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Old songs on the net

Ever wondered how that old Naushad or R.D. Burman number originated? To get answers you don't have to trawl through some film archive now, try the Internet instead

FACTS ON CLASSICS An online forum provides answers to most questions on old Hindi film songs

Does this old Hindi film number sung by Manna Dey ring a bell? "Tero Naam Omkar Gawat Sab Baar Baar Laaj Keri Tere Haath Jag Ke O Khewaiya Udr Tananan Dhim."

Or did you know that Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle in Kala Pani have used a very catchy theme tune from the Woody Woodpecker cartoons at the very beginning of "Achcha Ji Main Hari"? Want to know more on the songs by Naushad Ali, R. D. Burman or Kishore Kumar?

Now where did I pick this stuff up considering that I am no big Hindi film buff? Well, it so happens that a few buffs have come together and created an online forum where they can get answers to their most nagging questions on old Hindi film music, dig up interesting facts about the music and more importantly try to ensure that the music does not fade away with ageing LPs and cassettes.

Rec.music.Indian.misc (RMIM) it is called and is classified as a Usenet/newsgroup on the Internet.

RMIM was started in 1993 and it is an open group where any net user can post messages. It's name spread round the world a long time ago and has users almost everywhere, and they now organise meetings to meet up in the real world. The trend it seems first started in New Jersey where users within driving distance caught up with each other and today meetings happen everywhere. Browsing through the posts on RMIM, it is hard to believe that this is the number of people who still take time out for music, some of which is over three decades old now. So, I set about trying to get in touch with a few of the users to get a sampling of the passion that drives them.

One of the first to respond to my emails was a user Pavan Jha from Jaipur. He says he came across RMIM in 1997 when he first started using the Internet in Jaipur.

First home on Internet

"After just a few days of interaction I found I had come to the right place and met the right kind of people I was looking for. RMIM became my first home on Internet with a family of like-minded friends. Let me give you an example, prior to the net family, I had friends but sometimes even after spending a lot of time together we never knew if we had common interests. Sometimes you never interacted on many things even though the friends may have originated from your family, colony, school, college or workplace. But on a group like RMIM, its other way round, you interact on common interest first and then make friends."

Deepak Sabnis is another user but based very far away on the west coast of the U.S. He says RMIM pre-dates the Internet and he has been involved with it almost from the time of its inception.

"RMIM pre-dates the Internet as we know it now. It is really a part of Usenet, which existed before Netscape came out with its web browser. I used to peruse one of the early groups called soc.culture.indian. That newsgroup got too noisy and some people proposed creation of RMIM. I voted for its creation and have been a member ever since."

One the things that Sabnis and Jha are serious about like all the other RMIM members is to identify old numbers and try to trace them to either music companies or collectors. In fact Sabnis says it is his "pet peeve" that Indians don't care about preserving their culture.

"There is a great need to have the equivalent of U.S. Library of Congress in India. Yes, we have the Film Institute in Pune and other national archives but they don't have adequate funding to support preservation of art. There is also a need for easy public access to what they have in their archives. All India Radio is probably sitting on a treasure trove of music they broadcast over the years. Every once in a while I see a CD that seems to come from that archive. How about digitising what they have and making it available to the public. Publish on tapes, CDs and make it available for download on the Internet (on a paid basis of course). RPG enterprises own copy right to old Hindi film music. But they don't care about the quality of CDs they put on the market," he argues and Jha adds: "Not much of music cataloguing has been taken up with information technology, but on RMIM a lot of people have contributed to come up with a lyrics store of more than 10,000 songs."

Info on songs

"There is a song by Gulzar from the film Do Dooni Chaar. `Hawaaon pe likh do hawaaon ke naam, hum anjaan pardesiyon ka salaam'. I found out the meaning of the lines only when I interacted with people on RMIM. People without faces, but know each other like a close friend and share a common interest. Sometimes they help you with something that you've been searching for long. Who would not like to meet such people in person? I am very sure the first time I meet someone I have known for quite long but haven't seen, a million dollar smile will be exchanged and a couple of songs might hummed at that instant."

ANAND SANKAR

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