Karakattakaran - Much More than the Missing Vaazhapazham

We are all familiar with the hero introduction sequence, but do you remember any film with a Music Director introduction sequence?

Today we revisit an iconic movie that rode on the absolutely legendary status of its music director and is high on recall value for its music and background score, unmatched comedy, and cultural rootedness – of course we’re talking about Karakattakaran, starring Ramarajan, Kanaka, Goundamani and Senthil among others.

Oram Po - The Paavalar Brothers Are Here!

Before we begin, let us take you back to 1979. The song “Oram Po, Oram Po! Rukmani vandi varudhu!”, penned by Gangai Amaran and composed by Ilayaraja for the movie Ponnu Oorukku Pudhusu was banned by All India Radio for “vulgarity”. The reason given for the ban was that this song “encouraged eve-teasing”, but a closer listen to the lyrics gives us more context.

Pavalar Varadarajan, Ilayaraja, Gangai Amaran and RD Baskar were the sons of Chinnathaayee and Daniel Ramaswamy, and hailed from the village Pannaiayapuram. This song, with lines that mention "Chinnathaayee mavan from Pannaiyapuram" is as self-referential as it can get and the “Oram Po” phrase was probably aimed at the traditional Tamil cinema establishment back then, which had not been very welcoming to Ilayaraja's entry[1].

Ilayaraja’s entry into Thamizh cinema was three years before in 1976, and the song is essentially the brothers telling everybody “It is our time now, make way for us", something which evidently left some rather peeved. It seems like All India Radio did not know how popular Raja had become by then – the ban was apparently followed by a huge procession on Mount Road demanding the ban be revoked immediately!

Fast forward 10 years to 1989, and we have Karakaattakaaran. If “Oram Po” was an allegory to his origins and entry into Tamil cinema, the title song from Karakaattakaaran “Paataale Buthi Sonnaar” written and composed by Ilayaraja, is essentially how he saw himself as a musician-composer responding to the needs of film-makers and fans alike even while acknowledging his status of the numero uno.

The Welcoming Ceremony as a Title Song

In films, usually the first few minutes are dedicated to establishing the mood and the setting.

However, here we are informed at the outset that Ilayaraja is the actual hero of the film – the undisputed king who is going to transport us to the world of Karakattam through his music. We see Ilayaraja being garlanded by Gangai Amaran and being introduced to the movie's producers Karumaari Kandhasamy and Durai and being requested to sing the title song to ensure the movie does well.

As the credits of Karakattakkaran roll out, Gangai Amaran and team break the 4th wall and have the actors and crew members introduce themselves to the audience when their names appear on screen. Ilayaraja takes this an opportunity to write a letter to his fans, and under the guise of explaining the evolution of music he reminds them of who he is, what he does and why he does it.

The Movie and its Origins

Karakattakkaran is the story of two competing artists Muthaiah and Kamakshi who eventually fall in love but face opposition. How they unite against all odds without bringing disrepute to the art, forms the rest of the film.

The arrival of what we now call as the “Bharathiraja school of cinema” in the late 70s forced even mainstream filmmakers to set their films in a rural setting. Among Bharathiraja’s contemporaries, Gangai Amaran is the one who is seldom spoken about. For someone who became a director by accident, Gangai Amaran was multifaceted, being successful as a lyricist, music composer, director and producer and has delivered multiple super hits in the 80s.

Being a fan of Hindi-Marathi director V Shantaram, who was known for bringing off-beat themes into the mainstream in the 40s and 50s, Karakaatakkaran is Gangai Amaran’s homage of sorts to Shantaram’s body of work. This movie is also thematically very similar to the yester-year classic Thillana Mohanambal, but the nativity factor and the way it captures Karakattam and related sentiments make it stand apart.

Infact, a couple of scenes here can be seen as a tribute to the sequence in Thillana Mohanambal, where Sivaji tries to escape from his troupe at night to sneak a peek at Padmini - the scene plays out pretty much the same here too with Ramarajan and crew.

