Dancing to the tune of...

 

While our lives can't get any more realer, what with the dampness of sweat beads, uneasy taciturn in conversations  with loved(loud) ones, shenanigans of toddlers, unbiased bills grinning at month beginnings and fancier manifestations inundating us from the other side of "They Happily Lived Ever After" of either our parents story or our own story, our playlist is our only go to place for solace.

Our panting span in the rat race, escapist as it is.

Songs arise from catharsis called composing, involving a story teller's vision put to sound by a composer. The lyricist makes the song talk the language of the indigenous hoi polloi, the director paints the canvas and the  the actor remains the alter ego we would identify with. 

Few creative manifestations have the ability to make a connoisseur straddle between different phases of  life like songs do. So when my grandmom listens to Partha Nyabagam Illayo from Evergreen classic Pudhiya Paravai, she feels like a spring chicken again, thanks to the nostalgia of her young self  enveloped in the song.

While I yearn to be a dad singing an unconventional lullaby to his teen aged children, in a distant future though, everytime I come across Peigala Nambade from Mahanadhi.  

Songs are our very gate passes to past or future, the rewind and fast forward buttons to the realm of our memory. While they always trigger off an emotion in us, sanguine or pragmatic according to the place they play in the movie, an over indulgent connoisseur has to be watchful about the leverage attained.

Songs more often than not, euphemize a state of being by virtue of melody, poetry,conceivement and enactment. Ava Enna Thedi Vantha Anjala from Varanam Ayiram makes primal dancing in public, post girlfriend's demise look so cool. While Aaromale from Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaya makes cross-country roadtrips antidotes to cop up with being dumped. These songs by employing interesting montages and imaginative camerawork, make the drunken lovelorn disrupting public life look like a martyr, while being dumped is portrayed like a pilgrimage every cupid stuck person has to embark upon.

Songs can rig emotions when not in a strong state of mind, ask me about that. There was this rough phase post break-up where everything inanimate around me, seemed to act like apostles of romance. So everytime when I got stuck in traffic or was jogging alone in my gym, my playlist which seemed to have grown an emotional intelligence of it's own,played just one song, Tanhayee from Dil Chahta Hai. The song was tantalizing with that frame of mind, little did I know that with every listen I was sowing seeds of sorrow within. The picture of Aamir Khan jogging along to stop to Preity Zinta's absence, his void in an crowded Sydney junction with inebriating lyrics which go-

Khwaab Mein Dekha Tha Ek Aanchal Maine Apne Haatho Mein
Ab Toote Sapno Ke sheshe Chubte Hai In Aankhon Mein
Kal Koyi Tha Yahin Ab Koyi Bhi Nahin
Ban Ke Naagin Jaise Hai Saason Mein Lehrayi
Tanhayee Tanhayee
Palko Pe Kitne Aansoon Hai Laayi

After a point,a little late though I realised I had barely moved on from my break up, Why? My repeated listening of Tanhayee like some anthem, which made the pale of shadow my former self look like some rockstar,who epitomised love. Thats when I decided to do away with not just Tanhayee, but other melancholic songs of the same genre from my playlists including the sinfully soulful Bhula Dene Mujhe from Aashiqui-2, and the result showed. I started to feel vibrant again, looked healthier and went out with a lot of people.

Grim accounts apart, there's this song I'm so enamored by from Anbe Sivam the lyrics of which act as a torch of dichotomy when faced with an good vs god dilemma which goes-

Yaar Yaar Sivam Nee Naan Sivam
Vaazhvae Thavam Anbe Sivam
Aathigam Paesum Adiyaarkellaam Anbe Sivamaagum

Naathigam Paesum Nallavarkkellaam Anbe Sivamagum  

To an overabsorbed listener like me, songs are life altering flying carpets, trove of memories, medicine and poison, elixir and intoxicant, zephyr that gently combs the face and the tempest that uproots the person. While for a person who knows to objectify , it would be a superhit from a recent hit, a groovy number in a DJ's playlist, even a ringtone  or the perfect time to hit the loo in the cinema hall.