Geethanjali

A Telugu film set in an Indian hill town. Prakash is a young man. The son of a rich family, and his life is in order. One day he gets a diagnosis. A terminal illness and limited time. He tells nobody. He invents a holiday for his family. He goes to Ooty. He sees a girl there. Geethanjali walks the hospital corridors at night frightening the patients. She is strange. She jokes constantly, shouts, hides. Prakash starts sparring with her. From there the film is a courtship. The two play tricks on each other and grow closer. Then he learns something. Geethanjali is ill too. The same situation, and she has told nobody either. They admit it to each other. From there the narrative changes. The question is no longer what they will do but how they will spend the time that is left. What the narrative is interested in is not illness but tone: its idea is that the story of two dying young people can be built as a comedy rather than a melodrama. The scenes are mostly cheerful. Jokes, chasing about, songs and landscape. The weight comes now and then and the narrative does not linger there either. There is a line with children as well. The children in the hospital are inside the narrative and Geethanjali spends time with them. The ending is not closed. The narrative leaves both of them at a point. This is a film Mani Ratnam made in Telugu and is among his early work. It was shot in the hills of Ooty and the country is part of the narrative. The music is by Ilaiyaraaja and the album was very popular in the region. The film was named best popular film at the national awards. Nagarjuna and Girija Shettar play the leads; it was Shettar's first film. Who it is for: anyone who likes Telugu cinema and romance in a light key. Who it is not for: anyone looking for realism; the illness is used as a frame and there is no medical detail at all.