Song: Poongatru
Music: Ilaiyaraaja
Singers: KJ Yesudas
Lyrics: Kannadasan
Actors: Kamal Haasan, Sridevi
Film: Moondram Pirai
Today is Balu Mahendra’s birthday. As a tribute, our song of the day is ‘Poongatru Puthithanathu’ from Moondram Pirai (1982). Balu Mahendra began his career as a cinematographer in Malayalam films in the early 1970s. He directed his first film Kokila in Kannada in 1977, and went on to work on over 20 movies as a director, writer, editor.
Moondram Pirai, one of his best known movies, is about a teacher (Kamal Haasan) who rescues Viji (Sridevi) who has regressed into amnesia after an accident, and has no memory of her past. The song opens to her mimicking a man riding a horse by sitting on a donkey. Balu Mahendra shows the intimacy between the them in this song. The story, Sridevi and Kamal’s performances which was one of their career-best, and Ilaiyaraaja’s songs set to Kannadasan’s lyrics made this film memorable.
A part from the song:
நதி எங்கு செல்லும் கடல் தன்னைத் தேடி
பொன்வண்டோடும் மலர் தேடி…
பொன்வண்டோடும் மலர் தேடி
என் வாழ்வில் நீ வந்தது விதியானால்
நீ எந்தன் உயிரன்றோ.
The lines, performed by Kamal Haasan on screen, say just as the river is destined to meet the sea, and the bee is destined to fly from flower to flower in search of honey, similarly it is destined that the young woman would come into his life.