Song: Chanakya Chanakya from Dum
The Artists:
Singers: Sadhana Sargam
Composer: Deva
Lyricist: Pa Vijay
Starring: Silambarasan, Rakshitha
The Setting: STR keeps mum as actress Rakshitha sings songs about his ‘physical abilities’
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The Film: A remake of the Kannada film Appu, this early STR film made it to 100 days at several theatres in Tamil Nadu. The premise is cliched – a young man facing off with a more powerful person. A Venkatesh apparently made no attempt to improve it. But cliché or not, the film was a big commercial success.
The film was also remade in Telugu, Bengali and even Bangladeshi Bengali. Rakshitha played the role in three versions – Kannada, Tamil and Telugu.
The Song: Chanakya Chanakya is your usual Deva song. It’s all things catchy; the lyrics, the accompaniment have all been carefully tuned towards making this song a hit. It is also a direct copy of the song that music director Chakri had composed for Dum’s Telugu version, Idiot.
Pa Vijay’s lyrics are interesting, to say the least.
Adam Pidithen
Nee Endhan Nenjil
A D V E R T I S E M E N TIdam Pidithai
I love you da
With lines such as these, the lyricist manages to make the heroine seem silly. Nonetheless, it is a really fun song that once ruled the airwaves, and was a major part of the popular culture back then. The song and the film were major boosts to STR’s fledgeling career.