I was 9 when Manirathnam's national award winning movie, Geetanjali, was released. Everything from costumes and dialogues to songs and performances of that movie were a riot. Every Telugu girl from that decade owned at least one Geetanjali skirt. If there were any Telugu kids that didn't know what "I love you" and "Lechipodama (translation: Let's elope)" meant up until then, they knew those phrases for sure after that movie. Straight laced 9yr old girls that knew nothing much beyond school and home till then suddenly had a favorite heartthrob in Nagarjuna! Every single song in the album was a chart buster and a big part of why the movie had such cult status. I probably watched it about 25 times to date and counting. Raaga's middle name (Geetika) is inspired in part by Geeta from this movie.
I could probably write a whole book about my take on Geetanjali. But, for now, I will get to the reason why I am reminded of this movie today. My sister, Swathi, is a trained classical singer that preferred singing movie songs to the classical stuff when she was younger. When she sang one of the numbers that Chitra originally sang for Geetanjali, everyone in my family thought she sounded just like Chitra. I was convinced for several years that this Chitra lady must look just like my sister. This morning, my sister sent me my niece Savita's rendition of a recent number that a young bollywood singer, Shreya Ghoshal, sang. As I listened proudly to my darling 12yr old niece's sweet voice, I wondered again if Shreya Ghoshal looks just like Savita! She sounded just like the original singer! All these thoughts about songs and singers made me put my headphones on and listen to Geetanjali album, again.
Yesterday was one of the rare occasions when I didn't have headphones on and I caught the tail end of a conversation between one of my coworkers in the next aisle and his cube visitor. The cube visitor, a female, sounded just like a non-Intel friend of mine (beautiful, fit, in mid-thirties, Japanese origin). If I didn't already know that my friend is away in sunny CA for spring break, I would have actually believed that to be her and would have wondered why she was at Intel and talking about Intel specific stuff. Do two people that sound similar also look similar? I could not resist the urge to see what this person looked like! I immediately stepped out and took a walk to the next aisle. The cube visitor was beautiful, fit, in mid-thirties and definitely Asian, definitely the voice-doppelganger of my friend!
Signing out humming and smiling. :)
I could probably write a whole book about my take on Geetanjali. But, for now, I will get to the reason why I am reminded of this movie today. My sister, Swathi, is a trained classical singer that preferred singing movie songs to the classical stuff when she was younger. When she sang one of the numbers that Chitra originally sang for Geetanjali, everyone in my family thought she sounded just like Chitra. I was convinced for several years that this Chitra lady must look just like my sister. This morning, my sister sent me my niece Savita's rendition of a recent number that a young bollywood singer, Shreya Ghoshal, sang. As I listened proudly to my darling 12yr old niece's sweet voice, I wondered again if Shreya Ghoshal looks just like Savita! She sounded just like the original singer! All these thoughts about songs and singers made me put my headphones on and listen to Geetanjali album, again.
Yesterday was one of the rare occasions when I didn't have headphones on and I caught the tail end of a conversation between one of my coworkers in the next aisle and his cube visitor. The cube visitor, a female, sounded just like a non-Intel friend of mine (beautiful, fit, in mid-thirties, Japanese origin). If I didn't already know that my friend is away in sunny CA for spring break, I would have actually believed that to be her and would have wondered why she was at Intel and talking about Intel specific stuff. Do two people that sound similar also look similar? I could not resist the urge to see what this person looked like! I immediately stepped out and took a walk to the next aisle. The cube visitor was beautiful, fit, in mid-thirties and definitely Asian, definitely the voice-doppelganger of my friend!
Signing out humming and smiling. :)
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