கண்ணதாசன் – 4

Dear all,
This week picked a song from the movie Karnan – a movie that was grand in every aspect – Acting of everyone especially Sivaji and NTR, Sets, Dialogues and the songs.
Songs involved huge orchestras and Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy (VR) were careful in using ONLY instruments that were likely available at those historic times (Sarangi, Santoor, Shenai, Veena etc). Every song in this movie is a huge hit and it is very hard to pick the lyrics over the music or vice versa.

In this song “கண்கள் எங்கே நெஞ்சமும் எங்கே” – Heroine is missing the king who is busy with his work and craves for him. The craving and the pain that it brings to her is beautifully expressed by Kannadasan.

“மணி கொண்ட கரமொன்று
அனல் கொண்டு வெடிக்கும்
மலர் போன்ற இதழ் இன்று
பனி கண்டு துடிக்கும்
துணை கொள்ள அவனின்றி
தனியாக நடிக்கும்
துயிலாத பெண்மைக்கு ஏனிந்த மயக்கம்”

The line in the next paragraph is the best in my opinion. Queen describes her king:
“குடை கொண்ட மதயானை
உயிர் கொண்டு நடந்தான்”
Never have I seen anyone expressing an elephant’s walk as something majestic. Very original imagination and in a cheeky way apt when one visualises Sivaji walking.
Then narrates her fate to her companions:
“குறை கொண்ட உடலோடு
நான் இங்கு மெலிந்தேன்”
She feels that she is incomplete without being with him – hence the sentence “குறை கொண்ட உடலோடு”. This could also imply a sense of emptiness inside her.

Producer and director BR Panthulu booked rooms for VR and Kannadasan for a week in Bangalore. Kannadasan completed the lyrics for all the songs in two days and the entire sound track was completed in 3 days. When VR wanted to come back to Chennai – Kannadasan in his usual mischievous way convinced VR to stay back in Bangalore and enjoy the rest of the 4 days as a paid vacation.

To imagine completing all the songs of this movie of such a high caliber in just 3 days speaks for the speed and flow with which this combination worked.
Legends with intrinsic talent that can’t be learnt or taught.
Something unique about this song is that it has a slow tempo but the musical interludes between the singing have a faster tempo, but still transition very smoothly. For the Carnatic enthusiasts this is a good prototype for raagam “Suddha Dhanyasi”.

War sequences of this movie were shot at Kurukshetra itself using soldiers from Indian Army. A movie that even by today’s standards is lavish in its quality and technical soundness – Bahubali of yesteryears.