The Performances

Ramarajan did not hide his love for MGR and tried emulating him in the movies he chose to do, to establish a connect with audiences all over Tamil Nadu. He was apt for the role of Muthaiah and the silambu fight sequences are a direct hat-tip to MGR’s legacy. Gangai Amaran played a significant part in building an aura around Ramarajan that earned him monikers such as Makkal Nayagan and Vasool Chakravarthi and at one point in time, Ramarajan’s popularity rivalled that of Kamal and Rajini.

Ramarajan worked his way up from being a theatre entrance ticket collector to an Asst.Director and then rural box-office emperor in the 80s. He even bought a Madurai theatre with the profits from distributing Karakattakaran.

In an interesting sequence, legendary villain PU Chinappa’s son plays a minor role — that of a butcher who gets into a fight with Ramarajan.

Ramrajan and troupe are practising their music when the butcher confronts them, itching for a brawl. Ramrajan tells his group to continue practising, which essentially provides the bgm for the fight. After taking care of the bad guys, he turns around and asks his team "naduvula yaaru pisuru vittadhu" commenting on someone who had gone off tune during the fight. This is most likely a nod to Ilayaraja’s uncanny ability to pick out that one person going off tune even in a full-fledged concert even with many musicians & artists.

Kanaka, yesteryear star Devika's daughter, made her debut with this film. Only 15 years old then, she received great praise for her performance in the dance segments and emotional scenes.

The thavil player in Kanaka’s troupe is played by actor Pakkirisamy, who was a lead in Adutha Veetu Penn (1960).

The Comedy Track - One For The Ages

Who can forget Koundamani and Senthil, in their 100th movie together absolutely bringing the roof down with their vintage chemistry? The vazhapazham comedy was inspired from a Malayalam film - what happens once in the original, Gangai Amaran and team made Goundamani and Senthil do it here 4 times, creating a rip-roaring effect. The Soppanasundari sequence also became such a sensational hit, that it was said at that time the Chevrolet Impala 1960 model was in huge demand. It could be argued that these two scenes were the most played comedy sequences on TV before the internet exploded.

No amount of words can do justice to their impact on Thamizh pop culture – several screen grabs including Senthil’s facial expressions are a rage, even in today’s meme world.

The entire comedy sequence was written by A. Veerappan, a former comedian who acted in many movies alongside Nagesh. It is to be noted that Veerappan is responsible for the laughter quotient in many Goundamani-Senthil starrers such as Vaidehi Kaathirundhal, Udaya Geetam and Chinna Thambi.

The Smash Hit Music

Being a movie rooted in folk music, the maestro was in his elements churning out lilting melodies like Indha Maan yendhan sondha maan, that he sang himself along with K.S. Chitra. While Ooru Vittu Ooru vandhu was a humongous success so as to inspire the title of the next Gangai Amaran - Ramarajan movie, Manguyile Poonguyile is a very rare one that had two 2 different picturizations for the same happy song. Typically, it is a lot more common to find the second version of the same song become a pathos version of the song when picturized.

In a recent interview, director Gangai Amaran revealed that Ilayaraja composed the songs without listening to the story and he had written the screenplay around it. The songs were such a smash hit and got immediate cult status, so much so that female fans went to the theatres with veppalai and dance to the Maariyamma mariyamma song.

This made Karakattakkaran a rage among family audiences - the film ran for more than a year in Chennai and Madurai areas, even clocking 400+ days in some theatres.

The title song of another Gangai Amaran-Ilayaraja-Ramarajan movie, Villupaatukaran actually had only visuals from the 366th day celebration of Karakattakaan – marketed as the start of 2nd year of this humongous success.

Why You Should Watch The Movie

Karakattam troupes are typically known for their nayyandi thanam and love for art, but there are also lot of comments and essays written about how Karakattamm artists are underpaid, under-appreciated and live a life of poverty and misery. However, Gangai Amaran chose to portray the lives of these folk artists in a very gentle and respectable manner.

Take some time off and watch Karakattakkaran to immerse yourself in some spellbinding music, unbelievable comedy and some beautiful countryside visuals.

The movie is available on You Tube – in fact, there are 3-to-4 different versions uploaded by different channels with each version boasting several hundred thousand views!

Do watch and let us know what you thought in the comments section below.

We will catch you with another episode of Retro Ticket.