sundaree .... song review .. malayalam movie shalini ente koottukaari

I am like you in being a lover of melodies . Especially the melodies of 70s , 80s and 90s malayalam cinema . But haunting melodies are fewer and the song sundaree ( meaning beautiful girl ) from the movie shalini ente koottukari is one such . The song is really melodious sung by yesudas . But what is haunting is the actress in the movie shobha . Though the new generation is not familiar with her (i think) she was one of the youngest award winning actresses and was also called urvashi shobha having received urvashi award at national level . She was only 16 at that time and within a span of around two years did many great roles . And just like actor jayan who came and went in a short span of time she too like a glow worm had a very short lifespan . Is it why the song sequence is haunting because she is shown in it ?

Coming back to the song .. though the lyrics are simple(calling the beautiful one )and the song picturisation is simple ( a song sung in a college event minus the tree running sequence ) .. it symbolises an era of malayali beauty when beauty was romanticised starting with the hair .The lyrics exemplify it and with the great musical score goes really well . Malayali mankas are famous for their long hair and sundareee .. nin thumbu kettiyitta churul mudiyil thulasee kathirila choodi ... as the opening line summarises both the end tied long hair of the malayali woman and the holy thulasi leaf put in it which symbolises both romance , beauty and holiness .Shoba with the dusky complexion and of course long hair symbolises the malayali beauty of an era where romance was probably different .

Maybe the song is haunting cos the theme of the film deals with three intense affections( the plot is in wikipedia ). One between brother and sister , another between shalini (played by actress shobha ) and her friend ,and also between shalini and her lover is picturised . Intense human relationships was the theme of all the great films of the 80s called the golden age of malayalam movies and this movie was no exception . And to top it all when i was a child Venu nagavally was one of the first persons i met when i visited trivandrum as a child .who is a main character in the movie ..

So as one of the ending lines in the song ... ozhugi ozhugi njaan ariyathe ( i flowed even without my knowledge ) for reasons unexplained this song remains one of my favorites .. See the song sequence with picturisation in youtube .. sundaree(song name ) .. shalini ente koottukari (movie name ) ...