The finest romances, especially in books and films, have an imminent tragedy lurking nearby. In Erich Segal’s classic Love Story, the author gets us hooked with that heart-breaking line: “What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died?” In Balu Mahendra’s iconic Moondram Pirai, Kamal Haasan tugs at our tear glands in that tragic climax, while Sridevi, having recovered her memory, fails to recognise him, and the train chugs away. Madras was never immune to the charms of a well-made romance and Mani Ratnam, who offered the highs and pathos of love through the Revathi-Karthik track in Mouna Ragam, extended that form through the Telugu flick Geethanjali released on May 12, 1989.
The film, dubbed into Tamil and christened as Idhayathai Thirudathey, showed on the screen after a few months and was a hit, just like the Telugu original. Two terminally-ill strangers meeting at Ooty and gradually falling in love was the premise. Much like Andrew Marvell’s poem To his Coy Mistress that stressed on carpe-diem (seize the day), Geethanjali’s script was about living in the moment and not obsess about the last breath.
Nagarjuna and Girija played the leads and their chemistry that started with a naughty streak culminating in a till death-do-us-part intensity had the audience rooting for the two. A cult hit The movie that turned 35 recently had the college audience cheering for it, besides lovers and families. Ilaiyaraaja churned out outstanding music and the song ‘O .
