Three Thousand Stitches by Sudha Murty

Author:Sudha Murty
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789386651600
Publisher: Random House Publishers India Pvt. Ltd.
Published: 2017-06-21T04:00:00+00:00

8

A Powerful Ambassador

I am a storyteller at heart, so it isn’t surprising that I fell in love with movies.

When we were children, Bollywood was very different from what it is today. Most movies were in black and white. Then, there were Eastmancolor movies and black and white movies with some songs in colour, until finally, the move was made to colour feature films.

Meena Kumari’s tragedies often brought tears to my eyes while Madhubala and Asha Parekh’s beautiful song sequences remain etched in my mind. I can’t let go of Sadhana and Waheeda Rahman’s effortless beauty, while Sanjeev Kumar’s powerful acting and Rajesh Khanna’s charisma will remain with my generation until we are gone.

I have followed the evolution of Bollywood through the use of technology and also from simple innocent romances to the aggressive and bold portrayal of it today and from classical dances to the drill-team type of dances to breakdance and now, twerking.

Movies were generally taboo in those days and considered a luxury in a village such as mine. We lived in Shiggaon without access to a movie theatre. Besides, there was no electricity in those days. But to our absolute delight, we did get touring talkies in the summer, which were tents set up specifically to screen movies. It was the Lord’s answer to our desperation! If we really wanted to see a film, we were accompanied by an adult and our chaperone would decide which movie we would watch. We could only see religious and inspiring movies such as Sri Krishna Tulabharam, Rama Vanavasa and Girija Kalyana. Occasionally, an exception was made and we were allowed to watch a children’s movie under adult supervision. We would then go and tell our friends about it. On the big day, my cousins and I would eat early and fill our stomachs so that we wouldn’t have to take a break during the movie. We would talk about the film for days on end after the screening. However, the movie-watching days were rare throughout the year.

But nothing stays the same forever. Life changed and I came to the small city of Hubli for my education where there were plenty of movie theatres. And yet, the taboo remained—a teenage girl shouldn’t see romantic scenes. So while I happily saw them when I went with my friends, I had to listen to my aunt and close my eyes when I saw the same scenes with her or other senior members of the family.

As the months went past, I became bolder. At the end of every exam season, a bunch of us girls would go together to the movies. We would lie to our families that we were going for a film like Dashavathara (about the ten avatars of Lord Vishnu) and go watch a film of the dreamy hero Rajendra Kumar. All of us had secret crushes on the heroes but we felt awkward sharing this with each other.

When I made it to college, I became what must have been considered ‘really bold’.

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