Tirthankar Mitra
His was a wonderful voice. It is no more. But when it was broadcast it cut across the language barrier. For even the people who did not speak it lent their ears to listen to Ameen Sayani, the intoner of original “Behnon-Bhaion” on the air waves. . His death at the age of 91 is being mourned by millions of Indians who had the opportunity to listen to him in the last century.
Sayani was a icon whose time on radio gave generations over four decades a look through the window it did not know existed till then a hearing into the world of entertainment. The man whose silken voice oozed comfort, charisma and charm was the icon of Indian radio
The urbane and soothing voice was synonymous with Binaca Geetmala, first broadcast on Radio Ceylon and many years later on Vividh Bharati. It started way back in 1951 and given its form of address to its listeners it trod the line of gender equality though the appropriate had been first voiced by Swami Vivekananda in the Parliament of Religions in Chicago.
Such consciousness was in Sayani’s genes. In 1945, in a letter to Kulsum Sayani, an educationist who brought out the fortnightly newsletter Ruhber, Mahatma Gandhi wrote “Beti Kulsum, I like the mission of Ruhber to unite Hindi and Urdu. May it succeed.”
The newsletter on Mahatma Gandhi’s advice was brought out in Hindustani- a blend Hindi and Urdu. Thinking it would unite the nation after independence, Mahatma Gandhi wanted Hindustani to be the lingua franca of India..
For Ameen Sayani, Kulsum’s young son, the first lesson of the power of language started then. It could transcend the constraints of identity. He used Hindustani or “what he called the bol-chaal ki bhasa” in a newly independent country which has recently dissected itself with sword and fire over religion. It had been an inferno further fueled by the issue of superiority of language. The idea of broadcasting his shows on Radio Ceylon was a radical one. It was not to be stymied to silence.
Come Wednesday nights, boxy Murphy radio sets and Phillips transistors were switched on to hear “Namaskar behnon aur bhaiyon, mai aapka dost Ameen Sayani bol Raha hoon, aur aap sun rahen hain Binaca Geetmala”. For many of that generation it was the first taste of freedom when strict parents of that generation gave their children consent to listen to Hindi film songs.
It was indeed a rare opportunity. It had different connotations as it was a relief to the tired office worker or a factory hand, it gave expression to the feelings of those in the throes of love. Ameen Sayani emerged a winner at the end of the day. So did his voice which revolutionised radio presentation. The show was brought to India in the late ’50s by Aruna Asaf Ali after a talk with Jawaharlal Nehru. It went on for 42 years and was revived in 2014 for the FM channel.
It was a salutation to India in Hindustani with all the etiquettes in place. Sayani’s affability and warmth visited millions of his countrymen far and wide as he spoke in simple and urban voice making it modern.
The pronunciation was perfect; so was the diction. One cocked his/he ears for Binaca Geet Mala to enter the home and forge lifelong loyalty to the voices of Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Kishor Kumar and Asha Bhosle. Sayani’s wonderful voice stitched all together seamlessly. Weeks turned months and months into years as the young nation trying to walk listened and grew up.
Incidentally, Sayani failed in his first audition at AIR, Mumbai as his Gujarati and English accent in the spoken Hindustani turned out to be his initial undoing. But he more than made up for it. The decades and his listeners stand witness and mourn his passing. With the passage of time, Sayani had become a friend to the countless listeners of his radio program. Unknowingly he and his program had become a fixture in the life of a nation. (IPA)
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