An Unusual Experience 

Have any of you ever, just by yourself, without any prompting, gone to see a film that too in a language, you dont't know a word of ? 

Well, it happened to me!    

But Before I start the tale, let me tell you a bit of  the background.  I was the youngest of seven brothers and one( eldest ) sister. Though no one in the family learnt Carnatic Music, everyone were  fond of it. The radio will be on  all the time when music was playing. Come summer holidays, the elder brothers would bring out the gramaphone and all of us would gather around and listen to all the Golden Voices. We were members of a Music Club and our father being a senior government officer would buy several tickets for the Annual  concerts at the Senate House.   Thus, even I could recognise some  Ragams even as  the first notes  were sung or played. There were records of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan  and we became familiar with the Hindustani Raags similar to our Ragams.

Well, I was in  Secunderabad from 1950 to 1955.At this time I heard a hauntingly beautiful song in Raag  Bhoopali, our Mohanam. After I heard the song several times, I learnt that it was from a Marathi film called Amar Bhoopali. I learnt that it was running in a theatre in Hyderabad and attended a matinee show.   What a bonus! I heard the song  Ghana Syama Sundara by Lataji several times during the film! 

Of course, I didn't know  a word of Marathi then and it didn't matter a whit! Just enjoyed the song!