In a scene from Singaravelan, Kamal is waiting for Khushboo at a cafe when goons show up instead. The pre-fight banter that usually happens in punchy dialogue happens here in verses. The rowdies say:
வரமாட்டா சுமதி
தரமாட்டா அமைதி
வரப்போறோம் நாங்க
தரப்போரோம் வீங்க
And Kamal, before smashing all of them, responds:
எசப்பாட்டு பாடி
எதிர்ப்பீங்க நீங்க
எதிர்ப்பாட்டு பாடி
ஒதப்போண்டா நாங்க
I was 13 when I watched this. I remember it clearly because it was better than the poetry my talented classmates were writing at the time. Not long after, those lines fell in stature and I understood why: this is weightless by design. No restraint, no moral weight, no social conscience, nothing left to imagination. There’s no work for the audience to do, because these verses do it all. It’s only job is to get the man with some money in his pocket off the street and into the theater. That is a genuine skill. But no serious reader confuses this craft for fine arts.
Vairamuthu has been conferred the Jnanpith – India’s highest literary award – for 2025.
Am I a connoisseur? God no. But can I tell fine art from mass entertainment? Like the judge famously said: I know it when I see it. Take this famous Vairamuthu line: வானம் எனக்கொரு போதி மரம், நாளும் எனக்கது சேதி தரும் – there’s some promise in that imagery. Then comes the next line: ஒரு நாள் உலகம் நீதி பெறும், திருநாள் நிகழும் தேதி வரும். This is a platitude. The Bodhi tree in actuality has something weighty to say, but Vairamuthu has never had it in him to hear that and convey it to us. This is not constrained to his cinema career, but includes his so-called serious works like கள்ளிக்காட்டு இதிகாசம். The best he can offer is mass entertainment, then there’s the illusion of depth, but ultimately there’s no there there.
The Jnanpith is supposed to be the literary equivalent of a Michelin star. This year, the committee has decided to felicitate Saravana Bhavan sambar. I’ve stood in line for that sambar in my younger years – no shame in it; it is what it is. The tragedy is that Vairamuthu doesn’t think he’s sambar. He has spent decades lobbying, cultivating, and convincing – and he has finally found a committee tasteless enough to agree. This is a national shame.
Transverse 