Thanks for sharing your favourite old songs, Satish.
I did not grow up in India so I was not very fluent in Tamil when I was a child.
The only Tamil I would hear would be at home when my parents spoke to me...but even then, the answer would come out of my mouth in English because I was surrounded by my English-speaking friends in school and in my neighbourhood.
I had no access to Tamil tv channels (like Doordarshan), no Tamil radio channels and of course, there was no internet back then.
There was a small Indian community where I grew up and a few Tamil family friends would exchange video cassettes of Tamil movies with my parents.
I remember my father loved watching old Tamil movies because they reminded him of his childhood days back in India.
He would sit with me on a weekend and we would watch a few old black & white Tamil movies together as a family.
I was too young to understand the proper Tamil dialect spoken in films and I would often get distracted by wanting to play with my toys. But my father would put me next him and he would translate each dialogue from Tamil to English so that I could understand what they were saying.
One of those old video cassettes I watched as a child was "Panam Padaithavan". I think this was the first MGR movie I saw. I remember watching the song "Kan Pona Pokkile" and enjoying its music without really understanding the lyrics. I also remember thinking MGR looked "hot" in a tuxedo 😃 playing the piano and singing gracefully as Sowcar Janaki was dancing.
But as I have grown older, I have learnt to appreciate old Tamil movies better.
When I later went to India and studied medicine, I became fluent in Tamil and developed reasonably good command over the language after interacting with patients in the hospital.
By then, people had access to satellite tv (ie. sun tv, jaya tv, raj tv, etc) and internet...and everyone was walking around with a mobile phone in their hands. My colleagues would download the coolest AR Rahman ringtones on their mobile phone.
But once I remember I went to see an old patient during my training years and while I was talking with him...his mobile ringtone went off playing the tune "Ponnai Virumbum Bhoomiyile..."
I lost track of what I was telling him and immediately recollected my childhood days spent abroad.
I asked him, "Hey, isn't this song from "Aalayamani" where Sivaji loses his legs and Saroja Devi takes him to the garden on his wheelchair?"
I don't know from where I said that...but I think I must have photographic memory!
He looked at me in astonishment because he said there is no way today's generation would even recognise this song now on sun music tv channel.
We ended up having an extended conversation about old Tamil songs...and we both forgot we were suppose to be having a doctor-patient conversation instead!
I do not know black and white Tamil songs very well.
But if I listen to the music or read the lyrics somewhere...my memory from some hidden corner shoots out the movie name and which actor starred in it.
I liked watching "Nenjam Marapathillai" as a child. I loved the reincarnation theme of lovers meeting a tragic end in one life and yet meeting again in the next life...and the only connection they have of their past love story is the repeated haunting tune of the title track song.
I liked watching Sivaji-Savitri from "Navarathri". I vaguely remember it was about Sivaji doing 9 different roles, but I liked him in that stylish villainy song where he sings seductively to Savitri in the brothel "Iravinil aatam, pagalinil thookkam...idhuthaan engal ulagam, engal ulagam".
His eyes spoke evil temptation and her eyes spoke fear while he slowly advances towards her in that song...it looked funny, I know...but even I got scared while watching his eyes act!
If you try to recreate that situation today, it would be really bad acting with a lot of skin show on-screen.
Another one of the easiest Tamil songs I understood at a young age was "Ninaipathellam Nadanthuvittal" from "Nenjil oru alayam". The meaning of the lyrics was so beautiful and haunting.
You're right. The old Tamil songs definitely had more meaning and depth back then!
One of the reasons why I like Illaiyaraja songs so much is because in today's fast-paced world, his songs bring back so many lost memories of my childhood life spent with my parents abroad.
I didn't watch many Tamil films as a child, but of the very few I saw, I remembered them very, very well.
Another favourite Tamil film I saw when I was really young was "Naan Paadum Padal". I was obsessed with all the songs from this movie, including "Paadava Un Paadalai..."OMG...what an amazing song composed by Illaiyaraja and sung by S. Janaki!!
It was a high-voltage drama song, where on one end, wife is waiting for her husband as she sings in a recording theatre for a movie song...and in another end, the husband just finished work in an operating theatre rushing on the road traffic to reach his wife's recording studio on time.
I still find time to listen to this song when I come back home from a tiring day at work and the music always gives me the goosebumps.
But it was only recently when I came across a facebook page that stated the reel life scenario of that 1984 song was based on the real life tragic incident of singer Kalyani Menon (I only know her as mother of Rajiv Menon, who is director of "Minsara Kanavu" and "Kandukondain Kandukondain.")
Apparently, Kalyani Menon was a famous singer back in 1970s, and her husband met with a tragic accident while she was due to record a song in the recording studio. She pretty much gave up her singing career after that.
The amount of hidden despair within these songs is really like unfolding a story of its own.
Old songs don't just give us great lyrics and great memories...they tell us great stories too.
Too bad the current generation is missing out on all this.
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