A bell is no bell ‘til you ring it,
A song is no song ‘til you sing it,
And love in your heart
Wasn’t put there to stay -
Love isn’t love
‘Til you give it away.
If you just sang these lines in your head, you are definitely a fan of The Sound of Music. It has been 50 years since the film, an adaptation of the 1959 Broadway musical of the same name, was released.
Most of us have grown up watching this movie over and over again. Some have even found it easier to remember the scale, thanks to ‘Do Re Mi’ and others have derived inspiration from it for their children’s fancy dress parties. Five decades later, fans of the film tell us why The Sound of Music is still so dear to them.
Neela Edwards, co-founder of Ravikes and a huge fan says, “I was just seven when my dad took all of us to this amazing film. Julie Andrews was my hero for many years. My sister and I would sing every song and entertain our uncles and aunts when they visited. That movie went straight to the heart at an impressionable age.”
“An iconic movie is how I’d describe The Sound of Music . My best childhood memories were created in my grandma’s place watching movies like this. Every time I watched this film, I would run around the garden pretending I was Maria and sing. I learned the very first notes of music from ‘doe, a deer’. As I child, I enjoyed the songs and as an adult, I appreciate the love story,” says Pavitra Vedanayagam, a risk analyst.
For media producer, Siddarth Selvaraj, “A lot of my feelings for the film are very much set in nostalgia. This was one of the three VHS tapes my grandfather used to play for me when I was a child (prior to the times of the Star Network). I have probably watched it at least 150 times. I know it by heart and I could probably give someone the lyrics in my sleep! As a media producer, I think three things come together very well in the film. A solid story, great music and a historical context to set the film in. I think the performances of the leads are superb as well.”
Deeptha Vivekanand, founder of Ever-After and founding member of the Bangalore Storytelling Society, says: “ The Sound Of Music is perhaps the first film I watched. I must’ve been eight years old then. My mother used to sing ‘My favourite things’ to me almost every day. She taught me all the songs from the film, eventually. It was a movie that was considered a must-watch in our house for many reasons-to learn about the war, develop a love for music, and to learn how to enunciate and speak clearly like Julie Andrews! Now, for a professional storyteller like me, I find the movie has everything I could have ask for -strong characters, great music, beautiful setting, a gripping climax, comedy, and a happy ending.”
One of the most beautiful aspects of this box-office hit is that it is still so relevant to us today. A few months ago, Sandra Oberoi, founder of the Harmony Music School and conductor of the children’s choir, hosted Cadence, a Broadway themed concert where The Sound of Music enjoyed the spotlight.
History teachers have found the film to be culturally and historically significant and some have even included it as a lateral study material in the form of one act plays, while Literature students have done their fair bit of research deconstructing the plot.
Evidently, from the very beginning, the film struck a chord with its audience, on some level or the other. Fifty years later, the hills (and the plains) are still alive with The Sound of Music.
