A song on my mind

Writing prompt: Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind.

I’ve got an earworm this morning and it’s been unbudged. It’s the song ‘Neeye unakku endrum’ from the 1962 Tamil film Bale Pandiya. The film is highly okay, at best, notwithstanding many of the social norms of that time no longer being acceptable (to me at least), but this song in particular is quite good. Of course the music video isn’t, with both Sivaji Ganesan (as usual) and M.R. Radha trying too hard.

Despite its age, the song remains actually popular for its absurd conclusion. I like it because of its lyrics, in particular the lines that say “you will always be your own equal” and “the mouth is for wisdom, the hands for justice, sight for love, and speech for compassion”, rendered edifyingly by T.M. Soundararajan. In this sense it could quality for the தத்துவ பாடல் — or philosophical song — genre of old Tamil cinema. Then again, the lines likely refer to a deity and I’ve missed some reference, and are dedicated to it rather than people. But I’d rather the song be referring to people’s best qualities.