Thursday, January 22, 2009

Oliyum Ozhiyum

Today is friday. The day, good old Chennai Thollaikatchi(Madras Doordarshan) would telecast songs from movies. That was the only source of movie songs for us then.

The thing about the socialistic India was its constant remainder of the existence of a Super Power. Are they going to telecast songs from new movies or old ones? Will the power be available during Oliyum Ozhiyum or not? Such questions made one hope there was indeed a supreme god who would then listen to your appeals for good songs.

These days apparently TV channels have turned Viewers into non-believers. With these horrible ever-running soaps where nothing actually moves, people cant believe an almighty would allow the existence of such horror. So, the growth of atheism.

Enough of my rant. For sometime now, I have wanted re-visit/visit some songs through this blog. Sometimes with the hope of sharing the joy of recalling an old melody or sometimes simply because I want to. So, in honor of this Oliyum Ozhiyum, here are few songs in similar format.

Urvasi Urvasi from kadhalan.

"Oliyum Ozhiyum current pona, take it easy policy." That line was one of the few lines of that era which capured our daily mundane life. Usually, lyrics were filled with kadhal, modhal & so on. Thanks to Vairamuthu, we had some mundane yet non-trivial feel stored away for eternity.

That apart I am not a great fan of the song. It brings back memories and music is good but I have never quite enjoyed Shankar's picturization. They appear tacky to me. Sure they are better than usual dabbankothu that Vijay stars in. But for the crores spent, Maniratnam or several of Farah khan's songs have been better.

"Idazhil kadhai Ezhuthum" from Unnal mudiyum Thambi.

Years after the movie's release, my cousin introduced me to the song and explained the significance. Traditionally, the woman was always compared to the moon equating her beauty to that of the moon. This song had the woman asking her lover how dare he compare her to the moon, when it wanes and waxes day after day. That the Cousin says is the beauty of Vairamuthu's lyrics, to question the orthodox. My hormones hadn't started kicking in, so I simply nodded.
It is based on Ragam Lalitha and this is the only song I know in this raaga.

5 comments:

  1. Nice selection of oliyum ozhiyum songs, the attempt at explaining the significance behind the songs is also pretty commendable.

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  2. Your post brought back fond memories of childhood. Reminded me of all the prayers sent out during OO, and for that one Tamizh song in Chitrahaar or was it Chitramaala.

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  3. Mitr,
    Thanks, though I doubt if I would use the word commendable for any of my post:)
    Suman,
    Thank you. I was looking for the word Chitramaala. I think chitrahaar had all hindi songs while chitramaala had some regional songs as well:)

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  4. I am still crazy about 'idhyil kadai ezhudum neram idu'...what a lilt, what rapturous singing, no? Plus Sita looking like a pocket Venus and Kamal in pants two sizes small... lovely!

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  5. Maami,
    Ah, so you read but dont write:)
    me 2, me 2. The whole reason i wrote about that song was that it was playing in my ipod those two days consistently.
    "Sita looking like a pocket Venus and Kamal in pants two sizes small."
    I dont know about Sita now, though would have agreed with you then and Kamal's pant two sizes small or not, he looked awesome then.

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