Music, Lyrics and Vairamuthu

I have a curse. I was born with it and as much as I try to get rid of it, I am simply not able to do so. This curse makes even my favourite pastime seem painful at times !
Ok, enough of the preamble, let me cut to the chase. I cannot listen to a song in a language I know, without paying attention to the lyrics !! I simply cannot !! And that, my friends, is my curse!! Since after listening to the lyrics, I realize they are trash, I find it very difficult to listen to the song itself, without cringing, even if the tune is great and singers sing it very well.
Hindi songs do not pose a big problem. I am talking only about film music and mainly romantic songs. Most lines in a hindi song are predictable. In fact, people who are into producing TV shows should conduct some sort of competition to test the ability of the contestant to write a hindi film song.
Some ground rules for hindi songs:
- If the first line has ‘Deewana’, the next line must have ‘Parvana’ or ‘Mastana’.
- ’Shamma’ usually accompanies ‘Parvana’.
- ‘Saccha’ is usually followed by ’Acchha’.
-’Mehfil’, ‘Manzil’, ‘Shaamil’, ‘Mushkil’ etc usually occur in consecutive lines.
-’Pyar’, ‘Ishq’, ‘Mohabbat’ etc are a must
-If the above rules are adhered to, the rest can simply be prose, set to a tune.
Having got that out of my way, I would now like to direct your attention to the lyrics in the other language I know, i.e., Tamil. For those of you who do not know much about tamil lyricists, we had some wonderful people in the past. Now that statement must have also told you that the ones today are not good enough!
I have a particular dislike towards Vairamuthu, who has the title of Kaviperarasu (king of poetry !!). This dislike is not because his lyrics are worse than the others, but because he showed promise and even today shows flashes of brilliance in a few songs. But those few songs are almost always for non-romantic songs, where he still has some imagination left. I would not say that his lyrics are predictable. They are mostly unpredictable. Every time you think he has touched the height of absurdity, he surprises you with something worse in his very next song.
I have a serious suspicion that he underwent some very serious experience involving saliva and sweat in his childhood ! How else would you explain his obsession with sweat and saliva in all his songs? His ‘romantic’ lyrics are more disgusting more than vulgar !!Sample these:
a. The lines ‘Sindum Vervai theerthamaagum‘ (the beloved’s sweat is like holy water !!) and ‘Echil kooda punithamaagume‘ (again, beloved’s saliva is holy !!) in the ‘Kaathalikum pennin kaigal’ from Kathalan.
b. ‘Aayiram thamarai‘ from Alaigal Oyvathillai - again references to vervai.
c. In ‘Anbe Anbe‘ from Jeans, apart from the not-so-subtle descriptions of Ash’s anatomy, he also subjects us to more torture with lines that mean the hero will drink the water that the beloved bathes in !! Yuck !!
d. Something about how the changing room smells after the woman changes clothes there in some song - I think ‘Neethaane enthan pon vasantham’ in Ninaivellaam Nithya !
e. ‘Vizhiyil vizhunthu’ - except for the 1st few lines, most of it is junk. Profound lines that mean ‘If you (heroine) put on jasmine flowers, roses will get fever, if you wear a silk saree, the silk worms will get salvation’ etc etc !
f. ‘Anthi mazhai’ from Rajaparvai - References to vervai again. But this one gets even better. The woman describes the man as ‘Ragasiya Raathiri puthagame’ (literally translated as ‘Secret night book’). Now what the hell was Vairamuthu thinking? How can anyone be described as a porn magazine? How is that romantic?
g. ‘Roja roja’ in Kadhalar Dinam - Again reference to vervai (’If You get drenched in the rain I will get fever, if you stand in the sun, I sweat !!’)
This list is endless. The other kind is where he makes weird comparisons and used absurd English terms and science in his romantic songs, like :
- ‘Chandirani thottadu yaar Armstrong aa? Sathiyamai thottadu yaar naandaane’ (Was it Armstrong who touched the Moon? I am actually the one who touched it (her) - Lord save me !!)
- ‘Vayitrukum thondaikum uruvam illa oru urundayum uruludadi’ (’A shapeless ball rolls from throat to stomach !’ - Does that make any sense?)
- More trash in the same song - ‘Kokilame nee kural koduthal unnai kumbittu kannadipen, gopurame unnai saaithu kondu unthan koonthalil meen pidipen’ (’Cuckoo, I will pray to you and wink at you .. Hey Gopuram-(I dont know what it is called in English) - I will tilt you and catch fish in your hair (she has a problem with lice and I guess our man is hinting at that !!). (I guess you can imagine my condition translating these lines to English !! I am laughing uncontrollably!!)
- ‘Nilaavile kaatre illai, idu ethanai peruku theriyum, Kaathal vandaal kanneer illai, kaathal konda yaarukum theriyum’ (Most absurd comparison possible. These lines mean ‘Everyone knows that there is no air in the moon. Anyone in love, knows that if you are in love, there are no more tears !!).
This was the same guy who wrote beautiful lines on nature -
Eg. The entire song - Ilaya nila pozhigiradu (the original and definitely better sounding version of Neele neele umbar par). Especially these lines are brilliant :
‘Mugilinangal alaigirathe mugavarigal tholaindanavo;
Mugavarigal thavariyadaal azhudidimo adu mazhayo’
(’Why are the clouds roaming around? Is it because they have lost the address?
And since they lost the address, are they crying and is that the rain?’)
Even the recent song - ‘Vellai pookal ulagam engum’ is a very beautiful song with soulful lyrics by Vairamuthu. It is about hoping for peace to reign in the world and was rendered beautifully by Rahman. So there is still some good stuff remaining in the man.
It is when you ask him to write on romance that he goes berserk. Romance is the only thing missing in all his ‘romantic’ songs. There is a lot of lust, absurd comparisons, lessons on female anatomy, physics, chemistry, but definitely no love !
His most favourite style, when he is in a mood for it, is the algorithmic style. He takes a term or an idea and expands on it and beats it to death in the song. Some examples -
- f(aasai) in ‘Roja’ - Song goes on about what all the girl wishes for (aasai = wish).
- f(azhagu) in Puthiya mugam - what is beautiful to what (azhagu=beauty).
- f(vendum) in Thiruda Thiruda - Unrealistic wishes of youngsters. (vendum=want)
- f(artham) in Thiruda Thiruda - what something means (artham= meaning)
- a:b as x:y in Ayutha Ezhuthu - Yaakai thiri, kaathal sudar - a song full of similes.
and so on..
Sometimes I think I prefer his meaningless lyrics or his algorithmic songs to such rubbish mentioned above!
I long for really romantic songs of the yore. Sure there were vulgar lyrics then too, but they were definitely not the on-your-face type. Care was taken to make the words to sound melodious and the lyrics did not grate your ears. Women were probably compared to flowers and breeze and men to knights etc, but words like sweat and saliva did not figure in the songs. Poetry was still alive then. Tamil is a beautiful language, and there are thousands of beautiful words waiting to be used. Hope people like Vairamuthu wake up to this fact.
Before I end my ranting, here are some beautiful lines from a favourite song of mine -
‘Maalayum iravum sandikkum pozhuthil, mayangidum oliyinai pole, mana mayakkathai thandaval neeye’ (Like the intoxicating light at the time when the evening and night meet, you make me feel intoxicated !).