Saturday 14 September 2019

Poet Vaali Lyricised LGBT 16 years ago !


Boys (Film: 2003 ) by Shankar created a paradigm shift in the early 2000s. The movie revolves around the new-gen and an unorthodox display of the youth culture.

Something new to the industry, teenage rebel as a theme sets the stream in which the boat of the plot is maneuvered upon.

It was one of the few movies back in the days where kids were strictly barred from watching. I watched it 6 months later when they screened it on TV. Nevertheless, my prepubertal mind could barely grasp its content.

A.R Rahman's mindblowing music surged many of the songs to an all-time favorite.

The psychedelic music may have cast Lyricist Vaali's poetry into oblivion, but this was perhaps the first Tamil movie that openly expressed the LGBT rights.

It occurs in the song ' Break the rules' when Munna and gang perform in the sports stadium.


The song satirically ridicules societal restriction on teenage freedom.

Quoting : 

kaadhil vaLaiyam poattaa thappu
mudiyil color adichaa thappu
udambil tattoo kuthinaa thappu
friends kooda suthinaa thappu

Break the Rules  ! 

It is wrong to pierce the ear
It is wrong to dye our hair
It is wrong to have tattoos
It is wrong to hangout with our friends

The lyrics progres in a similar trend - highlighting restrictions on pedicure,threading,piercing,outing etc

At one interesting point , the lyrics echo as :

panchum neruppum paarthaa thappu panchum panchum saerndhaa thappu

It is wrong for cotton and fire to meet 
It is wrong for cotton and cotton to join

This is where the then 72 year old Poet Vaali shines in his glory.This line actually talks about LGBT.It is wrong for cotton to meet fire ( describing opposite genders ).It is also wrong for cotton to meet cotton ( describing homosexuality ) 

The video song has some very interesting visuals in tandem to the script :

Panjum Neruppum Paartha Thappu

Panjum Panjum Serndha Thappu

A 72-year-old who lyricised a rebel theme for the new-gen: I'm' speechless.




I was 9 in 03'.I asked my mother as to why these actors did silly things throughout the video - particularly pouring bucket-full water on themselves. She said these were teenage stuff which I ought to understand as I grew.

I guess I understood a little too much now.

Poet Vaali

1 comment:

  1. It's 2021 Morning 11.33 IST, I was watching this song, understood this lyrics, eagerly searched for this lyrics and found this blog. Undoubtedly a great LYRICIST OF ALL TIME IN TAMIL - வாலி.

    ReplyDelete