Science and poetry are poles apart: Madhan

Lyricist Madhan Karky talks to TOI about films and more...
Lyric writing...
I wasn’t into lyrics initially. I’ve seen appa (Vairamuthu) writing lyrics when I was a kid and he used to show us the lyrics. He even used to sing them once he got done with it. And I have gone with him to just one or two recordings. It was only after the entry of Rahman sir (Chinna Chinna Aasai..., to be specific) that I started noticing lyrics for their style and content.Of course, it could also be because of my age at that time.
Being Vairamuthu’s son...
I never see it like that when I work. There will obviously be people who will compare my works with appa’s. But I cannot have him as the reference point when I write. I work as any budding lyricist. That is why when I approached various music directors after completing my masters in computer science in Australia, I never mentioned dad’s name. Obviously, I was turned back.
Academic v/s artist
I would say me being an academic is on account of the genes from my mom’s side. Being an assistant professor in a top university, my work always gets top priority and I make it a point to mention this to directors whom I work with.
Endhiran...
Following Sujatha sir’s demise, I approached Shankar expressing my desire to help with the project because of my technical background. When I was writing the dialogues, Shankar told me to try and come up with a song for the situation in which a machine falls in love. Thus came, Irumbile Oru Idhayam.... Barring a couple of scenes, including the infamous mosquito scene, we applied scientific logic to every other scene in Endhiran. For example, when a person experiences a particular emotion, he undergoes some hormonal changes. In the film, we explored a reverse of this concept — can a particular emotion be simulated by controlling a person’s hormones? One of the happiest memories of being a part of the project was when experts from the IIT complimented me on the believability of the technology used in the movie.
Lyric engineering...
Science and poetry are poles apart, but I feel my thoughts are a marriage of these two. I’m currently working on a concept called lyric engineering. It is about how we could apply scientific and mathematic principles and come up with better lyrics. It is to help enhance what we have written by using computational tools. It will help analyse a lyric’s meaning, lyrical beauty, alliterative quality, and freshness. You can also compare your lyric with other lyrics and find out how new your thoughts and words are.
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