Alexander The Great

Yesterday I heard about the Alexander Great on the radio. Born to King Philip of Macedonia Greece, at one point of time he conquered and controlled almost half the world.

There was a small story in the narration that touched me. This was a time when King Philip (Alexander's father) was away fighting a battle. During this period, in his capital a trial was held for executing certain prisoners. Alexander was a seven year old boy then and he too had the privelege of attending the trial as the Prince of the State. The judge had sentenced the prisoners to death. Alexander who was witnessing the trial, asked permission to speak at the trial, and he being the prince got an opportunity. Alexander's argument was that Life was too precious to be wasted and sacrificed without any cause and if it has to be sacrificed it should only be for the cause of the Nation or the State. He also requested the Judge to send these prisoners as soldiers to assist his father in the war. The Judge realized the wisdom in the words of the small boy and immediately released them and ordered them to join King Philip in the war.

MESSAGES IN TAMIL SONG LYRICS

Vaazhkai Or Porkalam
Life is a never ending battle
Vaazhndhu dhan paarkanum
One has to live through it
Porkalam Maaralam
The battlefields may change
Porgal dhan maarumaa!
But battles seldom change"

The above is a excerpt from a tamil movie called Vedan. Though this verse had really impressed me when I had watched the movie, I had never thought about the inner implications or the underlying message of this verse. I just contemplated on it yesterday somehow and I realised that its underlying message was very deep rooted.

From my understanding what I can infer is that, no one can escape and run away from life which is a never ending struggle. Even if one tries to escape this struggle by moving to other places or by changing things or by any other means, it is just that the battlefield has changed but the struggle still remains the same and cannot be escaped. Only thing is that the struggle might be of a very different form.

One can easily identify the pessimistic note of the above verse. Yesterday I noticed a similar kind of message in another movie song lyrics called "Autograph" which viewed life in a much more optimistic way.

This song goes as follows:

Ovvoru pookalume solgiradhe
Every flower seems to tell that
Vaazvendral Poraadum Porkalame,
Life is a never ending struggle in a battlefield
Nambikkai enbadhu vendum un vaazhvile
you should have confidence in you, to win this struggle
Lakshiyam nichchayam vellum or naalile
You will surely attain your goal/ambition someday
Maname oh Maname nee maarividu
Heart Oh Heart please change a bit
Mazhaiyo adhu Puyalo adhai thaandi vidi
Rain or storm overcome them


Hey come on! We should give Tamil lyric writers credit for writing such inspirational verse. But it is quite rare nowadays to see such good verse. Most of the lyrics are quite arbit and seem to address some silly questions like the one below:

Let me give a build-up to the situation. The hero is in total distress and he has one question in mind that is eating his head out. So not able to withstand the stress he finally asks the heroine:

"Kalyanam dhan kattikittu odi polamaa?
Let us marry and then run away ?
Odi Poyi kalyanam dhan kattikalama?
or Let us run away and then marry!"

But it turns out that the herione too had another very important question in mind and she replies by asking:

Thaaliya than kattikittu pethukalama?
Should we marry and then have kids OR
Illa pulla kutti pethukittu kattikalama?
Can we have kids and then marry?

The above song is a perfect example that wonderfully exemplifies the ethical or social dichotomy that exists in our current socities.

There could be only three kinds of reactions to the question in the above song
1.OK
2.CAN/CANNOT??
3.OKNOT

(Singapore style already lah!).

The OK category will fall into the ultra modern/western thinker category, the OK_NOT will fall into the traditional conservative category and the CAN/CANNOT?? will fall into the confused people category like me.

I think "CAN" can be CAN cos' as long as a marriage is guaranteed this ensures the ethical closure of the system. I also feel that "CANNOT" is justified as it is the safest, risk free and legally and ethically approved.

Thus ends my venture into the critique and analysis of Tamil Movie Songs Lyric.