How Ameen Sayani found his voice

Behenon aur bhaiyyonhellip Half a century ago the words held us in thrall The warmest greeting to waft from the radio Sisters and brothers was a respectful inversion to cheer Flipping the conventional Bhaiyyon aur behenon salutation with amazing adab was of course the redoubtable Ameen Sayani With justright cool at the mic and typically tender lilting tone the man behind what must be the most mellifluous announcement in broadcast history compered over 54000 radio programmes jingles and spotsBinaca Geetmala on Radio Ceylon defined him The smash hit show presenting top listeners choices in Hindi film songs saw spiralling lakhs of households tune in for this Wednesday evening hour Kids collected Binaca charms miniature toy animals packed with Binaca toothpaste tubes We named and secretly traded these plastic delights in hissy whispers at morning school assemblymdashwhy keep two of Slow the snail or Tarzan the tapirIn middle class homes television was yet to invade the radio crackled centrestage That orange flicker from my familys big Bush set seemed to blaze brighter at 8 pm midweek caressed by the pitchperfect inflection of Main aapka dost Ameen Sayani bol raha hoon aur aap sun rahe hain Binaca Geetmala His infectious presence on air the way he ruled its waves with passion and perception had generations gravitate towards radio as a lifelong companionAmeen Sayani at his Churchgate home surrounded by trophies and film jubilee mementoes marking highlights of a stellar internationally renowned 80year innings in the broadcast world PicPradeep DhivarWhen the British exited Ceylon they left behind powerful shortwave transmitters belonging to Mountbattens SouthEast Asia Command Colombo used them for commercial radio offerings in Sinhalese English Tamil and the very lucrative HindiBeginning in 1952 as a model version of what evolved as the ultimate countdown for Hindi film songs based on popularity Binaca Geetmala was the Radio Ceylon rage By the end of the 70s its estimated weekly listenership was around 21 crores Letters from people pouring in by the gunny bagful swelled to a staggering 65000 per week The rankings show boasted the most idolised radio station host any channel hoped to have Geetmala shifted to Vividh Bharati on All India Radio AIR from 1989 to the mid1990sAt a RAPA Radio and Television Advertising Practitioners Association function with Amitabh Bachchan and veteran voices Vinod Sharma and Pramod Dasgupta Pics Courtesy Ameen SayaniSayani compered fashion shows and Made for Each Other couples contests acted in English and Gujarati theatre the twinkle in his eye dances even deeper when he warbles ditties from Adi Marzban revues and joined the countrys sole secular choir Formed in 1958 by Salil Chowdhury and Ruma Guha Thakurta the Bombay Youth Choir performed songs of different Indian languages arranged in western choral patternsI interview the legend at his Colaba studio office where son Rajil devotedly ensures small boxes of nuts and fruit appear on his desk at regular intervals The famed fathers voice rings with every syllable of the joyful affability it always has the tone deliberately upped to drown the din of road repair outside Sipping chai from a mug printed Quizzing is my kind of fun taking over the Bournvita Quiz Contest from elder brother and guru Hamid after his death in 1975 he swung it forward another eight years Ameen Saab recounts how he became a household name throughout South Asia and parts of the Middle East and EuropeAmeen Sayani and wife Rama Mattu an accomplished singer and voice artisteAppearing as an announcer in movies including Bhoot Bangla Boxer Teen Devian and Qatl in 2016 after a sabbatical he voiced the promo of Rustom with undimmed gusto Inspiring how he follows a schedule as gloriously devoted to the medium as can be managed at 87 with sciatica pain Calling to factcheck one morning I find he has returned home at 2 am after attending a music awards night What else to expect from stillthemostimitated announcer on the subcontinent Ji haan behenon aur bhaiyon Ameen Sayani remains the quality benchmark in the radio and compering worlds Over to the mesmerising voicehellipWith actors Ashok Kumar and PranMy grounding in Hindi resulted from helping my activist mother Kulsum produce Rahber editions from 1940 to 1960 A champion of literacy she published Rahber Leader in Devnagri Urdu and Gujarati from our Cumballa Hill home The newspaper advocated simple Hindustani as a unifying languageWe never had much money but were well taken care of My brother Hamid was six years older and Habib six years senior to him Our father Jan Mohamed Sayani a physician treated poor patients for free often paying for their medicines A square handcranked gramophone he brought exposed us to KL Saigal