Category Tamils

Rangarajan of Srirangam , popularly known as Vaalii was not known to me personally though I like his songs next to Kannadasan.
Another Rangarajan, also from Sri Rangam, is Sujatha the trend setter in modern Tamil Story writing was my friend..

Once when I was talking to Sujatha, I told him that though I like Vaali's songs i Prefer Kannadasan for Kannadasan's Tamil flowed naturally; in the case of Valli though they are excellent , to me, the word s seemed to be forced and researched, like Milton's as compared to Shakespeare.

Sujatha seems to have told Vaali of this and Vaali had replied,

' I would like to meet him, many times I felt that way'

Such was his down to earth attitude and large hardheartedness that he was a man who recognized and nurtured young poets and lyricists.

In fact towards the closing years of his Life these young poets used to visit him regularly.

I have been meaning to write on valli for quite some time, as I have done for Kannadasan.

It seems that I tend to write Obituaries, much to my regret, thanks to my laziness.

Poet, Lyricist, Actor,.Litterateur , Theist, Atheist,Humane,Orthodox, Ultra modern , that is Vaali.

Even a die hard fan of Kannadasan would(Like me) would at times find it difficult to identify the songs, whether they are Kannadasa's or vaali's.

Example'madhavi Ponmayilaal Thohai Virithaal'

I have been under the impression that it was penned by Kannadasan.

I came to know much later it was by Vaali.

It seeems that Kannadasan was preoccupied and as the the song was urgently needed, it was decide to use Vaali.

It is a known fact that Sivaji Ganesan preferred Kannadasan for his films.

It seems, that after the recording was over the cassette was sent to Sivaji for his comments.