High time we archive Na Muthukumar’s poems, says Vasantabalan

The untitled project will have Arjun Das and Dushara Vijayan in lead roles. The film in a way will be a tribute to Na Muthukumar’s poetry. Vasantabalan on Tuesday invited aspiring lyricists to write a song that is a continuation of one of Na Muthukumar’s lyrics. Opening up on this idea, he tells DT Next, “Dushara’s character in the film is that of Na Muthukumar’s fan.

She introduces Arjun Das to Muthukumar’s work and he utters a line from one of his songs and Dushara sings the subsequent line. That goes on to become a song. For the ‘sandham’ (rhythm) I wanted to look for other Muthukumar’s poems. However, I thought this would be a good opportunity if aspiring lyricists could do their research and add their own words to it.

This has been done before with Kannadasan’s poems. If you look at the credits, there will be two separate sections  – lyrics by Kannadasan and the name of the person who organised it. That is how we are looking at giving the credits as well. The royalty would be handed over to Muthukumar’s family.”Vasantabalan and Muthukumar shared a great camaraderie until the latter’s demise in 2016.

“He has written over 10,000 songs which are now in a godown. It is high time that we archive them and plans are on. We can use it as a music bank in the future.” he adds. The untitled project will have music by GV Prakash who also plays the lead in Vasantabalan’s Jail. “GV is a genius music director. Also, he has created his own niche as an actor. We have very few heroes who can carry themselves as college-goer and play mature characters as well. He is one among them. His work as an actor has been remarkable in Sivappu Manjal Pachai. Jail will be another milestone film in his career,” he concludes