Remember those days sitting by the radio and listening to one's favourite songs or programmes that promoted one's favourite film stars. They are all forever etched in one's minds and have perhaps slipped into one's subconsciousness but they are still there. Now as the world grabbles with this coronavirus, memories from a different age are being pulled back to center stage.
As Doordarshan showcases serials from the '80s and the '90s, All India Radio, Panjim has been doing something similar. It has uploading radio plays from the days before liberation to the seventies, eighties, and later. Plays like Avoi Bapaichem Aikat, Fantodd Kirnam, Jache Hatant Steering, Pratimabhang, Ghorabo and Azro Zai to name just a few. Savio de Noronha, Programming Executive AIR said this was an initiative by the CEO of Prasar Bharati to bring the world of iconic radio plays to its listeners and viewers. He said air stations around the country had joined hands to launch radio plays in different languages so as to enable not only people in India, but the Indian community around the world to enjoy some great productions of the past and present.
Noronha said Shashi Shekhar Vempati, CEO Prasar Bharati felt that giving the country some treasures of the past on AIR and DD would be a boon to the people of India during the lockdown period. So, heeding CEO's call and encouraged by the Zonal Head Shri Neeraj Agarwal, along with a team consisting of Bambino Dias, Cher Fernandes, Lourdes Soares, Norman Fernandes, Rheanne da Silva, a brainstorming session was conducted and it was decided to work on this as quickly as possible, well past midnight on certain days. Savio said "Besides this format being unique to AIR, we had to ensure that the digital generation of today has to understand what it's all about. So, the team worked on some graphics and descriptions wherein we could properly explain this concept in a way that the You Tubers of today can easily understand and be entertained. So, when our CEO, Prasar Bharati personally tweeted about these Iconic Konkani Radio Plays, it was a moment to celebrate."
Saish Deshpande who was involved in the recording of these plays in the '90s said it was an interesting but backbreaking experience for him. He said "Those days I would record, mix, edit, conduct rehearsals. In the earlier spell, it would take two days to edit the plays. It was physically painful. We used to record on a spool, then edit on the spool and even mix sound effects on the spool. We could only do one thing at a time. It was a tougher job then. Today we are recording it digitally, I miss the warmth in dialogue delivery which was obvious in the recording then".
Many of the plays uploaded were first aired by Emissora de Goa (the name of the radio station during Portuguese rule in Goa). Consisting of nataks and musical plays their immense popularity meant the tradition was continued after the advent of All India Radio in liberated Goa post-1961. Radio Plays are still a part of AIR's broadcasts. The nataks are plays consisting of a story divided into smaller scenes. While they may or may not have songs and music, they convey important & meaningful social messages in a very innovative way while also re-enacting a lot of stories that have become a part and parcel of local Goan folklore.
The musical plays on the other hand called Sangeet Khell in Konkani, is a unique & popular form of plays with the story intertwined with songs that have a local flavour. It's a radio adaptation of the very popular Goan form of drama called Tiatro. The lyrics & music of all the songs called 'Cantos' are original compositions.
Noronha ended by saying the radio station intended to keep broadcasting interesting content to ensure interest stayed high and people would continue to learn more about their culture.
Forwarded by :- Shri. Jhavendra Kumar Dhruw & Shri. Niraj Agarwal
jhavendra.dhruw@gmail.com