Enna satham and me

Like the rest of the world I too am hopelessly romantic in my quite moments (now don’t laugh and don’t say it’s not true in your case, it is and I know it is, even the iron hearted have this one weakness and if they don’t, I don’t consider them human)! But out in the hard world I could be as practical as practical goes. It’s only when I accidentally hear songs that have gone and hid somewhere inside me that I recall those illusive and strange moments of romantic fancy that I may have indulged in my youth. It brings a kind of sublimation into my soul- I start to think, no I can’t be as bad as that, there is still something left inside me and all is not ruined-there is still hope. They sharpen my being and talk to me in tongues that I have kept unheard insides. It’s not merely the songs that do it, it’s something else, a deeper longing to be a part of something grand, something indefinable, something that’s out there, near, very near, yet inexplicably, irretrievably, removed from me.

It brings a kind of sweet ache into the heart, kindling remembrances of things lost, touching upon glimpses of grace committed into oblivion.

Well this song does all that to me. I don’t really know what attracts me to it. Is it the lyrics of Vairamuthu, I don’t know! He is somewhat controversial and I have also seen a comment saying that someone is sick of him. But I like the guy, may be in this song , other than in the first four lines, he hasn’t done anything spectacular, most of the observations are superficial than poetic. Like:

“koondhalil nuzhaindha kaigal oru koalam poadudhoa ”

“The hands entwined in her hair-
Are they describing some design?

(The translation is lame I know, I don’t know enough Tamil to do it that well. Yet this is how I understand it, my apologies to Tamil people if I am wrong! Let me have the correct translation please!)

Well anyway the point is, such lines are just descriptive and not very emotive. But the opening lines are wonderful.


“What’s that’s heard now?
Is it the note of being?

(What I am trying is to capture the sense of the word and not their exact meaning. Satham is nothing other than Sabdh(am) of Sanskrit. It means sound noise etc. But using those words would be inappropriate here I think)

These lines of Vairamuthu are great. It evokes myriad of aesthetic sensations within you, coupled with the evocative visualization of the song.

Anyway it could not be the lines alone that captivated me, or the music of Ilayaraja, which is always sublime. SPB has rendered it with all the evocative fervor he is capable of. It was a soft caressing voice in the back-ground that croons the haunting melody. Balachander had made it unbelievably good on celluloid.
I saw the movie while I was very young. The plight of the lovers bent on suicide in a location like that might have moved me to the core. The whole poignancy of the situation might have got into me. I think it was Balu Mahendra who did the camera work, which was excellent. To my mind it was one of the greatest opening sequences in an Indian movie. There are slightly jarring shots in it as well, like the shot in which Kamalhasan wolf’s the meal down in front of the thatched shed. It somehow strikes an off note to the general aesthetic environment of the visuals.

Okay I will let you see the song now. Here it is: Enjoy its enchanting visual beauty: