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Photo: R. Ashok

Sensitive A cut above the rest

“Peppy songs are a must. In fact, it helps people unwind after a day’s hard work. But a peppy number need not necessarily be vulgar as is mostly the case with Tamil cinema,” he says.

Arivumathi takes pride in not using foreign words in any of the 120 cine songs he has penned, and is thankful to the music directors for not forcing him to do so. “Where is the need for borrowing alien words when Tamil language is rich,” he wonders.

“I have worked with a lot of composers and all respected my Tamil. Due to unavoidable circumstances they did add some English words as fillers for my songs. They are not to be blamed for that,” he says.

Arivumathi commended State government’s move to waive entertainment tax for movies with Tamil names. “Cinema is a very powerful medium and reaches people more effectively. These are steps that will make a huge difference in course of time. My point is simple. If none of the English movies is named in Tamil, then why should we have English titles? It is a myth that English titles attract youngsters more,” he feels. He rates the number ‘enge sellum intha pathai,’ in the film ‘Sethu,’ as one of his best and asserts that full credit must go to Ilayaraja, who, he says, breathed life into it. “Also the visualisation of the song and Vikram’s performance added to its success.”

Arivumathi has worked as an assistant to renowned directors Bhagyaraj, Bharathiraja and Balu Mahendra for about twenty films. The experience came in handy while writing dialogues for the film ‘Siraichallai.’ He had also penned all the songs in the film that included the super hit ‘sempoovae poovae …’

“The song was a top class composition by maestro Ilayaraja. Actually, all the numbers in the film were hits. I also felt great for writing dialogues for a patriotic movie,” he remembers.

Now, Arivumathi is more into writing books, poetry and also making documentaries. He is busy with the post production works of his documentary ‘Malacca Chetties.’ Through his writings, Arivumathi intends to reach more children and develop love for Tamil and Nature among them.

“Living amidst concrete jungle, the present day kids hardly get a chance to admire Nature. There is certainly a need to take them closer to Nature and give them education at places where Nature is at its pristine best,” he aspires.

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