Desi song gets French accent

French vocalist sings, releases 1942: A Love Story cover version in India.

Anabelle Varma, a French singer married to an Indian, will release the romantic ballad Ek ladki ko dekha to aisa laga, in India soon. The 1942: A Love Story (1994) song has been modified and somewhat reworded to make it sound like a woman addressing a man. In the real movie, it was Anil Kapoor singing the song to Manisha Koirala.

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Says Varma, “The song is about a woman singing for a man. In my case, it’s more of a metaphor. At the same time, it is about a woman singing for India. My husband is Indian, and the country as a whole has adopted me as a daughter. It’s my complete story in the song.” The track will be released in the country in the form of a single, which according to Varma, is the current trend in Europe, since albums don’t sell there anymore.

Varma is a trained musician and has had vocal training back in France, “I studied music at a young age, at a music conservatory; but mostly in choir. At some point, I started believing in myself and started a solo career. I started composing at a later stage in life since I was a mother and my husband, a traveling man. I am a latecomer and it’s always complicated for a woman to be a mother and a career person. And now I am finally for the first time putting real intensity into what I believe in.” Forty-five-year-old Varma is married to a Punjabi and is a mother of three children.

Varma’s first tryst with Ek ladki ko dekha to aisa laga was at her brother-in-law’s wedding back in India. “I remember the song from that time, when I danced with my brother-in-law at his wedding. The song is a present to my in-laws. This is Tumko dekha with a French accent. But I don’t care. I want it to somehow touch people’s hearts. The video for the song has been shot in Haryana. “We filmed the video which tells our story in a haveli up north. The young man falling in love with a foreigner in the video is my husband’s cousin,” she adds. She plans to release a full length Hindi album if the current single does well in India.