ANDHA PAKKAM VAAZHNDHAVAN ROMEO - VEETUKKU VEEDU

This song has a breezing neelambari at the end of each charanam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VybvUzOAnRw&list=LLnM40xGySu0vf5xfji58CZQ&feature=mh_lolz

- Saravanan writes: 

‘andha pakkam vaazhnthavan rOmeo’ from veetukku veedu. Sung by Saibaba. Lyrics by Kannadasan. Music by MSV.

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Those of us who had the misfortune of watching a movie called Viswanathan-Ramamoorthi (10. 8. 2001/ Sri Thenandal Films) would have surely winced with agony at the inept handling by Ramanarayanan of a tried and tested hilarious script. For the movie, with a few crude modifications, was but a copy of veetukku veedu, and a pale, pathetic copy at that.

veetukku veedu (29. 5. 1970/ Babu Movies) would effortlessly find place in everyone’s list of favorite comedy films. It starred Jaishankar, Muthuraman, Lakshmi, Nirmala, Nagesh, VKR and others. Scripted by the gifted Chitralaya Gopu, it was directed by C.V.Rajendran.

Incidentally, CVR retold the story in Kannada as Galaatte Samsara (2.12.1977/ Sapthaswara Movies), and interestingly, along with Vishnuvardhan, the other male lead was played by Rajinikant!

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Besides its fantastic comic appeal, veetukku veedu also boasts of a great album. The mellisai mannar is in his elements here, and the 5 songs are all worthy of notice and remembrance. Two solos, diverse in their delights, were sung by PS: the whispery ballad of delicious longings- ‘thottu thottu paarthaal sugam theriyum’, and of course that alluring treatise in ananda bhairavi- ‘nal vaazhvu naam vaazha varam vENdum sridEvi’. It was SPB’s second year in tfm, and MSV ensured that it was equally memorable as his first, by getting him to sing along with the remarkable LRE, the jaunty ‘angam pudhu vidham azhaginil oru vidham’. LRE, of course, had another delectable ditty all for herself- ‘naam iruvarum sugam peruvathu edhilE’

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Like Sadan, Saibaba is a voice that we take for granted as an integral part of the MSV ensemble. He is the son of the inimitable T.S. Baliah and had his own light music troupe. MSV harnessed the versatile gifts of this crooner with spectacular results in the 70s. While many are the songs where Saibaba brought in lots of value addition albeit from the sidelines, some instances where he was allowed to come from the shadow into the sun are ‘hello my darling ippO kaadhal vandhaachu’ (engirundho vandhaaL), ‘unnai thoduvadhu iniyadhu’ (uththaravindRi uLLe vaa), ‘padi padi vaazhkkayilE eththanai padi’ (baghdaad pErazhagi), ‘paatukkaaran paadi paarkkalaam’ (thikku theriyaadha kaatil), ‘ulagam namadhu veedendRu sollungaL’ (thirumangalyam), ‘thathichellum muthu kaNNan sirippu (thangapathakkam, where he recites the nursery rhyme for Sivaji), ‘Oh my fair lady’ (Vaayaadi) and ‘angum ingum’ (idhO endhan deivam). Vijayabhaskar made him screech like a parrot in ‘sangeetham raagangaL illamala’ (mOham 30 varusham), but made up by giving him that fun-filled duet with L.R.Anjali in kaalamadi kaalam- ‘irubathoNNu nadakkirappO innum ennadi vetkkam’. When Malaysia Vasudevan turned MD with saamandhippoo, he called Saibaba to sing ‘kadavuLa nenachu’. The legendary A.T.Ummer, in a rare visit to tfm, gave Saibaba a memorable song: ‘en pEru veeraasami’ (anbin alaigaL). IR too has employed Saibaba, though mostly as part of the chorus. Remember that rollicking ‘thOttathilE paaththikkatti’ in vElaikkaran? It is Saibaba who kick-starts the fun with his ‘yEngudhE manam’.

‘andha pakkam vaazhnthavan rOmeo’ remains Saibaba’s finest song in tfm. Nagesh, pining in love, strums his guitar and croons this number. (The wonderful performances of Nagesh and VKR in this film leave us with wistful memories of the heights scaled by comedy in Tamil cinema in yonder years.) And Saibaba, in his nonchalantly stylish rendition, manages to paint the lusty longings that the sleepless night brings in its wake, right in sync with the comic flourishes that the situation demands.