Song: Kakkala Kannamma
Composer: Ilaiyaraaja
Lyrics: Gireesh Puthenchery
Actors: Sivaji Ganesan, Mohanlal
Singers: SP Balasubhramanyam, MG Sreekumar
Film: Oru Yathramozhi
Today is actor, director, writer Prathap Pothan’s birthday. As a tribute, here’s a song from his 1997 directorial Oru Yathramozhi, one of the few Malayalam films starring Sivaji Ganesan. He plays Mohanlal’s long lost father in the film. When he returns to his home town, both of them take an instant liking to each other without recognising who they are.
Prathap Pothan made his first film Meendum Oru Kaathal Kathai in 1985. He has directed films in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu, and acted in over a hundred south Indian films. Among his best are Ayalum Njanum Thammil, 22 Female Kottayam in Malaylam, Aayirathil Oruvan in Tamil. His last film was Oru Yathramozhi.
Sung by SPB and MGS, ‘Kakkala Kannamma’ is a song with classic Ilaiyaraaja beats and a pace that never varies. The song begins with Sivaji Ganesan stopping someone else to sing it the right way, and Mohanlal soon joins him. In what is like a playful conversation between both of them, they ask us to not miss the sun rise, and to look at how the sky turned red that morning. They tell us all about their fields, the birds, the instruments and their lives there.