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Murder Most Foul - 4

by Bala
(Mumbai)

The audience was very much impressed with her singing but the highlight was that they always asked for Sudha and Sudhir to sing more duets than solos!

This brought them together rapidly. For the shows they had to go through tough rehearsals for some days before each show and due to this aspect they spent a lot of time with each other, understanding each other better. Sudhir had fallen head over heels in love with her but he was afraid of expressing his feelings to her fearing that she would reject him.

But even though she did not show any outward feelings towards him, she kept asking for his opinions for a good family life, about his own family members, how they lived, what were their values etc.

She explained to him that her life was different from that of the other ordinary citizens since her mother was an actress and her father was also a film technician. That being the case, she said that she did not know much about the experiences of the ordinary middle class people.

Her mother invited several filmy people including music directors, orchestra players, music arrangers etc in addition to film script writers, producers, directors etc for her musical shows in an effort to introduce her to them. But it seemed that she had a long wait for her daughter to become the star she so much craved.

Sudhir finished his annual exams during April of the year and his annual vacation was due. They had been singing for more than two and half years now. With the annual vacation of nearly 2 months he had no choice but to go back to Ahmedabad since his parents were asking him for that.

Last year was the first time after they had started singing together when the urge developed in his mind to try and talk to her about his feelings towards her but he could not generate the courage for the same. So he kept quiet.

At that time he left for Ahmedabad even though he hoped that Ramesh would ask him to stay back saying that he would arrange for programs during the vacation period. But Ramesh did not make any such offer and said "Have a nice holiday" and bid bye bye to him to his disappointment.

But this year he was definitely reluctant to go to Ahmedabad. He was aiming for some excuses to offer to his parents and try to stay back in Bangalore for as long a time as possible during the vacation period.

But to his very pleasant shock and surprise she asked him whether he had definitely to go back to Ahmedabad. Was there no chance for him to stay back in Bangalore she asked him.

When he asked her why she began to slowly tell her inner feelings. She said that her mother was always pressurizing her to become a star but she was not at all interested.

When he asked her in surprise 'why so, what is the reason? A beauty like you should be a big film star at the earliest opportunity and not a singer like you are today' he teased her.

She told him not to be childish and be serious. "I have experienced filmy life experience right from my childhood. It is not at all good. I don't know about the life situation of the really big stars but our life style is not at all good and I will not recommend it to anybody, especially to me".

When Sudhir asked her whether she was getting any offers from filmy people for singing in their films, she said that she had some doubts about that due to her mother's strange handling of the affairs. Even though her mother invited many music related people for her stage shows she had side tracked the offers without her knowledge whenever they showed some interest in calling Sudha for music auditions.

Surprised at this news Sudhir asked her why.

She replied that her mother wanted her to become an actress only and not a singer since according to her mother once she became a playback singer it would be very difficult for her to get a break as an actress. She said that acting and playback singing were two different streams and filmy people very rarely were interested in the same person whether an actor or an actress doing both, namely acting and singing.

She said that according to her mother singing stars like Bhanumathy in the south and Suraiya in the hindi film industry would be rare these days and hence she was actively blocking her singing opportunities in films.

Sudhir replied to her saying that perhaps her mother knew the situation well having been associated with the film industry for so long which only made her more sad.

After more exchange of such intimate personal details he reluctantly left for Ahmedabad that year.

............

Novel - Murder Most Foul - Chapter 5

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