Sothanai mel sothanai pothumadaa சாமி பாடலின் உருவாக்கம்

Kaviarasar had a tiff one early morning with one of his eldest sons and his publisher-friend over the publishing rights of his novel which was serialised in Kumudham earlier. After this stand-off he went to one of the assigned studios to do lyrics with Kanmani Subbu following him (after Panchu Arunasalam's incident it was Kanmani Subbu who filled up as his assistant in lyrics).

At the studio MSV was already present with his harmonium and when kaviarasar was told the story situation immediately he uttered the pallavi "Sothanai mel sothanai pothumadaa sami" ('Thanga Pathakkam' 1974). Kanmani Subbu, as usual transcribed the whole song while it was dictated and passed it to MSV after getting the endorsement of kaviarasar.

Traditionally, song tunes are composed on the first stanza only but in this case MSV was trying out different tunes basing on the last line of the last stanza, to wit, "...idipole pillai vanthaal madi thaangumaa". He was emphasising this part of the lyrics so loud and crying which was very unusual.

While the composition was going on Shivaji who was at a shooting in the adjacent studio room quitely came and took his seat amongst them during a break. He did not utter a single word but was clearly seen in a pensive mood with a tinge of sadness. He placed his right forefinger on the right side of his cheek and stared blankly at MSV .

Kaviarasar was seen puffing away a cigarette also in a melancholic mood. Suddenly he saw these three senior citizens shedding tears which was also unusual. Only later it was learned that both MSV and Shivaji had had some sort of misunderstandings and arguments (private) with their respective sons that particular morning too!

Kaviarasar's song befitted the actual life situations of these three gentlemen who were also involved in this film.

Kannadasan

He is frequently called kavi arasu Kannadasan (kavi arasu means 'king of poets' in Tamil language).He was born in small village by name Sirukudalpatti near karaikudi. He wrote thousands of popular songs for Tamil cinema. He won the Sahitya Academy Translation Prize for his novel Cheraman Kadali in the year 1980.

His given name at birth was Muthiah. However, when he passed away at the age of 54, on October 16, 1981, millions of Tamils remembered him only by the name Kannadasan. For Tamils all over the world, he epitomised their poetry style. Even those who couldn't read the poetry of Kamban or the maxims of Valluvan, could hum the compositions of poet Kannadasan.

A number count of his publications shows a tally of 109 volumes, which include 21 novels and 10 slim volumes of essays on Hinduism, captioned Arthamulla Indu Matham (Meaningful Hinduism). In addition, he produced about 4000 poems and approximately 5000 movie lyrics, between 1944 and 1981, all with an eighth grade education at the formal level. He was also an excellent example of this century's Tamil goliard.

There is no doubt that he had a penetrating eye and keen observational powers. He also did not live a cocoon-type of life. He dipped into everything that Tamil Nadu could offer - wine, women, drugs, politics, polemics, atheism and religious sanctuary. After enjoying everything, what he did was remarkable - he composed verses about all his experiences, with reflective self-deprecating humour, irony, and biting sarcasm. These verses touched the sympathetic chords of Tamils from all walks of life - school boys, undergrads, housewives, farmers, manual labourers, plantation workers, middle class representatives and even upper class elites.