Kaansen Khronicles #2: Revisiting songs from years past, that have been lost in the chaos of the social media-era content explosion!
"There are two big moments in every human's life - the first when he is born, and the second when he finds out why he was born", said A.R.Rahman talking about the meaning of Naan Yen Piranthen, a gem from his 2013 appearance on Coke Studio. A deeply poetic song celebrating the beauty of God's creation and the purposeful place of every soul and being in the cosmos, the lyrics, the mood it sets and the elements of Sufi existentialism are right up Rahman's alley of melodious solos, a la Vellai Pookal and the Gurus of Peace.
Starting with a rustic piece by Rayhanah, the song, its lyrics and the gentle strings by Keba all paint the calming imagery of a fishing hamlet during the rainy season, with a philosopher sitting under a tree expouding his discovery of the purpose of life as a second birth. The dramatization of this rebirth moment comes in the form of Prasanna's Electric Guitar that stays under the radar until the last charnam of the song, and the chorus plays the role of the surrounding society. The song has the makings of a great folk piece, complemented with the contemporary elements of Mohini Dey on the bass, and a string quartet. It is fair to say that the song shares a lot of its DNA with the music of Kadal, the Mani Ratnam movie that released the same year with some memorable pieces of music like Nenjukulle, and Elay Keechan (subjects of other posts in this collection).
As for the philosopher personified in the song, the lyricist Vaali would be a great fit. Having written thousands of songs over five decades, this celebration of spiritual awakening was ironically, one of his last poems. Vaali passed in July 2013, a few weeks before the song premiered on Coke Studio.
The song serves as a great tribute to his legendary songwriting. It also serves as a great tribute to the work A.R.Rahman does in bringing the people of the World together.
A quick review of the comments on social media about this song reveals several stories of people loving the music and sensing the deep essence of the song - though they do not understand a single word of Tamil. It is one thing for people to understand the lyrics of a song and connect with it. It is a whole different experience for people to feel the emotions of a song, and then line it up with what it literally means. And transcending that boundary where you feel the emotions of words through his music, not knowing what the words mean, is what makes A.R.Rahman special.
