Pineapple Vannathodu 🍍

Some songs don’t catch your attention when you first hear them, but you start to appreciate them much later. This song is one of those for me!

Pineapple Vannathodu marks the debut of Sabesh-Murali as independent composers in Tamil films. Sabesh and Murali, brothers of the renowned composer Deva, had been assisting him and other composers before making their independent debut with this song. The song features the voices of Shankar Mahadevan and Sujatha Mohan, with lyrics penned by Pa Vijay. The combination of these talented artists resulted in a track sounding melodically rich & mellifluous.

A couple of years back, I rediscovered this song on a YouTube shuffle (I must reiterate that the YouTube algorithm is amazing. YouTube and YouTube Music keep surprising you with songs outside of your usual playlist). When I heard it again, I was hit with a container full of nostalgia. I was thrown back to the early 2000s, a time when brother-sister themed films like Vaanathai Pola, Aanandham, and Samudhiram were released back-to-back.

I immediately wanted to watch the song, as I had almost forgotten the visuals. The super juicy-jazzy ballad is choreographed and captured in a Broadway style, and I absolutely love the video! Sarath Kumar & Abhirami on the screen just compliment the song 10x. Oh, I forgot to tell you that I had a huge crush on Abhirami (I was in 2rd or 4th standard then), I still have a crush on her 😛 & Sarath Kumar looks dapper in this one.

The song opens with a simple gibberish and explodes to a peppy rhythm that travels throughout the song. The trumpets and the chorus in the 1st interlude makes the song more authentic and rooted to the genre. Special mention to the small nuances with the sax/clarinet and double bongos prior to the interludes – such charming details!

Technically, the song fuses a late 70s jazz essence with modern lyrics. Pa Vijay goes all out with lines like:

“அன்பே உன் ஹார்மோன்கள் எல்லாம்
ஒவ்வொன்றும் ஹார்மோனியங்கள்”

“ஐஸ்க்ரீம் தான் உன் இதழ்
டீஸ்பூன் தான் என் இதழ்
உண்ணாமல் கரையுதே”

I want you all to listen and appreciate this beauty. I’m sure you’ll love it.

I’ll see you soon in a new blog post.

Anbulla,
Pattukkaaran 🙂