Ponniyin Selvan Lyricist Ilango Krishnan Shares His Experience Working With Mani Ratnam

Ilango Krishnan is well-versed in 10th century Tamil and he knows more about the beauty of modern poetry. In the year of 2019, Writer Jeyamohan called Ilango Krishnan and said that they need him as the lyricist for Mani Ratnam's Magnum Opus Ponniyin Selvan. Being a die hard fan of the Ponniyin Selvan novel written by Kalki, Ilango Krishnan said yes immediately. He had everything about the novel on his fingertips. He got overwhelmed and wrote some lyrics on his own for various situations and characters in the novel even before meeting director Mani Ratnam to impress him. But to his surprise, Mani Ratnam had gone through Ilango Krishnan's works already and they started working together.

"The situation of the sensational hit 'Ponni Nadhi Paakkanumey' song is all about Vanthiyathevan taking the secret information from Aditha Karikalan and delivering it to Kundavai & Sundarachozhan. 10th Century Tamil music doesn't have the fusion of many instruments. But this song being the first song of the film, we tried to bring it as a celebration to the audience. At the same time, nobody is aware of the 10th century Tamil now. After a long discussion, we came up with the lyrics in a way people could understand it. And it worked really well," said Ilango Krishnan in a recent interview with a media portal.

AR Rahman and Mani Ratnam together gave a lot of hits already and they have had a great wavelength for 30 years now. Ilango Krishnan as a lyricist found it a little difficult in the beginning to get into their meter. But the two task masters made him comfortable to work and slowly, Ilango Krishnan was able to deliver the wonderful lyrics. His knowledge about the novel and his efforts in bringing out the perfect lines for the director's vision is just astonishing. Hope the proven Tamil film directors will use him in their future productions. He is definitely a great gift for the Tamil community.