BackMinority report | Heady old whines
Senior radio commentator Ameen Sayani's new show is a charming detour to old Bollywood
Premium
The cheeky, youthful and overtly excited tone that drenches commentaries of radio jockeys (RJs) on most radio stations is part of a wilfully radio-active life in India.
As a listener, you stay with what you think is the funniest deconstruction of everyday city life, its nuts and bolts chosen from a pretty standard menu. Despite the distinct voices and personalized interpretations of the life and times that RJs bring to programmes, the general menu is, well, perky and healthily banal.
Mimicry of filmstars and politicians, their occasional interviews; slapstick jokes, hoax calls made to fool innocent listeners, film reviews, some city news, besides weather and traffic updates are usually on offer.
This chatter is interrupted by humdrum songs like rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh’s Chaar bottle vodka from the film Ragini MMS, or Saari night besharmi ki height from Main Tera Hero (that is if you are on a Hindi radio channel). Something similar goes on, on English music channels, too—entertaining, forgettable conversations.
Taking this vapour-like quality out of conversations is one of the reasons why Ameen Sayani, a veteran radio host, a voice from the India that now exists only in archives, is worth listening to sometimes.
Sayani, a cult radio figure from the fifties to the eighties for his famous Binaca Geetmala on Radio Ceylon, has been on Radio City 91.1 FM since 2010. Many of these musical series with his commentary are available as CDs, and on digital music distributor Saavn (South Asian Audio Visual Network). But while Sayani’s former programme on Radio City, Sangeet Ke Sitaron Ki Mehfil, interspersed his exchanges with musical biggies, his month-old programme Sitaron Ki Jawaaniyan that is broadcast at noon every Sunday brings up his old interactions with heroes, heroines, villains, comedians and assorted character actors. It’s a rare fare for lovers of Indian films, regardless of how close you are to its music.
In seemingly ordinary conversations with film people, punctuated by the warm resonance of Sayani’s modulated interludes, is old stuff that makes for “new" radio content. Old, because it indeed re-tells the past though some of us may find Sayani’s concerns outdated (a fatherly warning against smoking before playing a Dev Anand song from the 1961 film, Hum Dono, for instance). And new because it is distinct from what we hear every day on radio.
Sayani digs into his personal archives, bringing up conversations that are engrossing despite being conformist. Some anecdotes, like the one about Nutan who began to learn Kathak at the age of two and gave her first public performance at the age of three, are particularly interesting. This little nugget also made it to Ameen Sayani’s Facebook page. Rarely was a celebrity politically incorrect in those days but when you listen to their responses, you notice realism without starry posturing. That’s how I felt while listening to “Tragedy Queen" Meena Kumari. She did nothing to disguise irony and didn’t once try to verbally hop, skip and jump—whether she spoke about filming the memorable Pakeezah or about her co-stars. This matter-of-fact attitude to being interviewed is a relief, especially if you are the kind of viewer/listener who gets annoyed but remains curious about the airy braggadocio most current stars exhibit on celebrity shows.
There is nothing wrong with exhibitionist statements. I am not even a salesperson of nostalgia who wants to rubbish everything contemporary in favour of what’s gone by. All I want to say is that when blatant attention-seeking is mixed with “safe, diplomatic answers", a la Priyanka Chopra or Saif Ali Khan, it becomes more boring, especially coming from a celebrity. That difference between stars then and now is evident on Sayani’s show, which is sans look-at-me smartness but retains optimism in its style.
More than anything else, radio conversations hydrate and fuel the imagination of listeners. There is no picture even when we are talking moving pictures; there is only the tactility of voices. It’s a potent route to conjure up mental images of the glamour and gossip around our most loved stars, some who are no more.
There is of course an age barrier here. Those like me who have some vibrant memories of Hindi film stars popular in our growing up years in the 1970s and 1980s obviously find this fun.
But those younger to us who may have never heard about Meena Kumari’s limitations as a dancer, her battle with the bottle or why Hema Malini turned down the late Sanjeev Kumar’s matrimonial proposal (let’s hope Sayani will broadcast an interview with one of them soon), may still enjoy it. It is like reading a popular classic which cuts through age boundaries, a value that gives the show great potential for online digital conversion.
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!
