Love SPB songs? A doll show for you

A Bengalurean pays a Navaratri tribute to the legendary singer with 22 scenes depicting his biggest hits

A homemaker has depicted hit Kannada songs by S P Balasubrahmanyam as part of her Navaratri doll display.

Seethalakshmi Rao, a resident of Bannerghatta Road, grew up seeing her grandparents and parents setting up dolls for the festival.

She continues the tradition, and this year, her display depicts the songs of the legendary SPB, who died on September 25.

“We’ve heard his songs since childhood, and they remain close to our hearts. The doll display was meant to remind us of his songs, especially those that might not be playing on the radio anymore,” she told Metrolife.

Seethalakshmi, 45, has created ‘gombe’ (doll) displays for 22 Kannada songs, including ‘Jeeva veene’, ‘Thera yeri ambaradaage’, ‘Akashadinda dharegilida rambe’, ‘Naliva gulabi hoove’, ‘Nodamma hudugi’, ‘Neene sakida gini’, ‘Mamaravello kogileyello’, ‘Snehada kadalalli’, ‘Banna nanna olavina banna’, ‘Santhoshakke’ and ‘Belliya Raja baaro’.

“I made the show like a quiz where one has to guess the song from the scenes. Last year I did a display on proverbs,” she says.

It was not easy to do the SPB tribute, as none of the dolls she owned looked like the actors featured in the songs, or had their trademark mannerisms.

Seethalakshmi didn’t go out shopping for dolls this year, she picked them up online. “I selected the scenes based on the dolls I owned and made some dolls using air-drying clay,” she says.

The displays either are visual clues to a song or a depiction of their themes.

“The helicopter in an Anant Nag song would bring ‘Elliruve manava kaduva roopasiye’ to one’s mind and two tribal people on a bridge would easily remind one of ‘Kelade nimageega’,” she explains.

She printed out backgrounds to represent places, like for the song ‘Nammooru Mysooru’.

Seethalakshmi has worked on other themes, such as the London Olympics, Namma Metro, rainwater harvesting, and children from Indian mythology — Dhruva, Lava Kusa, Ganesha Subramanya, Nachiketa and Ekalavya.

Netizens are enthusiastically sharing photos of her displays. “This year, I’m not inviting anyone over as we have elders at home,” she says. “But I still want to spread the festive spirit.”