{"id":10510,"date":"2025-12-24T13:43:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T08:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=10510"},"modified":"2025-12-24T19:10:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T13:40:40","slug":"when-geetmala-ruled-hindi-film-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/when-geetmala-ruled-hindi-film-music\/","title":{"rendered":"When Geetmala Ruled Hindi Film Music"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ameen

Ameen Sayani in a pensive mood
(Rare photo courtesy Ameen Sayani Archives)<\/p><\/div>\n

10, 9, 8, 7, 6\u2026 the countdown has begun. Tighten your seatbelts to take off in a time machine called Radio Ceylon!<\/p>\n

Behno aur Bhaiyo! Binaca Geetmala ke sunanewalo ko Ameen Sayani ka namaskar\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

There you go: three distinctive statements made in that one sentence. But how many decades has it taken for me to realize the significance of listening to a programme from 8 to 9 pm every Wednesday. A programme that had started before my birth \u2013 in December 1952, to be precise \u2013 and had continued till April 1994?<\/p>\n

To begin with Behno and Bhaiyo<\/em>: it clearly took off from the common English address of \u2018Ladies and Gentlemen.\u2019 “Dad used to say that the greeting was inspired by Swami Vivekananda’s famous address in the US where he greeted the Congress with the words, ‘Sisters and Brothers of America!'” recounts Rajil Sayani. This was revolutionary more than half a century ago, when patriarchal India was more used to hearing \u2018Bhaiyon aur Behnon<\/em>.\u2019 My generation, perhaps because of the exemplary presence of Indira Gandhi, delighted that Ladies First had been made the norm even in that pre-Women\u2019s Day world.<\/p>\n

\"old

The almost-antique Murphy radio (Pic courtesy Ratnottama Sengupta)<\/p><\/div>\n

Growing up in the family of a busy screenwriter of the 1960s, I used to be glued to the almost-antique Murphy Radio. The British brand was so loved not for its mascot Baby but for the songs, old and new, it brought to millions of us across the subcontinent. But in the days when there was no television, no video, no laptop, no YouTube and no WhatsApp, radio was not only about listening to songs – it was our only link to developments in the world of Hindi cinema.<\/p>\n

Mind you, it was quite natural for us to be surrounded by talks of films and cine personalities. Still, I never imagined then, that one day I will make an identity for myself as a film critic, film analyst, film historian. Now when I look back, I realize that the founding of all these streams of love for the art, science and commerce of Cinema lay in the information I was soaking up like a sponge \u2013 from that formidable voice addressing Sisters and Brothers of the Sound Waves.<\/p>\n

Ameen Sayani not only set a benchmark in radio presentation. His voice, at once friendly, engaging and forceful, was more than a member of the household. He was Radio Jockey before the word entered my dictionary. He lead me like Eklavya, without the guru\u2019s knowledge \u2013 into assessing and ascertaining who\u2019s the more worthy contestant. And he led me into loving Hindi. This, at a time when the language was modernizing itself by being neither Urdu nor Khadi Boli, neither hi-fi Sanskrit nor durbari Farsi.<\/p>\n

\"A

A young Ameen Sayani
(Rare photo courtesy Ameen Sayani Archives)<\/p><\/div>\n

Back then, I did know that Ameen Sayani had an elder brother in Hamid Sayani, who spoke impeccable English and conducted the Bournvita Quiz Contest with rare panache. But only in recent times I traced the source of his effective communication skill: He had grown up assisting his Gandhian mother in editing, publishing and printing Rahber<\/em>, a multilingual fortnightly journal for neo-literates, from 1940 to 1960! Surely this grounding in simple communication helped Ameen Saab in producing 54,000 radio programmes, thousands of jingles, in compering stage shows, in essaying cameos in a number of films, and won him the Padma Shri in 2009..<\/p>\n

