That Tune in My Head

You know sometimes you get a tune in your head that you can't get rid of?  That earworm that stays with you throughout the day? Well today was one of those days. Despite having the radio on, and playing some music on Alexa, I couldn't get the piece of music out of my head. I am hoping that by writing the blog post this evening it may act as a sort of detox; a way of extracating the tune from my brain.

Padman: For Twinkle Khanna and Sonam Kapoor, Akshay Kumar in the ...

Interestingly, the piece of music is from a Bollywood film that I saw in 2018. Not a traditional 'song, dance, change costume and backdrop' musical, but one that was based on a true story. Classed as a comedy-drama, the film stars 52 year old Akshay Kumar, a well-known Bollywood actor who caused some consternation amongst fans when he applied for Canadian citizenship. It is based on the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham, a Tamil Nadu-based social activist who revolutionised the concept of menstrual hygiene in rural India by creating a low-cost sanitary napkin machine. This may seem unusual subject matter for a blockbuster film, but it became a huge hit in Indian cinemas.

'I didn't want to make a documentary, I wanted to make a commercial film so people can see it. It's a film you can take your children to, even though it talks about sanitary pads. It's a universal subject. Nobody has ever tried to touch this subject.' Akshay Kumar

There are few songs in the film, but the main theme tune is a catchy number entitled...'Padman' and it is this that is playing in my head today. Of course, when I hear it I am transported back to India where I watched the film with a group of young people from Cumbria who had gone on an eye-opening three week trip. It made such an impression on them that I bought the DVD and they rewatched it when they returned home. The ability for a piece of music to conjure up a specific memory is always amazing and today's earworm is doing just that.

All I hope is that the music stops before I go to sleep...

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