MUMBAI:  FM radio station Radio Charminar is doing its bit to revive interest in long lost Hyderabadi folk music - Dholak Ke Geet.  The latter's origins lie in the women who used to hum them while working on farms or in mills around 60 years ago. Later,  they also began sharing their emotions and feelings while singing with these strains then being used for weddings and different functions.

Sadly, today Dholak Ke Geet is neither seen in Hyderabad nor around the globe, with the youth being almost totally ignorant about it. Radio Charminar wants to change that and has collaborated with a group of five ladies artists to bring back the magic of old folk tunes.

The head of the station Adbul Samed met a Dholak Ke Geet researcher Sameena Begam from Maulana Azad National University who has also written a book on the subject.

“When Sameena Begam presented me the book written by her she shared many amazing facts about the music which she got to know during her research. That is when the idea came to my mind to get the old music back to people of Hyderabad. Also, these kinds of music are no more available in the market,” says Samed.

The  Radio Charminar team along with Sameena visited certain villages to chat with older folks there who still have memories of  Dholak Ke Geet.  60-year-old folk musician Hafiza who leads a group of five lady musicians (and performs the old folk tradition even today on rare occasions) visited the  Radio Charminar studio for a recording. 

“We requested her if we could record Dholak Ke Geet in her voice with her group. Without hesitation, she agreed. It was so amazing to know that the lady knew so many of the songs all by heart.  She sang around 15 songs back to back, each song on an average of three minutes  The songs are shot and recorded in radio Charminar studio,” adds Samed.

The videos have been uploaded on Radio Charminar’s Youtube and Facebook official page. Since then the videos are going viral not only in India but in many unexpected countries. “There are people from the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Dubai including India. People who have shifted to the Gulf have commented “Jab hum kaam se wapas ghar aake yeh gana sunte hai, hamari sari purani yaadein taza ho jati hai.” There are positive comments from people around asking the lady to perform their functions. We were shocked in the first place to see such a good response for folk music as this was completely not expected,” ends Samed.