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Rajinikanth than they are for Kamal. Look what I was stunned!! No, it was not the lyrics.
Rahman composed for Kamal Hassan in ‘Indian’. I didn’t get it then. It was the tune! It
Now imagine what he is going to do for Rajinikanth! was the same tune I had hummed in the
My brother was getting appropriately excited now. shower the other day. Of course, ‘my’ tune
It’s going to be the biggest magnum opus in the was just the first couple of lines, but even
history of magnum opuses, he averred. then! I let my brother hear the song then
Mommy then broke our shared reverie by asking and there. To my surprise, he didn’t feel
us to take our evening shower before settling down that he had heard the ‘Kick Yerudhae’ tune
to study. Here begins the story of my paranormal before. But I was adamant. My memory
experience I alluded to in the beginning. Drunk with was unmistakable. And I wasn’t trying to
excitement, I proceeded to the bathroom. While in prove anything. Just stating a fact. That
the shower, I was randomly singing/humming some this same tune had come to me in the
songs when a new tune came to me. I occasionally get shower that evening.
new tunes but 99% of the time, they are hardly worth Over the ensuing months and years, I
getting excited about and are readily forgotten. dismissed this experience as just my
This time however, I found this particular tune very mind playing tricks with me. Maybe, my
interesting. Made some tweaks here and there, and overblown excitement, general innocence
tried to expand it but that didn’t work out. I was of that age, rudimentary musical
anyway happy with the basic tune. While drying off, inclination, false memory, combinatory
I kept on humming lest I forget the tune. Soon after, play etc may all have contributed to that.
I shared my tune with my brother. “Isn’t my tune Who knows? I had totally forgotten about
Rahmanesque?”, I asked. He was hardly impressed. it. In the 22 years since, occasional new
Maybe if I give this tune to Rahman, he will build on tunes keep coming to me. 99% of them
it and turn it into a peppy dance-number, I thought continue to be barely interesting. But
wistfully. That was that. And the tune was forgotten. never have I had another ‘Kick Yerudhae’
Three days later, Daddy brought a cassette. “There experience.
was no audio cassette by the name you gave me but
the shopkeeper agreed that the latest A R Rahman
musical had indeed arrived. This might be what you
were looking for”, and gave me the audio cassette
of ‘Padayappa’, which I had earlier mispronounced
as ‘Badayba’. I lost no time in getting my Walkman,
inserted the cassette and pressed ‘Play’. One by one,
I listened to ‘Emperu Padayappa’, ‘Vettri Kodi Kattu’,
‘Suthi Suthi Vandhiga’, ‘Minsara Kanna’. I already
knew Rahman’s songs take time to grow on you. You
might not instantly fall in love but once you listen
to them a few times, you will keep coming back to
them totally mind-blown. It had happened with
'Dil Se'. It was the same with ‘Indian’. And it
was going to repeat with ‘Padayappa’.
One after the other, I listened to the
songs, found them amusing, moved
on to the next. Till I came upon ‘Kick
Yerudhae’. There’s an initial whistling
bit. Soon after that Mano starts
singing ‘Oh O Oh O Kick Yerudhae..
Oh O Oh O Vekkam Ponathae..
Ullukkullae Gyaanam Ooruthae..
Unmai Ellaam Solla Thonuthae..’

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andrum M
v
lleg
edical Co
2K1 MB
2K1 MBBS, Trivandrum Medical College e
BS,
ri
T