Tamil Songs: Absolute Favorites 1978 - 1992

  1)    NINAIVAALE SILAI SEIDHU UNAKKAAGA VAITHEN (MOVIE: Andhaman Kaadhali (The Lover From Andaman), RELEASE DATE: 26 Jan, MUSIC: MS Viswanathan, LYRICS: Kannadasan) We used to live in this small but idyllic “portion” of a colony in Appar Swami Koil street in Mylapore, Madras. In fact, this was the last home that we lived in Mylapore proper. We would move out to the then-outskirts of Madras, Adyar, six months after the release of ‘Andhaman Kadhali’. For all my claims of being a Mylapore boy, I have hardly lived there. Always a wannabe... What is it about Mylapore, one may ask? I can't put a finger on it. But, I have to acknowledge that there was something to the place and its environs, even back then. The MEI School that I sprinted to after the first bell; the Chettiar shop where I bought my favorite “round mithai” and cone biscuits; Appar Swami temple right behind our home, to where I followed my mom like a shadow to listen to every  Katha Kalakshebam ; the pageant of street-side

What was it about music and movies? Why were they so inextricably linked with lives of people in India, especially from my generation? Was it because they were the only outlet for entertainment available to people of that era? Or was it because role models, thinkers, and movers and shakers, often emerged from those fields? Did the age-old song-and-dance tradition prevalent in our country,  since the age of our  paatan-muppattan have a role to play in it ? Or did the Darwinian (or whateverian) impulse to respond to aural and visual stimulations sway our eyes and ears? Just what is it? Music  - and movies as an extension (or was it the other way around?) -  has been an integral part of my mental maturation and expression, since the time I acquired a cognition about self and surroundings. (with so many 'tions' in one sentence, I came close to the legendary T Rajendar dialog in 'Oru Vasantha Geetham'.  Click here for a sneak peek of the epic court scene ).  Music has been t