I never get tired of stressing the importance of lyrics and the need for expression or bhavam in a song. A song comes alive when a singer emotes the meaning of the text while rendering it in a tune that moves you. But do lyrics matter at all?

While I would raise my hand in opposiition to anyone who would vote against the importance of lyrics, I am kind of taken aback by this lone song which takes lyric-meaninglessness to new heights.I am sure you all know that I am talking about. This is a song from the film tamizhppadam.

The entire movie is a satire on Tamil movies per se and this song is a parody on a love duet complete with a Hariharan-trademarked aalaap/taan sandwiched in between.
The beauty of this song is the meaning of its lyrical content or lack thereof.

You dont have any fanciful lyrics here like cashewnuts in the grove of the God of Gods Indra (indiran totattu mundiri). But you have 'Mahazziya, nakamuka naka, randakka', you name it.

Here is the genius of the songmakers who have constructed a captivating song with meanigless phrases that have appeared in tamil film songs over the last couple of decades.  I heard the song for the first time when I watched the film at the Satyam complex (prior to nice idlies at id); the song caught me by surprise as I couldnt understand any of the lyrics.

It took me two lines of the song to realize that this song was entirely about meaningless lyrics. My God! How priceless! I was laughing throughout the entire duration of the song.Well not quite. Because I stopped soon to admire the melodic construct behind it.

The song meanders through various raga/scale based phrases in a classically feigned paradigm with decent drum beats and a fairly decent orchestration complete with imaginative bgm.

It opens in the scale of what could be kanakangi and then goes onto the domain of marva/puriya and in the charanam even brings in a flirting touch of the springy vasanta.

The key is the clever use of the phrase nakamuka naka in the lower octave, which occurs at least 4 times in the song, like the phrase nakamuka naka is telling you a story, especially in response to the plaintive dailamo dailamo -ballelakka in the charanam.

There is plenty of love, plenty of romance in the song without lyrics at all. The singers are at their lyrical best.

My brother asked singer Swetha how she managed to pull of the song without laughing. Hats off to the singers. On top of all this, O mahazziya has something even more special.

It has recall value.
Compared to most songs of the 2010, this was the song that I could recall complete with words and tune - even several weeks after the movie.

So, who cares about lyrics!

About the author

Kanniks Kannikeswaran
www.kanniks.com