- Lyricist
- Kannadasan
- Singer
- P. Susheela
- Music director
- V. Kumar
- Movie name
- Appa Tata
- Movie release year
- 1972
- Lyrics added on
- 4 Apr 2022
Lyrics & meaning
Beyond the translation
Overall song meaning
Kinnaththil Thaeneduththu from the 1972 film Appa Tata is a sorrowful lullaby that captures the poignant grief and unconditional love of a mother. Sung masterfully by P. Susheela with music composed by V. Kumar, the lyricist Kannadasan frames the mother's emotional anguish within a traditional lullaby tune. She laments that despite filling her heart with sweet maternal love (metaphorically described as honey in a cup), fate and divine decree have covered it with distress and separated her from peace. Throughout the song, the mother addresses the moon, asking it to step in as a surrogate mother to lull her child to sleep. In one of Kannadasan's most iconic couplets, she highlights the contrast between fatherhood and motherhood, stating that a father's contribution lasts a single night while a mother endures three hundred days of pregnancy and a lifetime of tearful sacrifice. The song remains a quintessential Tamil classic on maternal suffering.
Writing craft
Poetic devices
Metaphor (Urugavam)
“Kinnaththil thaeneduththu Ennaththaal moodi vaiththaen”
Honey in a cup ('Kinnaththil thaen') is used as a metaphor for pure maternal affection and joy, while covering it with thoughts ('Ennaththaal moodi') represents lingering anxieties.
Personification
“Sattru nee thaalaattu thaai vadivil nee irunthu”
The courtyard moon ('Muttraththu vennilavey') is personified and requested to assume a mother's form to sing a lullaby to the child.
Contrast / Anthesis
“Thanthaikko orr iravu thaayaarkko munnooru”
Kannadasan starkly contrasts a father's brief role ('orr iravu') with a mother's extensive gestation period ('munnooru' / 300 days).
Metaphor / Imagery
“Kanneeril padagu vittu pillaiyidam oduthammaa”
'Kanneeril padagu vittu' creates vivid emotional imagery of sailing a boat made of tears toward her child.
Did you know?
Trivia
The line 'Thanthaikko orr iravu thaayaarkko munnooru' (For a father it is just one night, for a mother it is three hundred days) written by Kaviarasu Kannadasan became one of the most famous and widely quoted lines in Tamil cinema history regarding the depth of motherhood.
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