Potpourri of titbits about cinema - Kavignar Vaali

‘Kavignar’ Vaali, the renowned lyricist has many other facets - a painter, playwright, poet and actor! This simple, open-hearted veteran artist was born to Srinivasa Iyengar and Ponnammaal at Srirangam. His given name is Rangarajan. His ambition was to become a popular artist like Maali. The name Vaali was given to him by his schoolmate Babu. In his early days, Vaali ran a manuscript-magazine called ‘Netaji’. Later on, he joined the art school at Egmore in Chennai. After one year of training, he started ‘Vaali Publicities’, an advertising firm. But the company was closed down after a short while.

Then, he wrote the script for stage plays and staged them at Srirangam itself. He wrote many scripts and lyrics for Tiruchi Radio station. His works announced the arrival of Vaali and recognition came calling. T. M. Soundararajan, who sang one of Vaali’s songs commended his work and encouraged him to enter cinema. Vaali arrived at Chennai with the help of his actor friend V. Gopalakrishnan. Again, it was Gopalakrishnan who got Vaali the first opportunity to write lyrics for films through the movie ‘Azhagarmalai kallan’, released in the year 1958. P. Suseela provided voice to the song ‘Nilavum thaamaraiyum neeyammaa …”. And for Vaali, it was a giant leap to cinema.

Vaali could mingle with any media person with ease thanks to his pleasant disposition. I became close to him in my capacity of being an ardent admirer of his songs. He would recall many interesting incidents in his life experiencing the same happiness. He would always talk highly of me to his friends telling that l would never add frills to my interviews with the VIPs and that as a media person I am always trustworthy in this respect. I used to feel very proud and happy to hear his words.

Once, I asked him to name two favorites of his songs that he wrote for MGR. He said that he had written lyrics for 63 MGR films but the two songs “koduththathellaam kotuththaan …” and “tharaimel pirakkavaiththaan …” of the film ‘Padakotti’ were his favorites. When asked about Sivaji-starrers, he said that he had written lyrics for 66 Sivaji films and the song ‘azhagu deivam mella mella …” of the film ‘Pesum deivam’ was his favorite. I asked Vaali to mention his song that was most appreciated by his best friend ‘Kavignar’ Kannadasan. The lyrics for the song ‘Pakkaththu veettu paruva machchaan ..” of the film ‘Karpagam’ was very much appreciated and liked by Kannadasan, he replied. When asked about the song he liked the most among Kannadasan’s works, Vaali said that he liked all of Kannadasan’s songs but the songs “mayakkamaa, kalakkamaa …” of the film ‘Sumaithaangi’ and “aattuviththaal yaaroruvar …” of the film ‘Avanthaan manithan’ were the two songs he liked the most.

Vaali had learnt ‘bharathanatyam’ also. His teacher was ‘Vazhuvur’ Rammiah Pillai. He had danced along with the beauty queens of yesteryears Padmini and E. V. Saroja. He fell in love with Thilagam, a theatre artist, who was the heroine of the play ‘Kuyil’ staged by S. V. Sahasranamam troupe and married her.