MUTHU MUTHU THEROTTAM - AANI VER

Saravanan Natarajan writes:

முத்து முத்துத்தேரோட்டம்..

Vivekananda Pictures’ Aaniver (1981) had heartwarming performances by Sivakumar and Saritha, with Poornam Viswanathan playing a riveting cameo.

It is a story of a young girl Arukkani rising high to become an IAS officer from humble beginnings. Her cousin Raman, who had stood steadfast by her and ensured against all odds that she continued her education, goes to jail defending her honour. He comes out now as a grown man. Despite the difference in their current status, her love for him remains intact over all these years. But he is awed at her education and stature. Though they are now man and wife, he labours under a strong feeling that he is no match for her and remains shy, tongue-tied, and even worse…. aloof!

She yearns for his love, waits in vain for his caress, pines with unfulfilled passion…

Pulavar Pulamaipithan’s pen moves with felicity, painting the canvas with pastel hues of delicate longing, stifled frustration and forlorn despair…

Shankar-Ganesh enjoyed a very special rapport with Vani. After escorting her into Tamil cinema with their ஓரிடம் உன்னிடம், they enthroned her as their prima donna and in the next decade ensured that she rendered many of their compositions. True, many of the movies came a cropper at the hustings and the albums, largely nondescript, erased themselves from public memory; yet like silver linings in dark clouds, came a bewitching என் உள்ளம் அழகான வெள்ளித்திரை or the epic ஆயிரம் ஆண்டுகள் ஆயிரம் பிறவிகள், an inspired மேகமே மேகமே or யாரது சொல்லாமல் நெஞ்சள்ளி போனது, which all earned their rightful due, and இளங்குயிலின் இளைய ராகம் or முத்தம்மா சின்னச்சிட்டு or உந்தன் பாதத்தில் or தும்பைப்பூ முகத்தில், which deserved a better destiny.

This song is among Shankar-Ganesh’s best ever creations- the guitar is used so subtly throughout the song and conveys the mood of anguished ache in such a gentle, moving way. The violin and guitar in the prelude, flute in between the Pallavi, the violin and the flute in the interludes---all work in tandem, accentuating the heartfelt love and longing motif of the song… When Vani sings there is just a vamping of the guitar that accompanies her and no percussion support. The confidence that Shankar- Ganesh had in Vani!

And as for Vani, she sparkles, as usual. Her mellifluousness brings to melancholic life all the suppressed longings of the heroine. It is not a coarse or a seductive invitation; it is a gentle and heart-rending reminder to him not to neglect his duties as a husband. Even while remaining decent and dignified, she manages to bring forth the tremulous torture. How fetchingly does this inner torment find a vent in the whimpered இந்த தனிமை கொடுமை!

Female characters in Tamil cinema have generally expressed their unfulfilled desires in a subtle manner that tugs at the heart-strings- Remember Manjula in மறு பிறவி bemoaning her unconsummated marriage in the moving song அலைகளிலே தென்றல் வந்து (P. Susheela)? Or Revathi, lamenting her wretched young, widowed state in வைதேகி காத்திருந்தாள்- அழகு மலராட (S. Janaki)?

Here, she sends the breeze as her emissary to ask of her man when her suffering would find succour- she implores the zephyr to return with a reply….

முத்து முத்துத்தேரோட்டம்
என்னை மோகம் தாலாட்டும்
எந்தன் தாகம்..என்று தீரும்?
இதை நீ கேட்டுவா தென்றலே..



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