Amma brahma devudo
Kompa munchinavuro
Entha goppa sogasuro
Yeda dhachinavuro
Pula rekkalu
Konni thene chukkalu
Rangaristhivo
Ila bomma chesthivo
Asalu bhoolokam
Ilanti siri chusi untadha
Kanaka ee chithram
Swarganiki chendhi untadha
His love and admiration for her could not be expressed better. All meaning, passion and feelings will be lost in translation to a non-Indian language, but here is an attempt.
Oh God!
I am devastated
by this charm
where have you been hiding it?
Some petals
a few drops of honey
mixed together
to transform into this doll
Has the earth
ever beheld such richness?
therefore this miracle
must surely belong to the heaven
Yes. Indeed such ethereal beings do not belong to earth. She has returned to her right home.
Sunday morning I opened my sleepy eyes to view this whats-app forward. Shocked, I quickly searched the internet hoping it was just a hoax. But it was not to be!
And the posting of these messages was not with a feeling of grief, as they would be followed by the usual cheerful 'Good Morning' messages. All eager in their attempts to sensationalize, nothing more!
On phone, someone calls and says, "Do you know that your favorite Sri has..."
I froze when I heard that word, wondering, 'how can you say that about her?!'
I couldn't and haven't till date said that dreadful word.
Within a few hours, even before the news could sink in, an analysis about she, her beauty regime, her surgeries etc. stormed the internet.
I couldn't tolerate this nonsense.
Never more have I been thankful of absence of a TV connection at home. I protect myself from allowing the image of Sri from being tarnished and blindly delete any forward I receive about her.
For me, she is a goddess, someone inviolable, sacred, ethereal, a blemish-less gossamer fantasy!
From my childhood, I have worshiped many an actor but sooner or later they would be unseated by someone more good looking or talented. But not Sri..
Someone made a very insensitive remark in one of the newspapers about 'her mediocre movies in Bollywood, apart from one or two'.
But that's what Hindi cinema extracted from her! Have a look at her rich repertoire of movies down south. Her movies with Kamalhasan remain unsurpassed to date
Just look at her big, round eyes and the gamut of expressions they capture in this bewitching lullaby with Venkatesh, both at the peak of their beauty and talent. (another RGV ode to his muse)
Even before the dhak-dhak song was enacted in Hindi, Sri had already done it in a Telugu film with an actor who could match her step-for-step:
Coming to pairing, where else have you seen an actress paired with, both, father and son, ANR and Nagarjuna, in not just one film but many of them, fine tuning herself according to the pairing all the time?
Where else have you seen an actress playing the grandchild (of NTR) and romantically paired with the same actor in several movies?
Films have proved time and again that beauty and tragedy go hand-in-hand.
So, with Sri.
We are blessed to have captured her on screen for eternity with all her pristine beauty, charm and performances in tact.
I am glad she is free of all the strife that she had to undergo in her temporary abode here.
We have proved ourselves unworthy of her in her existence on earth and beyond!
God will now take care of this special child!
