Wednesday, February 27, 2008

To Sir, With Love

Those who have seen this awesome movie, must be remembering this awesome song, sung by Lulu. Of course, if you have read the original awesome autobiographical book by E. R. Braithwaite, it is a triple whammy for you.

If you haven't heard of any - my suggestion would be to find the best route - go for the movie.

The original film poster was very funny and naughty, though. The punch line goes like this - "A story as fresh as the girls in their minis...and as cool as their teacher had to be!"

Enjoy the lyrics.

Those schoolgirl days, of telling tales and biting nails are gone,
But in my mind,
I know they will still live on and on,
But how do you thank someone,
Who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
It isn't easy, but I'll try,

If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters,
That would soar a thousand feet high,
To Sir, with Love

The time has come,
For closing books and long last looks must end,
And as I leave,
I know that I am leaving my best friend,
A friend who taught me right from wrong,
And weak from strong,
That's a lot to learn,
What, what can I give you in return?

If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start,
But I would rather you let me give my heart,
To Sir, with Love


You can listen to this song, with a wonderful slide show of the movie, over here.

I first heard of the book when I saw an excerpt of it - as a comprehension passage - in my Standard IX English text book called Bagchi Test Papers. It was the boxing scene between the teacher and the pupil. Then, I remember Hemant telling me something about it.

In a quick, related and lucky chain of events, the movie suddenly appeared on Doordarshan. It tugged my heart, and the nostaligia is so very fresh and overbearing.

The complete book I read much later. I had a lot of spare time at IIT, unlike others, you see :-) Incidentally, courtesy an offbeat movie secretary at the IIT, who took a lot of pains to search for rare classics, I could see this movie again. I would love to see it again and again. Its a collector's item. It was this secy, through him I discovered the other classics like The Scent Of A Woman, The Diary of a Hitman etc.

Sidney Portier, the lead actor looked tailor made for the job. I still remember some of the other names like Suzy Kendall, Lulu, the singer, who also played a small part, and this song was rated the top chartbuster for that year.

I am not sure if this was the effect from this movie, but respect for one of my teachers increased tremendously, roughly at the same time. I have previoulsy done a full post on her.

Labels: ,

|