The 2001 Paarthale Paravasam Tamil movie directed by late legendary director K. Balachander and starring Madhavan and Simran, the movie did not do well at the Tamil box office but then again, the soundtrack from A.R. Rahman namely one titled Azhagae Sugama has become one of the must-have songs in the Tamil song playlist. Image source: Amazon.
Read These First:-
- My Favourite Tamil Song 101: Heavenly Sahana By AR Rahman 2007
- My Favourite Tamil Song 101: Enna Solla Pogirai By AR Rahman 2000
- Nostalgic Tamil Song 101: Mouna Ragam’s Hopeful Sad Mandram Vandha Song 1986
- My Favourite Tamil Song 101: Koelae, Fast, Energetic & Burning Patriotism
- Technology 101: Still Remember Your Dolby Noise Reduced Songs?
The Premise
The song Azhagae Sugama is sung by Srinivas & Sadhana Sargam and beautifully penned by A.R. Rahman’s usual lyrist, Vairamuthu. The scene takes place after Madhavan who plays a role of a well-k doctor who is also a famous actor is forced to get married to Simran as he is tired of his female fans chasing after him but then gets separated when another girl appears & claims that Madhavan is the father of her son. Simran without checking further or understanding the real situation hastily requests a divorce.
This is a scene from the movie itself and it is well-picturised although it has the slower version & spread over a few scenes:-
This is an enhanced version of the song and trusts me, you can hear this song all day long
The start of the song is very simple but it quickly grabs your attention and continues on as the vocals come onboard. Srinivas’ voice is rather soothing and interludes with Sadhana Sargam’s vocals. The instrumentals are kept to the very minimum and it re-enforces the strength of the vocals & the beauty of the lyrics.
A tap of the drum ring, some cymbals and base guitar strings in the background. In the prelude to the chorus, a nice composition of the piano and the violin comes in and gracefully exits for the chorus to come in. The violin comes in again at the end and closes the curtain for this song.
The Lyrics
In the early days, A. R. Rahman composed some of the best Tamil songs before totally changing his style once too many other composers started to copy the same styles so much so that some thought it is composed by A.R. Rahman. The lyric for this song are well written by Vairamuthu and touches the very sensitive point of the relationship between a husband & wife who have since parted from each other.
Male (The Husband):-
How are you, my beauty?
How is your anger?
Female (The Wife):-
How are you, my love?
How are your desires?
How are you, my husband?
How are you, being all alone?
How is your home?
How is your garden?
How are the flowers (in the garden)?
How are your lies? (She asks this the last implying she has not forgotten the lies that her husband had made)
Male (The Husband):-
Oh my love, the moment I parted from you, I had lost a part of my senses
Since it is a shame for me (as a guy) to cry in the open so I switched off the lights and cried in the darkness
Female (The Wife):-
My love, I hated you but in the same process, I ended up hating my decision (to split from you)
I realized the importance of relationships but I ended up only understanding half of it.
Male (The Husband):-
After all, wouldn’t fresh flowers be able to tie into the old garland?
Female (The Wife):-
After all, wouldn’t new knots be able to form in an old mangalsutra?
Male (The Husband):-
Can’t we start back our life just like where the point starts where it ended in a circle?
Female (The Wife):-
Can’t we start back our life just like where the point starts where it ended in a circle?
The last few verses show that despite that the husband & wife had separated due to an unfortunate event of which neither have forgotten and both of them are in pain and wish to be together again. Yet, they do not want to be the first to trigger this reunion and are waiting for the other to initiate the first move.
Final Say
One has to say that in the years after his first movie Roja, A.R. Rahman continued his magic churning out hits after hits and time to take advantage of the digital age. Of course, there are some missed songs but then again it is due to personal preferences & time to get familiarised with his compositions.
K. Balachander is a legendary director and the key reason why Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth are big stars today. Despite so, there was nothing special about the acting or the storyline itself and one could have easily forgotten this movie if not for A.R. Rahman’s music.