Utthama Villan - Saagavaram (உத்தம வில்லன் - சாகாவரம்)

Utthama villan is a recent movie from Kamal Haasan. As always, he has excelled in all the avatars he has undertaken for the movie - writer, actor, lyricist and singer. The movie has wonderful music composed by Ghibran. One of the songs in the movie, which is the subject of this post has really fascinated me, partly for its musical orchestration but more for its lyrics (penned by Kamal himself), that is at once both poetic in its form and also relays complex thoughts on science and philosophy around Life and Death. This is something unusual for lyrics for songs heard in run-of-the-mill Tamil cinema (perhaps this is true for cinema in other languages too).

The title of the song is Saagavaram - a boon of immortality. The pretext of the song in the movie is as follows - the story set in 8th century has a stage artist who escapes death on several occasions (both natural and human created) without even trying, simply through dumb luck. Rumor spreads that this man has conquered death through the knowledge of mrityunjaya mantra. Funnily enough, people around him are constantly testing this theory by trying to kill him and somehow he continues to escape. Meanwhile, the kingdom's evil king who hears of this rumor, summons this stage artist and by hook or crook wants to know the secret to immortality from him. At one point, the stage artist, now made a minister in the kingdom, explains his philosophy of life, death and eternity to provide perspective to the King, as follows -

சாகாவரம் போல் சோகம் உண்டோ, கேளாய் மன்னா!

தீரா கதையை கேட்பார் உண்டோ, கேளாய் மன்னா!

What could be more depressing for someone granted with a boon of immortality?

After all, will anyone be interested in a story that never ends?

கணியன் கணித்த கணக்கு படி, நாம் காணும் உலகு இது வட்ட பந்தாம்!

வட்ட பந்தை வட்டம் அடிக்கும் மற்ற பந்தும் போகும் மாண்டு!

According to kaniyars (a caste of people in ancient south India who were known for their work in astrology), the world that we see is a spherical ball!

Even the other planetary bodies keeping our earth spherical due to gravity, will ultimately die one day!

மாளா ஒளியாம் ஞாயிறும் கூட மற்றோர் யுகத்தில் போகும் கரிந்தெ!

கரிந்து எறிந்தும் வெடித்த பின்னும், உதிக்கும் குழம்பில் உயிர்கள் முளைக்கும்!

The endlessly glowing sun too will burn out in some epoch!

And elsewhere, out of a big bang amidst all the burning and chaos, new life will sprout!

முளைத்து முறிந்தும் துளிர்க்கும் வாழை, தம் மரணத்துள்ளே, விட்டது விதையை, கேளாய் மன்னா!

விதைத்திடும் உன்னை போல், ஓர் உயிரையை உயிர்த்து விளங்கும் என் கவிதை விளங்கும்!

A plantain tree dies too, after serving its purpose of growing, sprouting and fruiting; but before it dies it seeds the birth of its off shoots right where it used to stand! (being eternal in a sense)

Just like you can sow the seeds for your future generations to reap, you will realize that each verse of my poem too breeds its next verse (i.e. andhaadhi, a.k.a antakshari in Hindi, where the end of one verse gives the starting to another verse).

விளங்கி துலங்கிடும் வம்சம் வாழ,

வாழும் நாளில் கடமை செய்ய,

செய்ுள் போல் ஒரு காதல் வேண்டும்!

To ably discharge your duties on this earth while you are still alive and to also leave behind a prosperous lineage of children and grand-children, you must find love that is as beautiful as poetry.

வேண்டியதெல்லாம் வாய்த்த ஒருவன், சாவையும் வேண்டி செத்த கதைகள், ஆயிரம் உண்டு, கேளாய் மன்னா!

There are thousands of stories where a man who got everything he desired, but also died craving his own death.