Mumbai: Versatile Bollywood artiste Govind Ahuja – who, for screen’s sake, shortened his name by combining both parts into Govinda, is still remembered for his wide gamut of emotional, comical and action-based performances.
Soumyashree in action
Being one of the adjudicators at the Good Knight Advanced Xpress Dance India Dance Super Moms reality show on the Zee TV channel in the company of two other veterans, Geeta Kapoor and Terence Lewis, he had a special word of appreciation for Soumyashree from Chikkamagaluru, for the verve and vigour she displayed as part of her entry a few days ago. She had also participated in the previous editions of this show, which is reserved only for not-so-young women, working or otherwise.
To quote Govinda’s own words, “Episode after episode, Soumyashree has mesmerized us with her electrifying energy and sheer passion for dance.”
Her performance, executed to the tune of a foot-tapping Telugu number, was such a surprise for Govinda. He, in particular, referred to her mention that during the show she had been missing her family and her native place a lot. Hence he too gave her a surprise to pep her up, something not even an expensive gift could do.
Sensing her sad and sullen mood, he broke into a Kannada song, ‘Endendu ninnanu maretu naaniralare, endendu ninnanu agali badukiralaare, ondu kshaNa nondaru nee, naa taaLaraare’ – a yesteryear hit song from the Rajkumar-Kalpana starrer, ‘EraDu Kanasu’.
Barring a slight mispronunciation of ‘nondaru’ as ‘nonduru’, the rest of the rendition was perfect, like the diction, voice modulation, tempo and everything about it.
Earlier he did a bit of leg-pulling by teasing her that being from Karnatak, she could do a lot of ‘naatak’, as a compliment to her superb act.
Even Geeta and Terence could not believe their ears. The second part of lines he sang, which means, ‘If you are dejected even for a moment, I cannot bear it’ moved Soumyashree so much so that she could not control her emotions and found it hard to hold her tears.
Govinda said at the end that it was a small gesture to bring a smile to her face.
Today we have a host of Bollywood singers like Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal, Kunal Ganjawala, Suresh Wadkar, Udit Narayan and others crooning Kannada numbers for movies with accurate diction and matching feelings. One should not be surprised if Govinda soon lands in a recording studio to render a Kannada hit.
For sure, he will not be considered ‘Gumpinalli Govinda’ (just a non-entity in the crowd).
No offence please, Chi Chi.
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