Where Are Those Happy Days?

Nostalgia places heart over head and overrides all sense of logic, sanity and practicality. So when I go and watch Mamma Mia!, I get gushy and sentimental as I reminisce growing up on the music of ABBA. I recall having ABBA posters on the walls of my room and I remember having seen ABBA: The Movie twice. So I sit back and enjoy watching Meryl Streep have the time of her life as she whoops it up on a stunningly beautiful Greek Island singing Money Money Money.

What I fail to notice is the obviously cheesy plot taken from the old Gina Lollobrigida movie Buona Sera Mrs. Campbell (1968). I overlook Pierce Brosnan’s woeful singing capability, which should otherwise make me cringe. I buy the most absurd situations and corny contrivances in the campy story just so that the ABBA songs can be fitted in. I smile and go along with the silly end titles with the lead cast in ‘Waterloo outfits.’ I come out of the theatre grinning from ear-to-ear and once I reach home, I immediately put on my ABBA: Gold CD. And now when I visit UK next, I intend to catch up on the stage play that inspired the film.

Maybe those happy days don’t seem so hard to find after all!