Compere par excellence …

Couple of months back, there was an article in the Indian Express by some Bengali academic who had compared the presentation styles of Ameen Sayani (of the eternal Binaca Geet mala fame) and Karan Johar, in his avatar as the host of Coffee with Karan. It was an interesting article analyzing the reason for the popularity of Ameen Sayani over the years. Imagine someone who literally introduced millions of Indians to the Vividh Bharati and weaned them away from ‘Ceylon radio’, continuing in the same vein to this day, being able to directly influence the popularity of radio channels, even in this FM age!

‘Sangeet sitaron ki mehfil mein’ (loosely translated as – in the august company of the stars of music: Can there be a direct word that can substitute mehfil!) is the program that currently runs on one of the FM channels. The last ‘episode’ is testimony to why there can be none like Ameen Sayani. It was on that great singer whose voice and style evokes emotions as mixed as passion, angst, pathos, melancholy and romance in the same song. Yes, the one and only Kishore Kumar. Here’s where Ameen’s presentation style makes the programme one of its kind. Did he select an old interview with the great singer himself? Or did he go into nostalgic memories of ‘those good old days’. Or maybe, did he get tit-bits of comments of the great contemporaries of that era on Kishore. He did none of these, but at the same time journeyed through a myriad and at times strange mix of all of these, and still managed to keep the listener engrossed in the flow of the story. Here’s how.

He took a live event held in Los Angeles (of all places!) in 1978, where Ameen himself was the compere, and started off with Ameen’s introduction of Kishore. And then, the great one, introduced himself in what Ameen reflects as his ‘standard’ way of introduction, calling himself Kishore Kumar Khandvawala! Ameen interspersed this with how Kishore used to regale Khandva walas, whenever he used to visit them. Ameen mentions what Sandip Ray (the legendary Satyajit Ray’s son) had to say about Kishore and Khandva in an interview. But, the class of Ameen comes across, when he gives a teaser that this will be part of a later episode! Then, after the customary inaugural song, Ameen played excerpts of his interview with Kishore’s son Amit Kumar. Amit narrated as to how his father chanced upon his son to play the role in a movie. Then the song ‘Aa chalke tuche, mein leke chaloon’ was played from the LA event! Then came an excerpt from an interview of Ameen with Talat Mahmood, wherein the legendary singer narrated as to how shy Kishore was in his initial days. It seems, he was so shy that among the then greats, Kishore stayed out of a ‘live’ event – a fundraiser in Mumbai, because he was too shy to play-act-sing on stage! This, Ameen, followed up with a boisterous Kishore on stage in LA, singing ‘Mere sapnon ki rani’. Followed by Kishore requesting the audience to be ready for some ‘heavy stuff’, adding “samach rahe hain aap”, and following up with the ever-soulful, melancholic “Chingari koi”, sung by Kishore in a “different” style. Ameen ending the episode with a promise that he’s keeping Kishore and Lata on stage in London for the next week. As the English folk say, ain’t I licking my lips for that one … eh!

Rain, rain please go away!

It poured, and how! The heavens came tumbling down, opening their floodgates and all hell broke loose down below. It was as if someone up there had asked Indra, portrayed in Hindu mythology as an arrogant god with questionable morals, as to what his full fury and latent power was!

I, for one, never thought that this would ever be the title on a piece, especially after what I had written the previous time. As they say, weather is so unpredictable! Even that fantastic of inventions, the computer, was actually invented to “predict” weather, is what I have read somewhere. Mumbai – July 26th became the latest in a series of natural tragedies happening on 26th of a month, (remember Gujarat earthquake? And tsunami?)

To anyone asking her age, athai (aunt) used to tell that she was born in ’99, the year of the great flood. (’99 stood for 1099, and as per that calendar, the current year is 1182). Similarly the generation that was witness to July 26 in Mumbai, will tell the next “The year of the great flood”. Hope this is the case, for this year has already seen the “great wave” and the “great rains”. Let us all pay obeisance to Mother Nature and hope for the best, but then, prepare for the worst. Just in case …