Any surprise that, week after week after week, we would \u2018Regret\u2019 invitations to any birthday party or a celebratory dinner? We simply couldn\u2019t miss the Geetmala Countdown, could we? So many of us would even create our own fehrist<\/em> of favourite songs and wait to see if our prediction matched the countdown of The Ameen Sayani! And why just us, listeners? Music directors too closely followed the countdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce our radio broke down, and Baba gave it for repairs,\u201d my cousin Shampa recalls their days in Shahjahanpur. \u201cEvery day after that Rana Dada would nag him to get it back before Wednesday. But when it didn\u2019t materialize before the Geetmala countdown, Dada declared a hunger strike \u2013 \u2018Roti nahin khana hai mujhe<\/em>!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Makarand Waikar, producer-director of the documentary film, \u201cMy Radio My Life\u201d had similar memories of Every Wednesday. “Everyone at home would gather around the radio and tune in to the shortwave band of Radio Ceylon ahead of time so as not to miss a single minute of his program.” And those who couldn\u2019t make it to home in time? \u201dThey would stop by a restaurant or shop to listen to it, ensuring they didn\u2019t miss it at any cost,\u201d he wrote in Indian Express<\/em> when Ameen Sayani passed away last year, at age 91.<\/p>\n

\"Ameen

Ameen Sayani receiving the Padma Shri
(Rare photo courtesy Ameen Sayani Archives)<\/p><\/div>\n

One result of listening so intensely to the Geetmala was that every time my school friends played Antakshari, I was sought after by both teams. And every time I tuned in to requests from Bareilly and Jhumritalaiya, Bijoy Da would say, \u201cHave they consulted our Encyclopaedia Cinematica?\u201d Doubtless my cousin was leg-pulling me. But I have no doubt he would have been proud when I wrote a chapter in Encyclopaedia Britannica \u2013 on Hindi films!<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\"Ameen

Ameen Sayani with Amitabh Bachchan (Rare photo courtesy Ameen Sayani Archives)<\/p><\/div>\n

The unequalled popularity of Binaca Geetmala can be gauged from the reference to it in Hrishikesh Mukherjee\u2019s Abhimaan<\/em>. The Amitabh Bachchan Jaya Bhaduri starrer revolves around a star singer couple. One morning Chandru, their common secretary, delights at the success of Uma. Newly married to Subir, this new star in the musical cosmos has scored with four entries in the countdown. This triggers envy in the husband’s heart, who has stolen all the shows thus far.<\/p>\n

Chandru says, “Mubarak ho Bhabhi, chhapake se tumhare chaar gaane Binaca mein aa gaye.”<\/em> Subir adds sarcastically, “Itni badi khushkhabri sunne ke baad kam se kam ek Binaca smile hi de do”<\/em> – the first cracks in their marriage. (Watch it here)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Jaya

“Itni badi khushkhabri sunne ke baad kam se kam ek Binaca smile hi de do”<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

In the 1950s and 1960s, the countdown method combined the sale of record figures with the number of letters \u2013 postcards, to be precise \u2013 received from listeners. In\u00a0Abhimaan<\/em>, Chandru also makes an oblique reference to influencing the countdown, which was a high point of the year-end programmes, by \u201censuring a massive flow of letters.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point of time 65,000 postcards would pour into the office. Since these had to be stored for three weeks in case there was a complaint,\u00a0Ciba revised the method and brought in the listener\u00a0clubs since some were doing this job for BBC.<\/p>\n

This \u2018voting\u2019 by the end-users \u2013 listeners or viewers – was a standard practice to ascertain the popularity of films in the 1950s when the Filmfare Awards were launched. Indeed, the process for selecting the winners \u2013 Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director \u2013 would start with the entries being made available for public voting. Typically this happened through forms printed in the magazine that was fortnightly and, later, monthly. Based on the number of votes polled, a shortlist of top entries was then curated. So, even if a jury decided the final outcome, people who disagreed would say, \u201cOh! Yeh to khareed liya hai<\/em>, this award has been purchased!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ameen

Ameen Sayani at work (Pic: Internet)<\/p><\/div>\n

So what was the actual process Binaca Geetmala adopted for the countdown? This is what I\u2019m told:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the countdown, Binaca Geetmala relied on a combination of record sales figures and input from dedicated listener clubs. The process started in a simple way and evolved over time to ensure accuracy and prevent manipulation\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Evolution of the Countdown Method<\/strong><\/p>\n