Today after reading
Sumam George Beena,You help us walk through this heavenly memory lane
Lekha K Nayar Enthoru sugham ee ormakurrippukkalkku…
Beena,parijatham thirumizhi thurakkunathu pole…bhangiyum sughandhavum
I decided to call Lekhu and walk down the memory lane of our life built on songs and scenes of the most enchanting, mesmerizing Malayalam songs.
We cherished our glorious days, more than 4 decades ago and landed on Anniemamma, Anita’s older sister. Lekhu called her Annie Chechy, she was the only one in her house with a wheat complexion, every other sibling were fair, she had dark long hair flowing down her hip, she was strikingly beautiful with the most dainty waist line, and curves which clung to her saree like magnetic poles switching polarity.
She wore the most elegant jewelry just like what Anita does, we remembered the details of the black and red bead chain with the glitter of gold around the beads, it was so unique, it was so lustrous and ornamental, never seen anything like that with anyone.
It was hard not to blot her figure and every single feature of hers, when she stood behind the mike and sang the songs composed by the enchanting Arjunan Master, Grateful for the recognition given to him so late:
ഓട്ടൂവളയെടുക്കാൻ മറന്നൂ ഞാൻ മറന്നൂ
ഓലക്കുടയെടുക്കാൻ മറന്നൂ
രാത്രിയുടെ പൂവുകളാം സ്വപ്നങ്ങളോടന്ത്യ യാത്ര പറയാൻ
മറന്നു മറന്നു ഞാൻ മറന്നൂ
Lyrics by Sri Vayalar
This was a ghost song acted by Jayabharathi Chechy, rendered by Susheelamma, and we felt Anniemamma was more like an Apsaras than a human when she rendered this song in her most heavenly voice.
Another amazing song she sang was Janaki Amma’s
സ്ത്രീയേ നീയൊരു സുന്ദരകാവ്യം
നീയൊരു നിശ്ശബ്ദരാഗം
സ്ത്രീയേ നീയൊരു ദുഃഖം
നിനക്കു നീയേ സാന്ത്വനഗീതം…….
Lyrics by Sri ONV, the movie was Chanchala which came in Grand Theatre Kollam.
Whenever Anniemamma sang, she was so involved with the song; we felt she filled into the song, she used to dive into the song and make tiny ripples in our soul. Anniemamma was a treat to our souls and craving minds. She chose the most amazing songs which were virgin, hardly spoilt. We miss her dearly….. I am sure she is standing tall amidst the Apsaras in the celestial heavens.
We jumped from one incident to the other and talked about how naïve and stupid we were, while in school and college and way past the age of 20’s and 30’s at times.
We were so fond of Sharadha, Urvashi Sharadha, the one and only ദുഃഖ പുത്രി of Malayalam Cinema, incidentally today the 12th of June is her birthday. I can never forget the movie Thulabharam which we saw when we were in school, and how we cried and cried after watching the tea shop guy burning the young girls hands with a hot ladle for taking food from the tray.
This incident left a dent in our soul for a long time, and made sure we never denied food for the needy and deserving and not to waste food that is served on our plate.
We talked about our love for Sharadha’s long artistic fingers with nails attached to the finger in the shape of a gentle U and nail forming an inverted U at the end. Perfect cuticle.
I am talking about the era with no cell phones and no internet, the only opportunity to see the pictures of artists were the cinema notice and the song book published for each movie.
I had volunteered to cut pictures of Sharadha for Lekhu from the notice printed in our press same as I did for Anita, Anita was into Bollywood and Lekhu was still in Mollywood.
Sharadha was gentle, soft spoken, an amazing figure with gentle curves which gave the feel of a meandering brook with silent ripples, her act was so subtle, passive acting with no public display of affection, her eyes reminded me of the smallest unnikai, filled with the best of emotions, speaking volumes, like the ones made by expert Thalasseri Muslim ladies for Iftar, her face was flooded with kindness.
For me I simply loved Sharadha and I started tagging every woman of substance I met during my childhood with her.
Anniemamma, Radhas owner Ranganatha Swamy Reddiar’s wife Shakunthalamma, Amma’s sister in law Vimalamamma, my Headmistress Sr. Mary Evangelist.
I correlated their mannerisms to Sharadha’s and vice versa. Lekhu told me how excited she was to meet Sharadha in real and sit with her, telling her how fond she was of her and how much she admired her fingers…..
Coming back to songs of our times I will write about the embarrassment we brought to elders, singing the most morantically, romantic songs of a life time.
We have to admit the lyrics of then poets were lavish in describing intimate feelings of the most intriguing species in the universe in the most expressive language in the universe: My own Malayalam….
Being the first born in our homes, our knowledge and exposure to realities of adolescence was very limited or Nil.
Nothing affected us; when we sang
കൊതി തീരും വരെ ഇവിടെ പ്രേമിച്ചു മരിച്ചവരുണ്ടോ”
The golden songs to our hearts content, we didn’t have a clue of the in-depth meaning…
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