It has nearly been 2 years since Anurag Basu's Jagga Jasoos hit the theatres. The film itself might not have ticked the box office collection box, however, warrants a special place in heart of the audience. Film lovers from this side of India will immediately relate to all the Ray references and tributes strewn about in the film and it had many other reasons too, for being loved as a musical and would require another post for a fitting review.
Even if you have not seen the film, the music associated with it is hard to miss the ears. The Arijit Singh wave that shows no signs of ebbing only reinforces my argument. One of the songs in the album goes:
Even if you have not seen the film, the music associated with it is hard to miss the ears. The Arijit Singh wave that shows no signs of ebbing only reinforces my argument. One of the songs in the album goes:
Mera Gaon Jhumritalaiyya Hai
Tera Gaon Shayad Timbuktu
Jinko Milna
Hota Milte Hai
Chahe Phir
Ho jaye Udan chu...
The
lyrics for this one, does seem quirky and somewhat brings back memories
doesn't it? If not for Jhumritalaiyya, then surely for Timbuktu. We
surely have the name Timbuktu somewhere in our subconscious and perhaps
imagined it to be a distant place in the middle of nowhere, as a kid.
But what about Jhumritalaiyya? Does this name has any relevance?We
need to go back by few decades into the days of radio to know how
Jhumritalaiyya became a popular song in a musical of 2017....
A
contemporary of the All India Radio, Radio Ceylon's Binaca Geetmala was
a really popular radio programme for listening to Hindi Film songs.
Now, if you wish to request, dedicate or simply listen to a song on the
radio shows today, you would be sending a message on Whatsapp, Facebook
or use the good old SMS service. The Geetmala and Vividh Bharti required
you to send your request by post! Jhumri
Telaiya, is a real place located in Koderma District of Jharkhand. It
has been a hub of mica mining since the days of the British. Now, during
the radio days, the rich mica merchants from this region started
sending out song requests to Vividh Bharti. The name of the sender as
well as the name of the sender's city, town or village was read out
before the song was played. This simple act of reading out names soon
caught the fancy of the businessmen. They had ample leisure and began to
send out such requests in bulk, and the whole India began listening to
the name Jhumri Telaiya being mentioned again and again in every show.
Soon
this trend of hearing one's name being mentioned in the radio show
caught among others in the town too. Hence the number of requests from
Jhumri Telaiya only increased. Along with the name of senders, the
somewhat unusual name of the town also stuck to the ears of the
listeners throughout India. The excessive number of requests even
prompted some listeners to think, that Jhumri Telaiya may not even be a
real place and show organizers were simply repeating the name as they
did not receive enough song requests!
Imagine
how the days were, with the entire community listening to the same
songs, same voices at the same time. The radio perhaps kept our country
united in more ways than we can ever imagine. The cult of Jhumritalaiyya
was born in this manner and continued till the advent of television in
households.
Incredelous
as it may seem, but is the Jhumritalaiyya episode entirely unfamiliar?
Well, let's say the folks from this place were the first ones to #trend
their city's name throughout India. Yes! long before the advent of
Facebook,Twitter and hashtags!
The
song Jhumritalaiyya has been written very fittingly by one Neelesh
Mishra. I could go on raving about his lyrics, poetry and Yaadon ka
Idiotbox for many paragraphs. But let's keep that for some other day.So,
here's to the radio days and simpler times, May Jhumritalaiyya,
Geetmala and even Chitrahaar and Rangoli live on in our nostalgia
forever!
