| Geethanjali | |
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Official DVD Box Cover |
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| Directed by | Mani Ratnam |
| Produced by | C. Praveen Kumar Reddy |
| Written by | Mani Ratnam |
| Starring | Nagarjuna Akkineni Girija Shettar |
| Music by | Ilaiyaraaja |
| Cinematography | P. C. Sriram |
| Release date(s) | 19 May 1989 |
| Running time | 127 min. |
| Country | India |
| Language | Telugu |
Geethanjali (Telugu: గీతాంజలి) is a National Award-winning 1989 Telugu film directed by Mani Ratnam. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by Ilaiyaraaja. Upon release, the film met with both commercial success and critical acclaim. Later it was dubbed in Malayalam and Tamil languages. The title of the Tamil version of the film is Idhayathai Thirudathey.
The film was remade in Hindi as Yaad Rakhegi Duniya starring Aditya Pancholi, Rukhsar and Vikram Gokhale.
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Prakash (Akkineni Nagarjuna), a carefree, mischievous student graduates from College. During his celebration with his friends, he gets into a road accident. Although the accident is only minor, during medical tests, he is diagnosed with terminal cancer and has no chance of survival more than a few months. Unable to hear his mother's constant crying, he packs his bags and leaves to live in his family’s vacation home in Ooty for a few weeks.
There he meets a girl, Geethanjali (Girija Shettar), who enjoys playing pranks on people around her. In one incident, Geethanjali asks a guy to meet her in a cemetery at midnight to elope together but when he comes to meet her, she along with her sisters and friends plans out an elaborate prank by dressing up as Ghosts to scare him away. When she tries to pull the same prank on Prakash, who is already ready for this, it backfires as he pulls a bigger prank on her by dressing himself as a vampire and along with aerial wire stunts, scares her.
After being unsuccessful in scaring Prakash away, Geethanjali forms another plan in which she complains to her grandmother by saying that Prakash had asked her (Geethanjali) to elope with him. Furious at this knowledge, Geethanjali's grandmother confronts Prakash about it. Though Prakash tries his best to explain the truth, Geethanjali's grandmother chides him and began to humiliate him in the presence of the public. Prakash becomes angry and retaliates by driving Geethanjali to a hill side area and leaving her there. Later that night, Geethanjali's sister comes to Prakash and tells him that Geethanjali has still not returned home and they are getting worried about her. Prakash goes out to look for her and upon finding her shivering in cold, brings her back to her family. Geethanjali's grandmother scolds Prakash for pulling such a prank on Geethanjali as such things could have worsen her health condition. Curious at this, Prakash inquires about her health. To his dismay, he finds out that she too has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. This intrigues him as she is always happy and energetic. Geethanjali tells him that she's not worried about her impending death as everyone who lives in this world will be gone someday. She also tells him that she's not bothered about what happens in the future and she only lives for today. This teaches Prakash to take his own impending death in his stride and live life to the fullest.
Prakash began to fall in love with Geethanjali and pursues her. Thinking that this is also a part of his pranks, Geethanjali keeps putting him off initially. But one thing leads to another and soon, she too reciprocates his love. One day, Prakash's mother comes to visit him and finds out about her son's love. Not knowing that Prakash has been keeping his illness a secret from Geethanjali, his mother blurts out the truth to Geethanjali. She becomes heart-broken knowing that Prakash's condition is worse than her own. She confronts Prakash and tells him to leave her. Prakash reminds Geethanjali of her own dialogue in which she says that everyone dies one day and so will she. He tells her that his death is no exception. But a devastated Geethajali admits that his own life is more important to her than her own and she would not be able to see his death. She begs him to leave her and tells him that she doesn't want to see him again. That night, Geethanjali's health condition becomes worse and she was admitted in the hospital. After getting the news, Prakash rushes to the hospital to meet her but Geethanjali's father, who happens to be a doctor, requests him to leave as the same is the wish of Geethanjali herself. Prakash becomes sad and decides to leave the town. At the same time, Geethanjali underwent an operation for her heart. Hours after her operation, Geethanjali slowly opens her eyes. Her whole family rejoices at her recovery. Geethanjali looks at her father and tells him that she wants to meet Prakash. The family finds out that he was planning to leave the town and rushed Geethanjali to the train station. The movie ends as Geethanjali and Prakash embrace each other in the train station.
National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment - Golden Lotus Award - 1990 - Mani Ratnam
7 Nandi awards for Best Film, Best Cinematography, Best Story writer, Best Art Direction, Best Comedian, and Best Choreography.
Dialogues: Rajashri
Music: Ilaiyaraaja
Playback: S.P. Balu, S. Janaki, K. S. Chitra
Lyrics: Veturi Sundararamamurthy
Choreography: Sundaram
Art: Thota Tharani
Editing: B. Lenin, V.T. Vijayan
Camera: P. C. Sriram
Producers: C. Praveen Kumar Reddy, P.R. Prasad
Story, Screenplay, and Direction: Maniratnam
The soundtrack for the movie is composed by maestro Ilaiyaraaja.
Telugu version:
1.Jallantha
2.Aamani paadavey
3.Om namaha
4.Jagada jagada
5.O papa laali
6.Nandi konda
7.O priya priya
Tamil version(Idhayathai thirudaathey):
1.Aathaadi ammaadi
2.Kaaviyam paadava
3.Om namaha
4.Vidiya vidiya
5.O papa laali
6.Kaattukkulle
7.O priya priya
This is the only direct Telugu film directed by Maniratnam.
Initially, the producer wanted to remake Maniratnam's Agni Natchattiram in Telugu with Venkatesh and Nagarjuna, but it did not work out, and he dubbed it as Gharshana. At that time, Nagarjuna was ready to do a film with Maniratnam. This film was loosely inspired from Young Die First. Geethanjali was the name of a Delhi-based 11-year old girl who was suffering from cancer and wrote her emotions in a diary that got printed at that time. Mani was moved emotionally when he read those diary pages, and wanted to name his film, and the heroine, after the little girl.
In the song O priyaa priyaa! where Nagarjuna is chained and Girija appeared in a princess costume were shown on the posters,some people thought it to be a period film! Before the release, director K. Raghavendra Rao saw the film and commented that the film might become a super hit or a super flop but nothing in between. If you ask Nagarjuna about his top ten movies in his career, he will definitely mention this film in his list. This movie gave him a lot of push to work with new directors rather than going with same old directors.
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