Colourful Musical Garden..

In tamizh cinema, some intelligent directors (though it is a rarity!) use songs very effectively.

Balachander used to boast that people would find to get up during the song sequence in his movies because he would narrate the story in the song itself.

One of the intelligent directors in tamizh cinema who could not cope up with the demands of the distributors was Mahendran.I am saying in past tense because he no longer makes any films.

Though he became popular with ‘Mullum malarum’ and very popular with ‘UthirippookkaL’, some of his movies have not been popular.

‘Poottatha PoottukkaL’ was one such film.
It was a story about a childless couple.I do not want to get into the story now.

But what I would like to get into is the way he introduced the characters using a song sequence.The picturisation was great.But most importantly, the song(lyrics by Panchu Arunachalam), the tune, and the music are fantabulous.

It is ‘Vanna Vanna Vanna Pooncholaiyil’.

The prelude is very interesting.It starts with a violin prelude juxtaposed with the string.

The tempo that was very slow suddenly gains moment as the guitar and the flute start.Janaki’s humming takes over now.

The pallavi is simple and attractive and the guitar piece in between the lines add to the beauty.

The first interlude transports us to the western countryside and suddenly we are brought back to a South Indian village as we hear the flute and the throbbing of the Ghatam.
The wonderful guitar piece-a kind of 'theme music' of the song-in the charanams is possible only by one gentleman.

The second interlude has the beautiful violins and the Dilruba and of course Janaki.Do we need to say more?

The way Janaki renders the word ‘NaaNam..’ is a lesson for the bunch of younger lot who pretend to sing with expressions.

Don’t we all want to be part of this musical colourful garden?