Makkal Thilagam MGR - PART 17

[Richardsof]

Pattukottai's lyrics and MGR


MADURAI: At a time when all prominent political leaders would have completed their whirlwind election campaign tour by Monday evening, the focus automatically shifts to April 13. The day carries so much significance as it is going to decide the fortunes of major political parties of Tamil Nadu.

One really wonders how many would remember that April 13 was the birthday of one of Tamil Nadu's leading poet and lyricist, the inimitable people's poet Pattukkottai Kalyanasundaram, who had penned some wonderful philosophy-tinged, radical lyrics and helped former Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran's charisma transcend across time space conundrums.

MGR once referred ‘Pattukottai' as the most crucial person in catapulting his iconicity and took him to the masses. In fact, in one of MGR's iconic films in the late 50s, Nadodi Mannan, which was produced and directed by MGR himself under the banner Emgeeyar Pictures, ‘Pattukottai' had penned a song (Summa Kedandha Nilathai Kothi) which not only speaks about everyday travails of the peasantry and working classes, but also gives hope to them through the protagonist himself singing Naane Poda Poaren Sattam Podhuvil Nanmai Purindhidum Thittam Nadu Nalam Perum Thittam (I am going to draft laws that will bring welfare in general and also for the nation).

Songs like these, with their reproducibility and wider reach, gave the most important fillip to his popularity and “ideals.”These songs became the most effective form of communication with the masses and gave hope to his fans and followers.

Robert L. Hardgrave, the American scholar who studied his films and iconicity, has said, “What I believe is the most important aspect, is that MGR provided hope to a section of very poor and powerless people. Through his films, and various other advertising means, he appeared as somebody they felt they could trust and rely on, somebody that stood on their side.”

The songs of ‘Pattukottai' like Thayaththu Thayaththu from Mahadevi and Seermevum Gurupadham from Chakravarthi Thirumagal were rendered in dialogue mode and had so much of philosophical overtones with radical and atheistic tinges.

More songs of ‘Pattukottai' like Kuruku Vazhiyil Vazhvu Thedidum Kuruttu Ulagamada, Yetramunna Yetram Idhile Irukkudhu Munnetram, Chinna Payale Chinna Payale from Arasilangkumari and Thirudathe Papa from Thirudathe stood the test of time and made him to be identified as a revolutionary actor.

Not only MGR, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said that if death had not conquered him early, he would have rendered even more number of honey-sweet songs.

“His heart was a Tamil garden, where both self-respect theories and communist ideals bloomed.” It was Mr. Karunanidhi who built a memorial for the radical poet who died young.

MGR's charisma has always been a burning topic for social scientists who have tried to analyse the various ways and forms that were involved in the “construction” of his iconicity. Political Scientist Atul Kohli, for example, describes a scene from Madurai in 1984.

The AIADMK in Madurai was virtually indistinguishable from the name and image of MGR. City streets were dominated by larger-than-life posters of MGR, clad in his Tamil ‘lungi' and wearing the dark sunglasses that became his political trademark.

Gaudy posters, garlanded pictures, loud music from MGR's old films, and tapes of MGR's voice on loudspeakers were encountered throughout the city.

At meetings, he addressed the audience as “my blood brothers and sisters”, and managed to create an atmosphere of trust and friendship; his film image transcended various boundaries and still is ruling the roost among the masses.

courtesy - the hindu