Undying strains

Unheard melodies may sound sweeter to a certain kind of poet. But this is not the reason why the initiative of a state-run broadcasting orga...

Unheard melodies may sound sweeter to a certain kind of poet. But this is not the reason why the initiative of a state-run broadcasting organisation to save an entire genre of music merits attention and applause. It is not nostalgia, but a concern for this country8217;s rich heritage, that should prompt such an enthusiastic response to All India Radio8217;s decision to revive works of recorded music that had been officially outlawed, although not formally censored.

Some 18 years ago, AIR had ordered its stations to get rid of music records of unacceptable vintage. Therefore out went the discs of an allegedly dated order. This process of weeding out was done in a blind and bureaucratic manner, with no attempt made to evaluate them on the basis of their quality.

While some were locked away in cupboards like embarrassing skeletons, quite a few others were actually consigned underground. If accommodation in stations and studios was the problem, surely storage space could have been found for them elsewhere or, at veryleast, they could have been handed over to the custody of music lovers. That, however, was not the broadcasting bureaucrat8217;s idea of the old yielding place to the new. It is this treasure chest of melodies that is now being exhumed from AIR8217;s backyard.

And this is just as it should be. Akashvani, after all, has long catered to the ear of the masses, and the main purveyor of popular music for decades is obviously the best-equipped to preserve it. The few examples cited of the expected finds, from the genre of Hindi film and non-film songs alone, suffice to show how rewarding the entire exercise can be. Especially if it is extended to cover songs of this kind in other Indian languages, many of which are on the brink of extinction. An idea of the dimensions of the tragedy that AIR can help avert is provided by the fact that unspecified renditions of the immortal K.L. Saigal are among the still extant specimens waiting to be saved, along with inimitably pioneering pieces of instrumental music by Pandit RaviShankar and Ustad Bismillah Khan.

To emerge from AIR8217;s graves are also strains of film playback singers like Mubarak Begum, which had haunted listeners not very long ago. Several other gems of similar richness can be recalled by many from the radio generation from S.G. Kittappa8217;s street play songs in Tamil to the Rabindrasangeet of Pankaj Mullick, from old Malayalam favourites like Maanennum vilikkilla8217; or the Moplah8217;s love song to his Sainaba8217; to Kumar Gandharva8217;s early musical essays.

There is, however, more to this exercise than resurrecting the song and the singer. The voices it aims to save and preserve are, after all, a part of a history which no country that takes pride in its culture can allow to slip into oblivion. There is a lesson to be learnt from the sad fact that the 78- revolutions-per-minute discs were consigned to oblivion by an innovation that was nothing comparable to the revolution lately unleashed and currently being carried forward in entertainment electronics. The medium alonecannot be the message in such cases. Technological innovation is all very well and to be encouraged for sure, but it must help revive not extinguish a priceless heritage.