The best songs make you hum along, get burnt into your memory, and acquire an after-life. Musician Ilaiyaraaja has composed enough numbers across films that will last for an eternity. Adding to that list would be Kamal Haasan’s Guna, directed by Santhana Bharathi, a film that hit the screens during 1991’s Deepavali, and clashed with Mani Ratnam’s Thalapathi, starring Rajinikanth and Mammootty.
If you were in Madras back then, it was an essential rite of passage to catch Thalapathi at Albert and Guna at Devi Paradise. Thalapathi proved to be a blockbuster, while the latter had an average run. The movies were different as chalk and cheese, while the common glue was Ilaiyaraaja’s splendid music and songs.
Lyric interspersed with dialogues
In Guna, it was Kanmani anbodu kadhalan yezhudhum kadithame. A unique song in which the lyric was interspersed with dialogues. Kamal recites the lines he wants to write for his sweetheart and the lady in question, now being held hostage by him in a cave near Kodaikanal, is also developing a soft-spot for him.
Modern terminology might throw up jargon like situationship, while psychiatrists may prop up the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ inference, but in the 1990s, it was just kadhal (love). So he recites the lines, she hums it as a song and he exclaims: “Oh, paatave padichittiya [Oh, you have composed a song out of this].” It mirrors our thoughts and is also a hat-tip to the genius of Ilaiyaraaja and poet Vaali.
The song has become a part of Tamil pop culture. The way Kamal says, ‘Abhirami, Abhirami’, became a catchphrase, but the lone negative fallout was seen at bus-stops near women’s colleges as amorous lads whispered these two words and drew glares or that rare shy smile.
Bangalorean Ray Simon, a Stella Maris alumnus with Malayali roots, is a die-hard fan and she recalls her tryst with Kanmani anbodu: “Dad loves very few songs and this one is his favourite. The lyrics had depth and the melody was soothing, he said. While in college, I was made to sing this song like a kid would and I sang it on stage with a dress my mom had stitched for me. Every time I hear the song or hum it, it takes me back to those good old days of kanmanis and kadhals.”
Back in the news
Cut to the present, Kanmani anbodu is again in the news as the latest Malayalam hit Manjummel Boys, a survival thriller based on a real-life incident centred around Kodaikanal’s Guna Cave, pays tribute to the 1991 film, that may not have shattered the box-office but is seen as a cult-movie. The song plays a prominent part in this Malayalam film, unlike the fleeting reference in Nivin Pauly’s 2015 hit Premam. Guess our affection towards this particular song is like what Kamal hollered in the original, it is a love that defies description!
