{"id":4513,"date":"2018-09-01T14:15:35","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T08:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=4513"},"modified":"2018-09-01T19:03:34","modified_gmt":"2018-09-01T13:33:34","slug":"from-margins-to-centre-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/from-margins-to-centre-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"From Margins to Centre Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

The story of ultimate recognition
\nof the power of popular culture as a unifier<\/h2>\n

\"radio<\/p>\n

This article is inspired by and largely based on Jawhar Sircar\u2019s talk \u201cFilm Songs, Radio and the Idea of India\u201d delivered as Bichitra Pathshala Annual Lecture on August 10, 2018. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Alam Ara <\/em>(1931), directed by Ardeshar Irani was the first talkie film of India. The advertisements announced it as \u201cAll living, breathing 100% talking picture\u201d. Crowds lined up in front of Majestic Cinema in Bombay to get a feel of this novelty. The film ran housefull for the next eight weeks. Unfortunately, not a single print of Alam Ara <\/em>has survived the ravages of time. Posterity has been deprived of enjoying this mile stone of Indian cinema. However, a song De de khuda ke naam par<\/em>, sung by actor singer Wazir Mohammad Khan, exists in cyber space. On the 10th<\/sup> of August 2018, this song was the opening song of Jawhar Sircar\u2019s talk \u2018Film Songs, Radio and the Idea of India\u2019. The occasion was the annual lecture of Bichitra Pathshala, an organization that promotes \u2018learning with moving images\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Alam Ara<\/p><\/div>\n

The survival of De de khuda ke naam par<\/em> way beyond the life of its mother, the movie Alam Ara, <\/em>asserted Sircar\u2019s thesis that film songs, born out of the wombs of movies, have a life of their own and far outlive the movies. Gramophone records and radio waves carry the songs to spaces where cinema cannot reach. Deep in the hinterland of rural India, these songs mesmerize the listeners with their lyrics and melody.<\/p>\n

Sircar quoted a statistics that in 1981, there were 10,813 movie halls and the population of India was 715 million. So a sizable number of Indians never saw the inside of a movie hall. But they all enjoyed the film songs brought to their hearth and hearts by the transistor radio. They were familiar with names of singers like Mohammad Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh and Talat Mahmood, names of lyricists like Anand Bakshi and Majrooh Sultanpuri and names of composers like Naushad and S.D Burman. These names, representative of the cultural and ethnic diversity of India became household names for the common Indian. The cultural artifices they produced together, ignited an idea of India in the imagination of the Indian.<\/p>\n

\"Khwaja

Khwaja Ahmad Abbas<\/p><\/div>\n

The power of popular culture to act as a unifier had been grossly under estimated by the nation builders. In October 1939, Khwaja Ahmed Abbas wrote in a letter to Mahatma Gandhi, \u201cToday I bring for your scrutiny and approval<\/em> a new toy my generation has learnt to play with \u2013 the CINEMA! \u00a0In two of your recent statements I have been surprised and pained to find Cinema mentioned in (what appears to me) slightly contemptuous terms\u2026 All I wish to say is that cinema is an art, a medium of expression and therefore it is unfair to condemn it because of the questionable character of some (or most) of the films.\u201d In the same letter, Abbas enlisted the social and educational activities carried out through films in foreign countries. He concluded, \u201cYou are a great soul, Bapu. In your heart there is no room for prejudice. Give this little toy of ours, the cinema, which is not so useless as it looks, a little of your attention and bless it with a sign of toleration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Udayer

Films like Udayer Pathey<\/em> furthered the cause of nationalism<\/p><\/div>\n

Indeed, as Biren Das Sharma writes in his book Indian Cinema: Contemporary Perceptions from the Thirties, <\/em>the Indian film industry, particularly in the Studio Era of the thirties, \u201cwanted to come to terms with the political leadership. With help and guidance from the \u2018national\u2019 leadership, the industry aspired to rise as a national industry.\u201d In spite of furthering the cause of Nationalism through films like Chandidas, Udayer Pathe, <\/em>news footage Funeral Procession of Jatin Das, <\/em>in spite of imposition of the Indian Cinematograph Act in 1918 and ruthless banning and censoring of films, the Indian Nationalist leaders failed to give any support to the film industry, leave along understand the medium\u2019s potential to ignite the mind of its audience. Das Sharma writes, \u201cIt is understandable to the extent that most of the Indian politicians had not seen politically important films like Battleship Potemkin, <\/em>but this could not be the sole cause of such total apathy to the medium.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Jawhar Sircar, the apathy and indifference continued in the post-Independence era. BV Keskar, who was the Minister of Information and Broadcasting from 1952 to 1962, will be remembered for popularizing Indian classical music on All India Radio. He will also be remembered for banning Hindi film music, cricket commentary and harmonium on AIR.<\/p>\n

Dr.B.V.Keskar, the then Information Broadcasting Minister in the middle wearing the Indian achkan (Pic: NewsIn.Asia)<\/p><\/div>\n

Yet, popular culture had its own way of reaching out to the population. It all started with Radio Ceylon. Towards the end of World War II, the Allied Forces were in a precarious position in South East Asia. The Japanese had captured Burma and Malaysia. The Japanese radio broadcast \u2018fake news\u2019 in English, which the British had to counter. They decided to set up three short wave transmitters in South India. But land was not available from the princely states. So they decided to shift to Ceylon. Three powerful transmitters were set up just outside Colombo. The transmissions would carry the signals as far as Australia.<\/p>\n

When the British left, they gifted the transmitters to the Govt of Ceylon because the cost of dismantling was prohibitive. For the Govt of Ceylon, these transmitters were a while elephant. To recover the cost of running the transmitters, the Govt decided to start commercial services. That is when Ameen Sayani was roped in and a 45-minutes-long programme based on Hindi film songs started in 1952. This programme, famous as Binaca Geet Mala, took India by storm. Sayani\u2019s style and panache, voice modulation and pronunciation, choice of words and compose, made him the golden man of radio.<\/p>\n

Radio Ceylon ~ Saturday Morning ~ Ameen Sayani<\/span><\/p>\n