A five-year project — Vintage Nectar or Naatpadu Theral in Tamil — seeking to enrich the content and quality of Tamil film songs has been unveiled by lyricist Vairamuthu as he felt that the need for songs in films was slowly diminishing.
“Among the great artists I know, I joined hands with those I could reach out to. Hundred new songs will be created with the help of 100 composers, 100 singers and 100 directors. This is my dream plan. One could term this a five-year plan for songs,” he said in a statement.
He recalled that Naatpadu Theral , a phrase borrowed from Sangam poetry, refers to the honey fermented in a bamboo pipe for years. Elini, the son of Athiyaman, one of the seven philanthropist chieftains, would offer poet Avvaiyar the nectar which would be felt like a sting of scorpion in the tongue.
“Even now, some songs in some movies are extraordinary, but in many movies, there’s just an emptiness. Where are the film songs that resounded with Sangam literature and Thirukkural? Where are the movies that sing aloud the devotion of Bhakti literature? Where is the film poetry which enabled socialism and Dravidian emancipation,” he said.
Pointing out that though technology was soaring above the skies, the artistic notion is perishing like a wild flower in a forest fire, Mr.Vairamuthu said in many cases the songs seemed like a market for selling sound and mostly an unsatisfactory union of language and music.
“There are no lines for those in love to quote; there are no songs to teach children Tamil; there are no lullabies for mothers to croon to their babies.....” he said, explaining the reason behind launching the project.
Mr. Vairamuthu, who would pen the lyrics for the project, said the beautiful verses that lend themselves to be memorised would have honey-soaked music and would be rendered in the voices of a chorus of nightingales. He said every song would be recorded visually and he had planned to personally render an introduction for each song and aid the audience’s mind in deeply relishing and experiencing each creation.