and Pankaj MullickGoing on air as a sevenyearold well before my voice broke was thanks to Hamid At New Era School I scored good English grades It was an education encouraging Gujarati in the primary years balanced by Rabindra Sangeet taught by Pinakin Trivedi and Shahaab Saab the excellent Munshiji for basic Hindustani and PersianEntrenched in the broadcasting world Hamid literally led me by the hand into the AIR station at Churchgate Showing me a wire recorder he said Speak Ill play it back I burst into If I were Lord of Tartary by Walter de la Mare When he rewound the recitation sounded tinny Tutored for refined pronunciation and projection understanding gliding diphthongs and triphthongs I voiced childrens shows By 13 these progressed to roles in radio playsA light moment with Hema MaliniAt school in Gwalior I outgrew Bambai ki khichdi bhaasha A kidney problem I developed worried my parents At the recommendation of family friends they moved me to the Scindia School in Gwalior as a Senior Cambridge boarder Within a month of joining I acted as a drunk waiter in The Crimson Coconut There ensued several extracurricular activities giving me more confidence in Hindi On that dreadful day of Gandhijis assassination I made a firm resolution News of those gunshots reached us in the Common Room I was determined as naye Bharat ka naya naujawan I would work in our raashtra bhaasha Back in Bombay the AIR chiefs heard I was keen on Hindi broadcasting An audition proved that despite good reading of a script my diction needed to lose English and Gujarati cadencesReward after rejection Ovaltine Phulwari paved the path for Binaca Geetmala Minister for Information and Broadcasting BV Keskars ban from 1952 on film songs sadly meant mass disposal of 78rpm records While AIR slid Radio Ceylon bloomed Daniel Molina an American in Bombay stepped in to opportunely establish Radio Advertising Services Hamid ran its production wing with greats like Balgovind Shrivastav and Manmohan KrishnaWith Sunil Dutt celebrating Geetmalarsquos silver anniversaryTo improve my Hindustani accent I attended sessions at the radio technology training studio in St Xaviers College One day an announcer for the Ovaltine Phulwari programme which discovered promising singers did not show up Spotting me hang around Shrivastavji asked if I would read three Hindi commercials I punched them with the volume of Mark Antonys speech Chillaana kyon Yeh radio programme hain kushti ka akhaada nahi I was advised and quietenedHappygolucky Greg as he was called compered the English pop Binaca Hit Parade which spawned Geetmala Greg Rostowski whose family owned Hotel Nippon in downtown Colombo boomed familiarly on the Commercial Service of Radio Ceylon and All Asia Service Audiences flooded the station with requests for a similar Hindi film songs countdown Binaca Geetmala was born A notice in our office advertised the duties expected of a producerscriptwritercompere for the intended new show at a weekly fee of R25 I raised my hand and said Ill do itI longed for 200300 letters from listeners of the first show in December 1952 I got 9000 Having waited with bated breath for the inaugural broadcast I prayed to God Gandhiji and my mother for a decent amount of mail On getting 9000 letters the entire agency jumped for joy Enlisting friends to sort and sift from this flood I readied winners lists in time to be live from Radio Ceylon along with the second programmeMeeting my wife Rama Mattu had an interesting preludeQuite remarkably the New Era School principal MT Vyas had told my parents Your boy will marry a Kashmiri girl Written in gold letters in my heart that line turned reality when I met Rama a voice artiste and singer whose uncle headed Hindi music at AIR Our son Rajil called her a music encyclopediaAmong the virtuosos I struck lasting friendships with were Roshan Kishore Kumar Pancham son of everyones father figure SD Burman Shankar Jaikishan and Kalyanji Anandji whose stage shows I compered worldwide including one which introduced Amitabh BachchanThe best radio programme is one you see with every listener feeling addressed individually by the host The sincere presenter creates a personal equation as binding as a lovers embrace warm as a true friends handshake A compere should mind seven Ss sahi correct satya true saral simple spasht clear sabhya decent sundar beautiful and swabhavik naturalOnce among the most beautiful cities in the world ours has visibly changed I wonder at tourists visiting the Churchgate railway office strangely enamoured by our dabbawalas But Bombay has certainly enjoyed far better daysAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay Reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomwwwmehermarfatiacomCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates