Entertainment in Kanpur meant Hindi movies

My stay in Kanpur was for two years and, in that period, I became a fan of Hindi movies. The period was late 1960 and it was and still is the golden era of Hindi movies – most of them were in black and white but the storylines were gripping as were the songs and music.
For movies the first choice was Majum cinema nearby in the Air Force campus and when movies like Sharabi or Teen Deviya of Dev Anand was advertised or Mujhe Jeene Do of Sunil Dutt and Waheeda Rehman it was difficult to get tickets. Then there were other equally famous hits like Bhoot Bangla of Mehmood.
Of course, Hindi movies in color of the period were equally fantastic – especially those starring the inimitable Shammi Kapoor – some of his movies of the 1964 were super hits like Kashmir ki kali, and Rajkumar while his elder brother Raj Kapoor gave us his Sangam.
Some movies dealt with mystery like Who Kaun Thi and Kohraa alongside Dilip Kumar’s Leader and Asha Parekh’s Ziddi. In those days, the radio was the only entertainment available in the houses and people kept waiting for Wednesday evenings when Radio Ceylon would transmit its weekly Binaca geetmala. Its sponsor was Binaca toothpaste. It was a one-hour program and Amin Sayani was the Radio Jockey. His beautiful voice would make the accompanying songs still more appealing. And – on the last Wednesday of the year, he would present the top songs of that year. His audience would be kept on tenterhooks to know which songs would reach the top of the charts. (to be continued … )

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