Reviving the memories of Chandni...

Hi Friends,

Warm Greetings!

It was in 1989-90 when Bollywood film Chandni got released, I was just 10 year old then and as a Kannadiga you can imagine my Hindi! All I can say I had just started learning. But my parents and elder sister knew Hindi well and they used to take me to watch Hindi movies whenever there was a good one showing in one of the two modest theaters we had in Chikodi where we used to live that time. As a child I was very timid so much that I couldn't bear the sound of films in theaters. Whenever there was a huge noise I used to get scared and used to start crying! It was very difficult for my parents to take me to the movies and it was a pity sometimes as they had to sacrifice some nice movies because of  my timidity! Those days internet was non existent one, and we didn't have TV also at home, but moreover there were no reviews also either being aired on TV!

Somehow my parents got the feeling that Chandni might be a good silent movie which I might like! Luckily they were not wrong! As the movie was devoid of fight sequences and high tempo scenes I not only allowed my parents to watch the movie but enjoyed myself also watching the movie. I liked the songs very much, mainly the title song "Chandni, meri Chandni...". I must confess here that one (good or bad) habit I had cultivated even before watching that movie was to keep humming the song for many days if I liked it. Here also it was no different, wherever I used and go and come, I used to keep humming the song "Chandni, meri Chandni...". My parents might have got bored listening to me so they took an advantage of one more "Kamjori" of mine during those days. During my childhood I used to be a bit reserved in nature and my Kannada Boys School upbringing had made the matter even worse! The matter was I was too shy to speak to a girl of my age and if someone jokingly teased me referring a girl then gone case! I used to feel too much uncomfortable and embarrassed and used to just go away from the place/situation. Now coming back to film, my parents and my sister whenever they heard me singing "Chandni, meri Chandni..." used to start teasing me that they will get me married to Chandni blah blah! As told earlier that was enough for me to get into the uncomfortable zone and I just used to stop singing and kept quiet! But still I couldn't stop humming the song and ended up into the same situation every time I get caught! Literally for my family members it was a huge fun :D but at the cost of my shyness :(. One day I remember my sister, my cousin and myself were playing a game where we had to write a boy's name, a girl's name and a place's name which are similar in pronunciation and all three should be related. My sister didn't miss the opportunity and she wrote "Chetan, Chandni and Chikodi" and started making fun of me. My face became red and I just stood up and walked away from the game!

But despite all this I must confess again that I was getting a kind of liking for Chandni and Sridevi who played the character of title role. I really didn't give much attention to the story but the character of Chandni had created a great impression on me! For a 10 year old it was just a plain infatuation. As and when I got to watch the songs of Chandni on Chitrahaar (Popular programme on India's only network of those times Doordarshan) my liking for Chandni and Sridevi used to get increased. After Chandni I watched many Sridevi movies like Lamhe, Chaal Baaz, Khuda Gawah but I couldn't like her as much as I liked her in the role of Chandni.

Almost 25 years have gone past since those events happened, and in all these years Indian economy got opened up for foreign investment as a result of which hundreds of Hindi channels are available for us to view now and some of them are totally dedicated to air Bollywood movies where the movies keep getting slots again and again! But ironically I had not got another chance to watch Chandni until last Thursday. During the scrolling of channels when I saw this film being aired I just put my other activities to halt and watched the movie again! All the sweet memories mentioned above though a bit blurred came afresh in my mind and my mind got refreshed like anything! I kept recalling those memories for sometime and thought of putting it on a blog. In these 25 years I have met/seen girls with name Chandni and their name used to remind me of this movie but frankly speaking for me Chandni was always Sridevi :). Whenever in leisure I happen to observe a moonlight night (English meaning for the word Chandni) I just imagine Sridevi obviously as Chandni...

Thank You,

With Regards,
Chetan