Did You Know… A Movie Was Written for the Songs

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Indian cinema inherited many of its storytelling traditions from stage drama, where songs were an integral part of the narrative. A song could summarize years of struggle, express emotions that dialogue could not, or show the happy moments in a character’s life within a few minutes.

Songs served as powerful promotions. Sometimes, hit songs also helped movies succeed at the box office.

In an interview, Tamil director R. Sundarrajan shared an interesting story about how the classic blockbuster movie Vaidehi Kaathirunthal was born.

Legendary composer Ilaiyaraaja had already composed seven tunes. As a creator, he was completely confident that every one of them would become a hit. He first approached director Balu Mahendra.

Balu Mahendra reportedly replied that his film only had space for four songs. How could he possibly include all seven?

Producer Panju Arunachalam then spoke to R. Sundarrajan.

Sundarrajan said he admired Ilaiyaraaja’s arrogance in believing that all seven songs would be successful. As a writer and director himself, he felt he had the same confidence to build a story around the music rather than asking the music to fit the story.

He accepted the challenge and wrote a film around those tunes.

The result was Vaidehi Kaathirunthal, which became a blockbuster in 1984. Its soundtrack remains one of Ilaiyaraaja’s evergreen classics, featuring heartbreaking pathos songs like “Rasathi Unna”, “Kaathirunthu”, and “Raasave Unnai”, romantic duets such as “Azhagu Malaraada” and “Inraiku Yen Indha”, and the light-hearted folk-flavoured number “Megam Karukkaiyile.”

“Rasathi Unna” is my all-time favorite. I’m sure you will love it too. (Link is given below).

Sources:

Director Sundarrajan’s interview: (Watch from 1:00 to 3:00)

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Rasathi Unna song:

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