sundari kannal oru sethi lyrics translation

A fan of Akira Kurosawa told me that the visuals are Mani’s tribute to one of his personal icon’s greatest movies, Seven Samurai. The ever brilliant S.P.Balasubramaniam and timeless S.Janaki give life to Vaali’s ode to love and longing.Ī student of Tamil literature once told me that the song carries strains of an old tamil poem, the Netunalvatai.

Their longing for each other is juxtaposed with scenes from a bloody combat. Orchestration picks up at this point as we are shown the hero heading out to war. Tolling bells and a beautiful flute piece sets the stage for a burst of violins as Rajini trots on a horse towards Shobana. Cue the setting to something that vaguely resembles feudal Japan. The soft spoken Shobana, playing the heroine bursts out saying she loves him, inspite of everything she just saw. The hero, defiant of his act is trying to convince her that there is a reason for his actions and that his ways are not for her kind. The setting for the song was that the timid heroine had spotted the hero doing unsavory thuggery in the middle of the road. And in what was a unique attempt at that time, Mani, Raja and the crew created a story in a song piece with “Sundari Kannal”.

The background music stands out as one of the best ever in tamil cinema.

Each song fit the scene perfectly and stood out as a classic on its own. Ilayaraja delivered one of his best soundtracks with Dalapathi. Given the sky high expectations from the movie, the music was expected to be a chartbuster. Added to the excitement was Malayalam superstar Mammooty sharing equal screen space with Rajini. It was to be hotshot director Manirathnam’s first movie with superstar Rajinikanth and all sorts of fireworks was expected. It was with that background that Rajini’s Dalapathi was announced to much fanfare to go head to head with Kamal’s Guna. Every Pongal and/or Diwali was eagerly awaited for the next clash of Rajini and Kamal. Karthik, Vijaykanth, Sathyaraj and Prabhu were forever knocking at their doors with little to middling success.

Rajinikanth and Kamalhassan were marquee draws. In my previous post following a fantastic SPB – Chitra concert in the Bay Area, I had mused that Ilayaraja’s brilliant composition for Manirathnam‘s Dalapathi, “ Sundari Kannal oru sethi” warrants a post of its own.

Sundari kannal oru sethi lyrics translation