P K Muthusamy: A lyricist who did not get his due

By R Rangaraj

Chennai: As a struggling lyricist in 1958, P K Muthusamy had the ambitious idea of trying his hand at making a film. Shooting began for ‘Thai Pirandhaal Vazhi Pirakkum’, but soon he had to give it up as he ran into heavy financial problems. A K Velan, who was handling the story, dialogue and direction, took over the production and the film turned out to be a success. Velan raked in huge profits, enough to build Arunachalam Studios in Saligramam. Muthusamy's contribution to the film was one song — "Mannukku Maram Bhaaramaa" (Will a tree be a burden to Mother Earth).

The philosophical ‘pallavi’ translates to: "Will a tree be a burden to Mother Earth, Will a leaf be a burden to a tree, Will a fruit be a burden to a tree twig, will a child ever be a burden to its mother". Sung by M S Rajeswari, it was one of her best numbers and was composed by K V Mahadevan, the song game Muthuswamy, who passed away last month at the age of 100, eternal fame.

Despite the song’s popularity, Muthusamy continued to languish in poverty. A school dropout, he had written 60 film songs, plays, short stories, and ‘venba’ verses. His songs "Veettukkaariyaa Kootti Vandhu", "Chinna Chinna Nadai Nadandhu" in ‘Kaveriyin Kanavan’ (1959) and the songs "Yen Sirithaay Ennai Paarthu" and "Kannum Kannum" in ‘Ponnith Thirunal’ in 1960, came in for considerable praise.

However, it was his plagiarism charge against M Karunanidhi that about five years ago that made people take notice of the lyricist. Muthusamy claimed he had mentioned the storyline of the movie to Karunanidhi in 1949, which was made into ‘Marudhanaattu Ilavarasi’ in 1950, without his knowledge with Karunanidhi as the story writer. Muthusamy had said he had picked up a quarrel with Karunanidhi over the issue in 1950 too. Though there was no response from the DMK patriarch on this, in his autobiography ‘Nenjukku Needhi’, where he talks about his works as a script writer, he doesn’t mention this film. Interestingly, MGR through his autobiography ‘Naan Yen Pirandhen’ throws some light on the matter. He refers to ‘Kaali Dasi’, with singer M S Anuradha from Thanjavur as heroine, as the earlier version of ‘Marudhanaattu Ilavarasi’. T V Chari, a shareholder of the production company, was responsible for story, script and direction. "Due to conflict of interest between him (Chari) and the producer, the company was dissolved. Later, Govinda Company took charge and used a portion of the earlier film to prepare a revised story," MGR wrote. The new team was Karunanidhi as script writer, A Kasilingam as director and V N Janaki as heroine, hinting at a redrafting of the earlier story.

Though Karunanidhi was silent about this accusation, it was welcomed by J Jayalalithaa, who as chief minister in 2015 announced relief for Muthusamy — a grant of `5 lakh for his works and `5,000 monthly pension.

While this controversy created quite a stir, Muthuswamy was a lover of solitude. In 2003, he had handed over the rights of his works to a publisher in Chennai and left for Pudupatti, his village in Namakkal. No one else took notice of him. Though he wrote "Mannukku Maram Bharaamaa", he made it clear that he did not wish to be a burden to Mother Earth.

(The writer is president of Chennai 2000 Plus Trust)