This article is written by Nasir @ HF

We cannot do without movies and their ambience. A cinema-hall is a place where all castes and creeds visit with joy and expectation. We all have, I’m sure, different stories to tell. The younger generations need to know how things were different in the bygone era in this connection. We can go down to the 80’s, 70’e, 60’e, 50’s and even 40’s, depending upon our age and perigrinations.

So, apart from the Indian cities, whether you’re located in L.A. or London, or New Jersey or Australia, or Lahore, or Karachi, please tell us what happened when a particular movie was released, what was the condition of cinema halls, did you attend the premieres? What new things your experienced? No, we don’t need Star connection. You’re the Star. So tell us.

(I will tell one to begin with).

WHEN MELODY WAS KING:.

This we don’t see now for the obvious reasons. But back in the fifties, especially, I noticed as a child that whenever the cinema-goers came out of the cinema-hall, they used to rush to the song-book peddlers. The songs of the old movies used to so melodius that it became a must to purchase a booklet from the peddlers.
The price was One Anna (or six paisa).

Again, we used to hear only some two stanzas of the songs since the space in the records was inadequate. In the movies, therefore, we could enjoy those extra verses.

Some people did crazy stuff too. I remember an incident where a Suraiya’s fan actually fled with all her records. He was caught at Khandala when the police heard those songs emanating from a bungalow. The thief was blissfully enjoying those recorded songs.

Radio broadcasts were a popular source of songs and musics besides the news. We used to enjoy the Radio Ceylon, All India Radio, and Vivadh Bharti. The 7.30 a.m. programme in Radio Ceylon was of old songs of Rafi Sahaab, Lataji, Shamshaad, and others. Later on they started playing K.L. Saigal’s songs towards the end. On the first of the month, we used to hear Kishore’s KHUSH HAI ZAMAANA AAJ PEHLI TARIKH HAI.
The 8 pm. slot was for new songs: AAPKI FARMAISH. The signature tune always began with Naushad Sahaab’s long music (Dastaan?). All India Radio had lots of Afghans who sent in their requests for songs. Later on, with the decline of Radio Ceylon which became Sri Lanka Radio Corporation Vivadh Bharti came into prominence. My favourite was the 7.30 to 8 a.m slot meant for the old songs. Also they told us about Raagas on which those were based. I used to make a list.

And so on and so forth. Wishing to hear from you all too

NASIR.

This blog was published on Sunday, August 6th, 2006 at 12:43 am and Last modified on Sunday, August 6th, 2006 at 8:40 am and is filed under Meri Awaaz Suno. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.