 1953, presented by the God of broadcasting himself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm2cyzAdtBA
Ameen Sayani passed away today at the age of 91. For a whole generation of us, it is the end of an era.
Comments
Lovely writeup.
Binaca geethmala nu kelvipatruken.. His voice came up in some show. DD la nostalgic moments pathina program nenakren. There could be so many entertainment mediums but radio lovers are always special.
The man who banned Hindi film songs from AIR was not Nehru. Nehru let ministers run things the way they wanted. It was B V Keskar, who was Union Minister for I&B. He was also a Hindustani Classical music vidwan of sorts. In addition he was one of the early proto-Hindutva bigots. One of the reasons he banned Hindi film music was that it was not really shudh Hindi - it had a lot of Urdu in it. And some of the great writers composers and singers were Muslim! Rafi sahab, Sahir Ludhianvi, etc etc. He was clear he had to remake India into a shudh Hindi speaking country and decided to play a role in it.
Keskar's big supporter in this idiocy was none other than Rajendra Prasad. Nehru tolerated this, and on the basis of "the buck stops here" - he is responsible. But I question how much can be laid at Nehru's door because Keskar was a Hindutva nutjob, and Nehru was not. And some of Keskar's actions were highly discriminatory towards India's minorities.
Keskar did not immediately ban Hindi songs. He first said you can only play a pure Hindi film song but not mention the film because that amounts to free publicity! When the Movie industry said that if he did this they would boycott AIR, Keskar then banned Hindi film music altogether.
The reaction to the ban was furious. Writing in Movie Times one lady wrote that following "a hard day's toil, the common man cannot listen to classical music even if it is forced into his ears....Classical music is for those whose dogs take bread and butter, but not for the public".
In 1957 Keskar relented and Vividh Bharati was born, and over the years they modelled themselves on Radio Ceylon.
Speaking in 2007 Aamin Sayani remarked that what Keskar needed was a good psychiatrist - the man had so many hangups!!