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Aadum Koothu
"Annai! Annai! Aadum Koothai Naada cheidhaai ennai!"
These were the lines by Mahakavi Bharathi in his poem titled 'Oozhi koothu' (thedoomsday dance).Yesterday, I saw a Tamil movie 'Aadum Koothu' directed by the notable Malayalam filmdirector, script writer and actor, T.V. Chandran. The film had won Silver Lotus Award(Indian National Film Award) for best Tamil feature film in 2006. Cheran and NavyaNair had played the lead roles.The film describes how a simple, flowing life of a village girl gets disturbed by suddenhallucinations leading to her finding the truth behind a social discrimination to a lowcaste girl decades ago. She unearths even an unfinished film attempting to portray theinjustice, completes it and settles after feeling peace in the fact that she had brought tolight what had been pending for so many years.Except for Navya's absolute performance and few flashy scenes for Cheran, the movie isnot of a very special theme.
 
But what had struck me was the theme and title, 'Aadum Koothu'. These two wordsresonated through my mind and through the movie, I kept pronouncing them almostmesmerized. The Tamil phrase literally means, 'the dances we perform'. But when Itranslate ‘Aadum Koothu’, my heart sinks to find that it does not convey even areasonable measure of how profound it sounds in Tamil!Koothu – this Tamil word equates to dance, a play, performance, stage act, music andmost subtly or most explicitly, a playful, captivating musical performance. Bharathi in hisOozhi Koothu, (remember he is a Saaktha, meaning a Kaali worshipper), praises the deityKaali, Her playful dance and describes at great detail how She performs the koothu. InHindu scriptures, especially Saivism, the world is said to have been created andannihilated both by the dance or ‘Koothu’ by the Supreme being, Shiva.Bharathi punctuates his poem, of 5 verses of 6 lines each, by ending every verse withthese two lines:
“Annai! Annai! Aadum koothai Naada Cheidhaai Ennai”
- meaning, ‘Oh, Mother! You made me desire this playful performance!’When read with the remaining first four lines, these two lines make remarkable intones of how Bharathi would have felt then - as a great genius and poet ever struggling in penurybut torn between his own worldly incompetences and his fight against colonial rule.In the second verse of the poem he refers to the Koothidum Kaali (dancing Kaali),
“There,Countless demons prance and unite to be one – they All blend and submerge into Thy nature as one!Where Thee dance endless at the speed of light Captivating minds, showering fire as Thy dance!Oh, Mother! You made me desireThis playful performance!”
And in the fifth and final verse, Kaali’s Koothu annihilates the universe, everythingdestroyed (Oozhi), nothing more survives – only Shiva’s presence remains. His silentpenance brings Kaali to Her being.
“Time and Universe cease to exist – Only Light from His penance persists – You Leave Your fury in His presence – And 
 
Touch Him gleefully and dance, a playful one!Oh, Mother! You made me desireThis playful performance!”
 The profundity of the last two lines increases folds when you read them in conjunctionwith the other four lines of these verses.Bharathi desires Kaali’s all-destroying dance to be natural desire for him in his worldlylife, as he positions himself through his many manifestations, as a fighter against evil,slavery and denigration.The same poet, as romanticized as he is, who had sought wealth, health, fame andknowledge as his prayers, accepts Kaali’s loving stance in the end – Oozhi Koothuculminating in a romantic, gleeful dance, also to be his desire!Both these stances, he is humble in accepting, has to be given unto him by Kaali, as hesays, 'Naada Cheidhaai', meaning - 'Thee made me desire so'!I feel my inadequacy at grasping what Bharathi would have meant by desiring “AadumKoothu” at different contexts of his poem…
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ScribdRajja

I love Bharathi!! Read more Bharathi Kavithai with songs and translation! http://enbharathi.blogspot.com/

reply12 / 06 / 2009
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