Sitting on a long flight is never usually a pleasure, but as I have written before, it allows me to watch a film or two, if possible. I have watched some delightful creations in the past on flights, the last ones being a couple of breathtaking masterpieces by Satyajit Ray. This time over, out of fatigue and boredom, I stumble onto a biopic. Not often do you get a peek into the life of a singer through a film. The last such film I remember having watched was La vie en rose on the enigmatic singer Edith Piaf and the another on Bal Gandharva. Both films reminded one that star performers are human and by default come with a baggage of ups and downs.
In my childhood home, we used to own tapes with varied forms of music, one of them being the Beatles and one song that I liked, because I found it soft, soothing, flowing was Here comes the sun. So when I fell upon Nowhere Boy on the life of John Lennon, it was a return back in time to the first Beatles song I had heard and about a band that had rocked the world in the sixties and the seventies. Starting with a cheerful young Lennon, biking to school, chatting up with some girls, the film takes one through post-war austerity, the renaissance of culture, the birth of rock and roll amongst other elements. Two women dominate the film in their absolute contrast - Mimi, John Lennon's aunt who makes her best efforts to shape John into bourgeois values and his mother, the flamboyant, firebrand, unconventional Julia, who from oblivion comes back strongly into the singer's life. From an early life of hidden secrets and disturbing moments, is created a young man who nourishes the desire to make music. The radio in his aunt Mimi's living room is relayed to John's room via speakers that his uncle instals. Relics of the past, this brings John closer to music of all genres. The film, surprisingly does not show the charting of the musical genius that is Lennon. It dwells rather on the growing up of Lennon, his leaving home, the birth of the Quarrymen that will eventually evolve into the Beatles.
John's first banjo lessons from Julia, mother and son making music together are some of the touching moments of the film. And also slowly how those early fledgling lessions metamorphose into rock-n-roll and the joy of the first concert. In two instances or more, John pulls out a mouth organ, a gift from his uncle. Its quite sometime since I saw a mouth organ or remembered one. They used to be quite commonly found in the seventies. I owned one as a child. It was always around the house, a shiny silver body that over time aged a bit and wore a slightly golden tone. It was one of my prized posessions. Whenever I blew into it, it made music. That was sheer magic to me in my childhood. There were no false tunes, you could play the way you wished, place your fingers on the holes and blow away to glory. As a child, it gave me an immense sense of musical freedom. Then once, I lent the mouth organ to another child, several years later upon growing up, hoping that he would discover musical sound and marvel in it the way I did. Sadly, it never came back and was nowhere to be found either. The moral of the story is never to part with things that are dear to you unless you are doubly sure, they will be returned safe or cherished by the new owner.
To end with the Lennon film, behind every musician, there is a mother. A far-from-perfect one like Julia (played by a flawless actress), a near-perfect one like mine, but a mother nevertheless. One who threw open the world of music, opened every window there was to get the best view and insights, toiled night and day to make music the breath of life. To mine, and to many mothers, fathers and mentors, musicians, music lovers, we owe the incomparable love for music.
Dr. Vasumathi Badrinathan is an eminent Carnatic vocalist based in Mumbai. She can be contacted on vasu@vasumathi.net
