A thread on the song 'En Veetu Thottathil' from Gentleman (1993)....
Rajesh Rajamani@rajamanirajesh
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Jan 05, 2025
~2 min read
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A thread on the song 'En Veetu Thottathil' from Gentleman (1993).
Well! This is one of my most favorite songs. And every time I listen to it, am stunned by the beauty of its tune and lyrics.
Well! This is one of my most favorite songs. And every time I listen to it, am stunned by the beauty of its tune and lyrics.
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Some of the lines are so profound that it takes almost one's entire life time to understand their complete meaning. Like take this favorite stanza of mine.
Here, the woman sings,
"Sollukum theriyaamal sollathan vanthenae
Sollukul artham polla sollaamal nindraenae"
Here, the woman sings,
"Sollukum theriyaamal sollathan vanthenae
Sollukul artham polla sollaamal nindraenae"
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And the man adds,
"Sollukum arthathukum dhoorangal kidayaadhu
Sollaadha kadhal ellam sorgathil saeraadhu!"
"Sollukum arthathukum dhoorangal kidayaadhu
Sollaadha kadhal ellam sorgathil saeraadhu!"
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It took me a decade or two to even understand the first line where the woman claims that she has come to communicate her love to the man of interest, but without the knowledge of the very words she was going to utter.
This is such a complex and profound statement.
This is such a complex and profound statement.
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Because when you are in love, you want to communicate what you are feeling. But the very act of verbalizing your feeling diminishes its intensity in some way. Because until you verbalize a feeling, it exists in a boundary-less world and is all encompassing.
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But the moment you put it in words, the feeling is somewhat restricted within definite boundaries.
So the question is, can a person communicate their love without diminishing its intensity while verbalizing it? The woman in the song tries to achieve that.
So the question is, can a person communicate their love without diminishing its intensity while verbalizing it? The woman in the song tries to achieve that.
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She claims that she has come to tell her love but without the knowledge of the very words she is uttering. Thereby, she hopes the intensity of her feeling isn't compromised.
It is such a beautiful and accurate understanding of human feelings and their relationship with language.
It is such a beautiful and accurate understanding of human feelings and their relationship with language.
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And this was in fact just about the first line in this stanza. There is such deep thought and philosophy in each of the lines in this beautiful song. One can almost write a PhD thesis if they have the time and patience to investigate each of its lines, I think.
