Ameen Sayani, the golden voice of India that revolutionised radio presentation, falls silent

For decades, one cocked one’s ears to “Binaca Geetmala”, as Sayani entered our homes and hearts and played the top 10 every Wednesday, loyalties bought forever by Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and Kishore Kumar, and his reassuring commentary stitching it all together for a young nation trying to walk.

Sayani, the golden voice that revolutionised radio presentation in India, died Tuesday night of a cardiac arrest at his Mumbai home. He was 91.

For decades, one cocked one’s ears to “Binaca Geetmala”, as Ameen Sayani entered our homes and hearts and played the top 10 every Wednesday. (Express archive photo)

“I wanted each listener to feel that I was talking to them and that immediately struck a chord. I didn’t expect it to become a phenomenon,” he told The Indian Express in a 2014 interview.

Born in 1932 to Kulsum Sayani and doctor father Jan Mohammad Sayani, both of whom were freedom fighters, Sayani grew up amid an academic atmosphere throbbing with ideas of liberty, its significance, and how language and culture could play a significant role in bringing people together.

While his father held charge of a hospital taking care of the wounded during the freedom struggle, his mother and educationist Kulsum, whose own father Rajabally Patel had been the personal physician to Mahatma Gandhi and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, started a fortnightly newsletter, Rahber.

Born in 1932, Ameen Sayani grew up amid an academic atmosphere throbbing with ideas of liberty, its significance, and how language and culture could play a significant role in bringing people together. (Express archive photo)

The newsletter, on Mahatma Gandhi’s advice, was brought out in Hindustani — a blend of Hindi and Urdu. Gandhi wanted Hindustani to become the lingua franca of India, thinking that it could bind the nation after Independence. This was a time of much conflict and politicisation over language and relegion wherein Hindi and Urdu supporters used heavy words from Sanskrit and Persian, respectively, to establish superiority of either language. Rahber, which began in 1940, stuck to Hindustani, reaching out to many, especially the political prisoners and was a testimony to the idea that language should not be equated with religion.

“So right after Independence, it was a moment of pride to speak in Hindustani. More so, if you did it over All India Radio,” Sayani told The Indian Express in 2016.

So here was Sayani then, speaking in Hindustani and with his potli of film songs, and reaching the remotest parts of the country where people could not read and write. It was a masterstroke. Subversive even. It was significant because months before he joined AIR, Hindi in Devnagri script, along with English, replaced Urdu as the official language as India became a Republic.

Interestingly, Sayani famously failed his first audition at AIR in Mumbai because of a “strong Gujarati and English accent in the spoken Hindustani”. He worked hard on getting his pronunciation right and got the job some months later in 1951.

But Sayani, who had been initiated into broadcasting by his older brother Hamid, a well-known English presenter at the time, continued to speak in Hindustani, one that many understood and which probably could keep things together.

But even after joining AIR in 1951, Sayani’s style and tone were slightly loud. When voice artiste and singer Rama Mattoo, who would marry him some years later, heard his voice for the first time, she asked her brother to switch off the radio. Sayani soon realised that he was going to be in people’s living rooms and could avoid a style that was a bit too frenzied. Since he was entering their living rooms, he decided to converse naturally and normally, like he was a friend discussing and dissecting films and their songs with them over tea. The idea worked. What began as a half-hour programme in December 1951 turned into a rage in 1952. Soon enough, “Binaca Geetmala” was a fixture in the life of a nation.

Ameen Sayani famously failed his first audition at AIR in Mumbai because of a “strong Gujarati and English accent in the spoken Hindustani”. (Express archive photo)

But 1952 was also a time when the government-controlled AIR was uncomfortable with film music’s “westernised” values and felt they could ruin a generation. B V Keskar, the then I&B Minister, banned film music on radio, calling it “erotic and vulgar” and only allowed classical music to be played on air.

After the ban, Sayani began broadcasting his shows from Radio Ceylon, which was initially known for Hit Parade – a countdown of English pop that was popular in India. Letters from fans requesting a similar show on Hindi film music led Clifford Dodd, Director of Commercial Service, Radio Ceylon, to reach out to Sayani. The show which played film songs – was its own form of rebellion. One heard film songs, via Sri Lanka. There was a way around and Sayani took it.

The first show brought in Rs 25 as salary for Sayani and 9,000 letters, some requesting songs and others from women fans who liberally sprinkled romantic adulation for the voice they had fallen in love with.

Ameen Sayani worked till the end. Until recently, he would get ready every day and head to his studio in Mumbai’s Colaba with his son Rajil Sayani, touch up his old work, record something new, and archive old shows.

A few years later, veteran educationist and political activist Aruna Asaf Ali told Sayani that he needed to do these popular shows on AIR and not from Sri Lanka. “I told her my hands were tied. She told me she would speak to Pt Nehru about this, which she did,” Sayani had said.

Vividh Bharti, the commercial broadcast service of AIR, began in 1957 and Hindi film music returned to radio. Sayani, who stayed with Radio Ceylon for a long time, began his sponsored programmes on AIR in 1970. Some of the most significant interviews, including those of Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar and Raj Kapoor were conducted by Sayani.

His favourite remained the show titled “Lata Se Darte Darte”, where he asked Mangeshkar tough questions dealing with royalty issues with Mohammad Rafi, her relationship with sister Asha Bhosle besides intimate questions her personal life – one of the few times Mangeshkar spoke about her life in such detail.

Incidentally, Sayani worked till the end. Until recently, he would get ready every day and head to his studio in Mumbai’s Colaba with his son Rajil Sayani, touch up his old work, record something new, and archive old shows. Towards the end, the iconic voice, its thick timbre, would sometimes be broken by bouts of cough during conversations. But somehow, even at 91, when Sayani spoke through a recording or in a phone call, you dropped everything and just listened.

He took you to an India that once was.