Women in the world of A.R.Rahman

In decade end reviews of Kollywood, one recurring theme is how the women are subjected to musical abuse by men who have either been shunned or friend-zoned. G.V.Prakash set “Adi da avala, odha da avala, vidra avala, thevaye ila” to tune. Sivakarthikeyan became a star by stalking girls and singing “Enna ma ipdi panreengale ma” whenever his heart broke into pieces.  (In one such song, the original stalker Dhanush makes a guest appearance and passes the baton over to his successor SiKa). This article is a tribute to one gentleman whose songs have always been a safe haven for women to seek refuge in.

               

A.R.Rahman’s first ever tune was for a heroine “intro” song. While Deva was composing “Vandhen da paalkaran”, Rahman was setting to tune the chinna chinna aasais of a village girl. Madhubala moves from the waterfalls to a safer rock and sings with gusto: “ Vennilavu thottu muthamida aasai, ennai indha boomi sutra vara aasai”.

           

 In “Minsara kanavu”, he makes Kajol and friends escape a stifling mission school to Himalayas wherein she wishes to listen to the sound of a flower blooming. 

            

In ‘Kandukondein Kandukondein”, Aishwarya Rai dances with men wearing Bharathiyar masks. She knows the cruel society she is born into and hence tempers her dreams with pragmatism : “Nooru kanavugal kandaale aaru kanavugal palikaadha?”.

         

 In “Acham Acham illai”, Anu Hasan confidently sings of a better tomorrow for women :  “Kaalam maari pochu , nam kaneer maari pochu, naalai nalla naalai endra nambikai undaachu”.

       

Kamalhassan ,the greatest actor-star Kollywood has seen, won a national award for “Indian” but does not get any “intro” song in the movie . Rather, in the first song of the movie, Kamal is cluelessly hanging around in gaudy pajamas while Urmila sets the screen on fire. Vaali ,who was no youngster himself in 1996, writes “ orangatu orangatu oh ,oh-ho-ho, old ah yellam orangatu oh”. The song celebrates the aspirations of the New-Gen Indian girls who were making India proud in beauty pageants. Swarnalatha avers “Medai yeridum pen dhane naatin sensation”. Such open celebration of women will never be tolerated by men and hence Swarnalatha concludes the song singing “Sonnadhula kutham unda Gopala ? Kuthamunna oothi tharen Coco-Cola”.

        

In a song very next year, one such beauty who conquered the global stage- Sushmita Sen – shouts out to the world : “We want power “ and in case, the English-challenged people do not get it ,shouts out again : “Vendum vendum vendum power”. (Power is a universal word). She warns men : “Eve teasing seyyum yaarum pakkam vandhale vedikum nuclear bomb dhan”.  Vaali who has this talent of rhyming random words writes “ Ennai paarthu veesadhe paper arrow dhan, unai pola oorengum puppet hero dhan”. Sushmita confidently sings “Love endru sonnale romba allergy” but within 10 minutes of the song, resumes normal Tamil heroine duties to fall in love with the macho hero.

                   

             In “Karuthamma”, which is a “message” movie against female infanticide, an ailing old man is taken care of by two daughters and he realizes the folly of having once abhorred women. Jeyachandran moves us to tears when he sings “ Oru pottachiya pethadhinal kai odinja pozhappu kai veesi nikudhamma naan petha magale”.

                  

        “Vandicholai chinrasu” is one movie which features a regressive song wherein the “hero” advises the female lead to wear sarees instead of swimming suits because she is a “Sentamil Naatu Tamizhachi”. Rahman compensates though with a counter-song wherein the female lead and her friends gang up to tease the tall Sathyaraj. Swarnalatha sings “ponnodu mallukatti poti ittu vendra payan boomiyile ilaye”. There is also a reference to the then boss of Tamil Nadu in the line “IAS aana kuda ‘Amma,yes’ solanum”.

