Twenty-six years. That’s how long the Mani Ratnam-Rahman-Vairamuthu collaboration has lasted at the Kollywood box-office. Lyricist Vairamuthu admits that this is one combination he eagerly awaits all the time. “The challenge is to keep reinventing yourself,” he says, sitting at his sprawling Besant Nagar residence. He’s tried to do it again, with Mani’s upcoming multi-starrer Chekka Chivantha Vaanam . Excerpts from an exclusive chat with the seven-time National Award-winning lyricist:
The last couple of films in this combination ( O Kadhal Kanmani and Kaatru Veliyidai ) dealt largely with romance. How is Mani challenging you as a lyricist in Chekka Chivantha Vaanam ?
The space for music and language in such an action film is limited. We (Rahman and I) are like the ones playing a flute in a war field. Porkalathil pullankuzhalvaasithirukkirom ... that was the challenge in this film. Mani keeps asking me: why can’t we reduce the gap between a song and poetry? I strive to do that in every film of his. In CCV , he himself picked two songs from my book Peiyena Peiyum Mazhai , which was released by then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. In fact, Kalaignar christened me ‘Kaviperarasu’ during its release. It gives me great happiness that Mani Ratnam had this book in his cupboard and chose two songs from it.
How do these two songs go with situations in the film?
They don’t talk directly about the situations, but are very symbolic in the scheme of things. One of them — ‘Mazhai Kuruvi’ — is about a man who’s enjoying the sight of a sparrow perched on a rock on a gloomy day. Suddenly, it rains and the man rushes into the comforts of his home and wonders how the sparrow would be suffering due to the downpour. But in reality, the sparrow is enjoying itself and is wondering why the man isn’t taking delight in something Nature gives him. Mani Ratnam has taken this poem and done a love song out of it.
Tell us more about the film.
It is set against a family backdrop and deals with modern-day life struggles and issues in relationships. It revolves around instances in which moral values break down because of a person’s besotted pursuit of success. Any other filmmaker might not have had so many songs in such a subject, but Mani loves music. What he cannot tell by dialogues, he has tried to tell by song. The numbers act like the director’s voice. One of them, ‘Bhoomi Bhoomi Suthum Satham’, will play four times — that’s the core theme of the film. ‘Sevandhu Pochu Nenju’ will highlight the mistakes a man commits and ‘Kalla Kalavani’ talks about a carefree woman.
How different is it to work with AR Rahman when compared to other composers?
Rahman’s tunes require the syntax of language and words that are not commonly used. My methodology for most songs is to keep listening to the tune in my laptop. Then, I shut it down and start humming it hundreds of times and get lost in it. During that stage, I’ll get numerous words for the tune, and I end up selecting based on what I feel suits the situation. All this needs time and effort. To find order in disorder is the biggest challenge in writing lyrics for a Rahman tune.
Classic Tamil poetry is slowly making in-roads into film songs. How do you see that trend?
I did that with ‘Narumugaye’ from Iruvar , and then in ‘Theendai’ in En Swasa Kaatre . I find immense happiness in seeing 2000-year-old poetry adapting itself to the needs of the digital film era. Also, when such poetry gets into films, it travels beyond just serious students of Tamil literature and goes straight into the hearts of youngsters who are hooked to film music.
