Going down memory lane with ‘Binaca Salami’ musical bonanza

Nagpur: It as a perfect stage to acknowledge the contribution of famous radio presenter Ameen Sayani and his iconic show ‘Binaca Geetmala’.
Organized by Jyeshtha Gandharva Swar Mandal ‘Binaca Salami (1953-93)’ left the audience awestruck and brought a sense of nostalgia, at Scientific Society Hall, Laxmi Nagar, on Saturday.
The event began with the lighting of the lamp by chief guest Ajay Saran, former general manager of Coal India Limited, and his wife Sharmila.The guest of honour was Beni Das who at the age of 70 years is also contributing to live music.
This melodious programme was articulately conceptualized by Chitaranjan Samantray while his wife Lipi sang a song to the heart’s content of the gathering. Speaking to TOI, Chitaranjan said, “It’s a unique event for the simple fact that it was presented by old and experienced singers. Some were as old as 70 years and most cast a magic spell.”
Shubhangi Rayulu managed to attract the audience’s attention through her anchoring. The songs which made the evening wonderful were advised by Jayant Joshi.
‘Binaca Geetmala’ was a weekly radio show which was hosted by Ameen Sayani, and was broadcast on Radio Ceylon from 1952-88 and thereafter on All India Radio till 1994. This programme used to be featured every Wednesday where 16 most popular songs were played. It was an effort of Jyeshtha Gandharva Swar Mandal under the guidance of their president Prakash Pande to relive those moments.
A bunch of tuneful singers left the crowd mesmerized. They were Prakash Pandey, Abhijeet Oke, Nilima Mohite, Rupa Meshram, Manashree Joshi, Dipali Sapre, Dilip Sapate and Lipi Samantray. All of them collectively sang 28 beautiful songs, some of them were chartbusters like, ‘Jaaye toh jaaye kahan’, ‘Pyaar kiya toh darna kya’, ‘Aap jaisa koi’, ‘Parde mei rehne do’, ‘Yeh zindagi usi ki hai’, ‘Bekarar kar ke’ and many more vintage hits.
The songs were wonderfully played by the team of musicians, where Pavan and Mahendra were on keyboard, Ashok on dholak, Aniket on table, Rugved on guitar, Mahendra on octopod. Tushar Vighne was the music arranger and was on congo and minor. Pawan Borkute and team handled the sound system. This was wonderfully complimented by Santro Lights with their lighting.
(Reporting by Manan Daga)