I was first introduced to Tamil film songs by the better half. Till then only O.P Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishen, Naushad, Salil Choudhary and the likes kept me enthralled with their melodious music. I only knew "Illayaraja" as a famous name and A.R. Rahman was synonymous only with Roja. I was crazy (still am) about old Hindi film songs. My mother would lament that if I had shown half the interest I had for film music in Carnatic classical music, I could have made a good name for myself there! Anyway, that would be a topic for another post.
On our first ever date, after we said yes to one another, my husband, then not even my fiance, gave me a MP3 player. It was his player but he gave it to me upon knowing my liking for music. The player being his had some of his favourite songs. And, nope, none of them were Hindi songs. He doesn't even know any of the Hindi composers I've mentioned above but let's not get into that. That was the beginning of my tryst with Tamil film songs. And, I was (am) impressed by his taste in music. Later, after getting married, I was further introduced to some lovely gems, mostly from the 70s and 80s era, by Illayaraja. And then some more by A.R.Rahman, of the era when he used to truly compose mesmerizing music.Yes, ARR fans can pound me but I maintain that the music in which he used to infuse his soul into every song composed is rarely a norm these days.
Every song has memories associated with it. My early married life has a lot of memories associated with the songs I first listened to. Memories of the days when I was new bride eager to be in the best books of my better half, trying to understand what he liked and experiencing whatever made him happy. Memories of the first house we did up; painstakingly, buying every item with careful thought and consideration, taking our time to fill the house with luxuries, basking in the everyday happiness of hunting and procuring little knick knacks and essentials. Memories of leisurely mornings with hot coffee and warm breakfast; of putting together a meal before the husband came home for lunch; of many a burnt or poorly cooked meal but never a ill-word spoken of it; of the many happy evenings of exploring the city hand in hand; of the dreams we built as a couple.
Of the many songs that take me back to those days, this comes foremost to my mind; a gem by ARR:
