I grew up in Delhi in the '60s and '70s and like many others of my generation, the Vividh Bharti service of All India Radio was our main source of entertainment. This service was introduced to counter the popularity of Radio Ceylon (as it was then known) about six decades ago and I believe, is still going strong - I haven't listened to it for some time.
Vividh Bharati was on the air at home for most of the day and considering that I used to listen to it for at least four hours a day, I consider myself to have very good knowledge of Hindi film songs of this period. Even today, just by hearing the opening bars of many of these songs, I can reel off the names of the film, the singer(s), the music director, the lyricist and in quite a few cases, the names of the hero and the heroine on whom these were picturised, too. Being part of a couple of music groups on social media has only sharpened these memories.
The air waves further enabled the common man by listening to these songs to appreciate the subtlety of Urdu poetry, the earthiness of Bhojpuri and folk music, Hindi filmdom's version of popular Western tunes , the tanginess of Punjabi beats and the comfort of conversational Hindi, especially the tapori boli of Mumbai. They also exposed the lay public to classical tunes, ghazals, qawwalis, Western pop, the bhatiyali tunes of Bengal to just name a few influences - quite a wide range, isn't it?
The biggest impact of Vividh Bharati was the democratisation of music - this was an endeavour which took music literally to the masses. One of the earliest ploys to involve listeners was the reading out of the names of those who had mailed requests for the song - the 'farmaish', as it was called. Even the names of some of the towns from these which listeners hailed sounded like music to the ears - Kapurthala, Bazida Jattan, Gharaonda, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Saraikella, Murshidabad, Rajnandgaon, Ambikapur, Akola, Amravati, Porbandar and of course Jhumri Tillaiya. It is a different matter altogether that when one's personal or business travels took one to or through some of these towns, later in life, the mind found it very difficult to reconcile the reality of what one saw with the images one had earlier conjured !
Jhumri Tillaiya for instance, at least to me, raises visions of green hills and burbling streams. In reality, however, this small town grew big because of its proximity to mica deposits and the consequent mining of mica. Any mining, especially if it is open cast, cannot be healthy for vegetation and the minute I found out about mica in this place, bang went the visions of verdant hills and tinkling rivers ! How and why Jhumri Tillaiya became so important on Vividh Bharti is a totally fascinating story however and this link which I found on the Internet will throw a lot of light: https://www.thebetterindia.com/91535/jhumri-telaiya-koderma-jharkhand-mica-radio-kalakand/
Vividh Bharti's reach was not restricted to Hindi film music - it was equally effective in popularising music from other parts of India, especially the Southern states. I have focused on Hindi film music as I am most conversant with this genre. Hopefully, the next time you hear Vividh Bharti or of Jhumri Tillaiya, you will think of both together!
Vividh Bharati was on the air at home for most of the day and considering that I used to listen to it for at least four hours a day, I consider myself to have very good knowledge of Hindi film songs of this period. Even today, just by hearing the opening bars of many of these songs, I can reel off the names of the film, the singer(s), the music director, the lyricist and in quite a few cases, the names of the hero and the heroine on whom these were picturised, too. Being part of a couple of music groups on social media has only sharpened these memories.
The air waves further enabled the common man by listening to these songs to appreciate the subtlety of Urdu poetry, the earthiness of Bhojpuri and folk music, Hindi filmdom's version of popular Western tunes , the tanginess of Punjabi beats and the comfort of conversational Hindi, especially the tapori boli of Mumbai. They also exposed the lay public to classical tunes, ghazals, qawwalis, Western pop, the bhatiyali tunes of Bengal to just name a few influences - quite a wide range, isn't it?
The biggest impact of Vividh Bharati was the democratisation of music - this was an endeavour which took music literally to the masses. One of the earliest ploys to involve listeners was the reading out of the names of those who had mailed requests for the song - the 'farmaish', as it was called. Even the names of some of the towns from these which listeners hailed sounded like music to the ears - Kapurthala, Bazida Jattan, Gharaonda, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Saraikella, Murshidabad, Rajnandgaon, Ambikapur, Akola, Amravati, Porbandar and of course Jhumri Tillaiya. It is a different matter altogether that when one's personal or business travels took one to or through some of these towns, later in life, the mind found it very difficult to reconcile the reality of what one saw with the images one had earlier conjured !
Jhumri Tillaiya for instance, at least to me, raises visions of green hills and burbling streams. In reality, however, this small town grew big because of its proximity to mica deposits and the consequent mining of mica. Any mining, especially if it is open cast, cannot be healthy for vegetation and the minute I found out about mica in this place, bang went the visions of verdant hills and tinkling rivers ! How and why Jhumri Tillaiya became so important on Vividh Bharti is a totally fascinating story however and this link which I found on the Internet will throw a lot of light: https://www.thebetterindia.com/91535/jhumri-telaiya-koderma-jharkhand-mica-radio-kalakand/
Vividh Bharti's reach was not restricted to Hindi film music - it was equally effective in popularising music from other parts of India, especially the Southern states. I have focused on Hindi film music as I am most conversant with this genre. Hopefully, the next time you hear Vividh Bharti or of Jhumri Tillaiya, you will think of both together!
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