Music and lyrics by a ‘king’

Chennai: Rightly titled as ‘Kaviyarasu’ or King of poets, Kannadasan (1927-1981) wrote more than 6,000 poems and 232 books which are an intellectual asset for the people of Tamil Nadu. There were times when singers were desperate to lend their voices for his lyrics. One can never forget the day when he made thousands of people shed tears through the power of his lyrics, standing at the Marina beach.

On May 27, 1964, when Jawaharlal Nehru passed away, the State government decided to hold a condolence meet at Marina beach the very next day. They sent an urgent invite to Kaviyarasu Kannadasan and requested him to write a song for Jawaharlal Nehru. Sirkazhi Govindarajan was also present at the condolence meet to lend his voice to Kannadasan’s lyrics.

Within the span of a few minutes, he wrote a song, describing Nehru’s bravery, deeds and personality. When Sirkazhi began to sing this, the crowd stood up and clapped, so moving were the lyrics. More than thousand people, gathered for the condolence meeting, were unable to control their emotions.

One day, when I tried to meet Kannadasan at his house his wife said that he was not in town. I knew that something was wrong. One of his assistants, Kannappa, told me that he had been admitted in hospital. Initially, I was shocked, but then later, I learnt that it was just a ruse to keep away people who often knocked at his door and troubled him for song lyrics. The assistant was kind enough to let me meet him. I wanted to ask him to write a song about journalists as we had organised a fund-raising function that evening, but as he was resting I thought I should leave him alone. But Kannadasan understood what I wanted and immediately, he took paper and pen, cigar in a hand. He then began to write a song on journalists and finished it in one sitting. Many artiste in the industry take rest in private hospitals just to stay away from work for a few days. Even versatile actor Nagesh had done so once.

Also, Kannadasan did not pamper his kids with money. Instead, he gave all his writings, lyrics or books to his sons and asked them to earn money by selling them.