                    

              In “Rhythm”, Unni Menon sings a six minute thesis on how rivers can be likened to women. The lyrics writer rises to the occasion in his typical style comparing river’s topography with a woman’s body. The biggest goosebumps moment in a women-related Rahman song comes in this song when Unnimenon slightly raises his voice to warn all of us – “Poonguile poonguyile pennum aarum vadivam maara koodum, neer ninaithal pen ninaithal karaigal yaavum karaindhu poga koodum”. That the lyrics writer understood the meaning of his own lines only as late as 2018 is poetic justice.

                     

           Kathir is one director who respects women in his craft. Even in a song for college boys to celebrate all the beautiful girls in the campus, there are no obscenities like “Ava shapeu apapapapa , mothathula aiyayayayo” (which incidentally is sung by a “hero” seeing the female lead in a 2015 movie) .Rather, Hariharan sings “Vinnavarkum mannavarkum vilayatra selvam penn”.  “Kalluri salai” celebrates the joy of being in college together and the lines “Azhagana penn endrum oru inspiration, munneralam kandal engal generation” reflect the class of the Kathir-Rahman-Vaali combo.

                    

               Like how men sing on how their girl of desire should be, “Hey hey ena aachu unaku” is a check-list of what girls expect from boys. Unlike men who get greedy ,this check list is simple and the clincher is “Appavum ippavum eppavum engalin nanbanaga vaazhndhida vendum”.

                    

             We began with how the current lot of boys cope with break-ups .Rahman songs are where men cope with break-ups.. In “Kadhalar Dinam”, the male lead is witness to his lover getting married to someone else owing to her father’s wish. He does not burn the marriage hall down with lines like “Evan di una pethan, kaila kedacha sethan”. Rather,he sings “Indha yezhai nenjamum nee vaazha pookal thoovum, nee vaazhga nalamaga”. In “Kadhal virus”, the man in pain sings “Vaanam pole vaazhai irundhum adhil oru nilavai nee yen illai?”. Even Simbu who plays characters like serial killer of women in other movies learns to cope with breakup with Shreya Ghoshal’s humming for company. In 2003 itself, Rahman has tried to pre-empt all the songs coming up in the future and made Mathangi sing “oru penn yematrinal pengalai pizhai enbadha?” in “Aaha Tamizhamma”.

                 

             Now we come to the anthems. “Laadli” with Lata Mangeshkar has women empowerment as it’s theme. Rahman’s “Laadli tu” in the video is perfect backdrop to a strong woman roughing up a bunch of unruly man-animals.

                  

            Of course, the latest addition to the list of motivational anthems composed by Rahman is “Singappenney”. The music video published first irked many wherein the lyricist requests a "women empowerment "song from Rahman as if the sole path to women empowerment is a six minute anthem. But the best moment related to the song is not found within the song . 

                 

           It came in the audio launch when a hysterical anchor worships Rahman for a generic women empowerment anthem. Rahman coolly replies that it is a song needed for the women characters in the movie and other women outside do not need it as they are already empowered. Also, the song’s video is the first time Rahman has appeared in an Indian movie to perform for a song. (The first time he appeared for a promotional video song also involved  a woman : “Patakha Guddi” from “Highway”.)

       Ironically , a majority of the songs referenced above were written by Vairamuthu who has been accused of sexual harassment by many women,spearheaded by the top singer Chinmayi. Vairamuthu has been a major reason for the success of many Rahman songs. Thus , it is gratifying to note that since the allegations broke, Rahman is yet to work with Vairamuthu and even in the recent “Ponniyin Selvan” poster, the biggest reaction was to the one name missing : Vairamuthu.

        It can be argued that Rahman is fortunate to have worked on such song situations but the fact is that Rahman chooses to work only in such films which spread the fragrance of goodness. It is a cruel world out there for the women and here is to hoping that this society becomes as good a place for a woman as a 5 minute Rahman song. I wish to end with these lines from a fun song which has some fantastic lines sung by (and for) women :

“En kaalgal engum pogum, thatti ketka koodadhu 

  En vergal engum pogum , katti poda koodadhu”

                 

Happy birthday Allah Rakka Rahman !