The Sound of Music

My brother calls it The Sound of Mucus, which, he says, is how Christopher Plummer also refers to it.

My brother and I fight over lots of things. This is one of them. I like the movie and he does not. So I promised him a blog on why I like the movie.

When I was about six or so the parents took all of us to a Tamil Movie at Regal Cinema. My mother loves movies but my father does not care too much about it. However, at that particular junction we kids could not be left alone at home. Therefore, we were dragged over to the cinema hall.

The movie was horrible. I think it was called Veedu or Veethi or something like that. All I remember was that there was just too much violence and then there was this scene where the heroine was chased by the villain. The heroine cried throughout the movie. And I cried too. In fact I howled so much that my brother remarked at the end of the movie that he did not know who cried more: the heroine or me.

Anyway, that decided it. I was not going to see any movie and they were not going to drag me to it. If the parents wanted to see movies that was their business, not mine. I was not going to go for any movies. As we did not have television it was easy enough to avoid it at home and if my mother wanted to see a movie, she went with her sister-in-law while father babysat us. Once appa desperately tried to get me to come with them to see a movie called Meendum Kokila. He assured me that it was a nice funny movie but to no avail. No means no. I was not going to see any movie. They were horrible.

That was the scenario when The Sound of Music came into town. Since we had a LP record I knew there were lots of children in the movie. Moreover amma had let it fall that she had seen it in Bombay and it was nice. Still suspicious of her, I remarked that I would not mind coming to a movie if it was The Sound of Music. The parents were surprised but agreed to take me, provided I did not howl. As if at 14 I would...

So we went over to a theater near Paharganj and the movie was such a pleasant surprise. There was no violence, no beating up, no crying...at last something I could watch without wanting to burst into tears.

Of course it is saccharine sweet. Of course there is no story plot. Of course lots of it is nonsense but hey, who cares.

Just another point: To this date I cannot sit through a movie with lots of violence or sadness. My brother has been trying to make me watch Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali. When I told him that I can't, he was like what rubbish? But it is true. I cried when I read the book. Durga dies. How could she die? So that is about it. I cannot watch the movie. Incidentally, though I cried in the end of Charulata when I read it, I still was able to watch the movie. I think it is just Durga's death was simply too much to swallow or maybe it is the ending in Charulata. Yes, her husband goes away and the marriage is at an end but the way Tagore finishes the story, I could at least imagine that one day things would all work out. That I cannot do with Pather Panchali. It sounds silly but that is how it is.