With this song, Mani Ratnam shows he needs neither exotic locales having nature’s beauty in abundance (Pacchai Nirame) nor a fort (Snehidhane) nor a festive atmosphere (Yaaro Yaarodi) and with just brick and cement (and not to forget those yellow and white bed spreads) as a backdrop, he can create stunning visuals too.
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The name itself is one among the numerous things about Alaipayuthey that instantly fascinated me. I really wish I could know what made Mani Ratnam give it a title like this and if he had any other names in his mind.
There was this programme telecast on Sun TV on the 14th of April, 2000 in which Madhavan, Shalini & Swarnamalya spoke about the movie. I remember Swarnamalya saying how much she liked the name of the movie. Seems she came to know the name only after hearing the story.
It wasn’t just the name alone. I liked the font in which it was written too. As the first few minutes of the movie alternates between Madhavan on a bike and the titles of the movie, the titles in that nice font in white colour on a black background looks good too. Even though I later saw quite a few movies using this font, I’ll always associate this font only with Alaipayuthey.
Blame it on the lack of time or the fact that the ability to satisfactorily translate thoughts into words seems to be often eluding me nowadays or sheer laziness, I am now looking at the number of posts that I have written to celebrate 10 years of Alaipayuthey and cursing myself. I now feel like somebody who has a 3-hour exam to finish in just half an hour. 😉
Thinking about exams, I remember the first time I heard a group of people raving non-stop about Alaipayuthey. It was the day of my class 10 English board exam. Having completed the exam well ahead of time, all of us were happily standing outside the school and chatting. And that was when a group of my class mates started talking excitedly about the trailer of the next Mani Ratnam’s movie which was being telecast on the TV channels. They were talking about Madhavan, (at that time, who wouldn’t have done that? 😉 ) the music, etc. But I had not watched the trailer yet, since we still didn’t have cable connection at home! Being a mute participant to the conversation, little did I know back then that a couple of months down the line, I would become totally crazy about the movie and the craze would still be on an ever-increasing mode ten years down the line too! And that movie would be the one thing about which it’s difficult to get me to stop talking about. 🙂 I am in a nostalgic mood now!
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/livetv/raavan/index.html Don’t miss it!
Listening to the 4th song Ranjha Ranjha now. Liked all the songs till now 🙂 Don’t know which song I am going to get hooked to first.
Sand, sea, sky in pink & orange hues, Ustad Sultan Khan’s vocals in the background, a lone boat, the couple – the girl clad in a salwar kameez and the guy in a blue t-shirt and jeans – and the wife’s name written on the sand by the husband. As the girl is about to bid adieu to her husband, the song begins. The location shifts from Bay of Bengal to the banks of Narmada River. Sand is replaced by a fort that is an architectural marvel. And yet the romantic atmosphere prevails.
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Wishing you all a very happy Tamil new year and Vishu! 🙂 Raavan is the most important thing that I am looking forward to this year. The audio release of Raavan is just 10 days away and I am excited!
P.S.: There will definitely be a post on Alaipayuthey tomorrow.
Click here to watch the trailer of Alaipayuthey featuring this song! This was the last trailer which was released for Alaipayuthey. And it was also the only trailer which was telecast on TV for quite a long time after the movie got released. I still remember how it used to be telecast at a specific time everyday and I used to watch it too. Just look at how an entire bunch of happy & colourful scenes from the movie has been chosen for this song, matching the mood of the song having apt lines like ‘enRenRum punnagai, muDivillaa punnagai’! Brings a punnagai to your face too, doesn’t it? 🙂 Brick red, cement gray and the red and pink of Madhavan’s and Shalini’s costumes in the closing scene make such a beautiful colour combination on screen! I remember the trailer ending with Bru coffee being pouring into a green coffee mug with a voiceover in the background saying, ‘enRenRum punnagai. BruvuDan punnagai’.
P.S.: I could find only that low resolution video of this trailer.
This walk was by Dr. Chithra Madhavan and it was organized by ‘Namma Mylapore’ on 7th March, 2010. Srinivasa Perumal, Kesava Perumal, Kapaleeswarar, Mundagakanni Amman, Madhava Perumal, Karaneeswarar and Virupaksheeswarar temples were the temples that were covered in this walk. History, architecture, sculptures and inscriptions were the focus of this walk. So, we didn’t see the main deities in most of the temples.
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