- Lyricist
- Kannadasan
- Singer
- Master Subbaiya
- Music director
- G. Ramanathan
- Movie name
- Digambara Samiyar
- Movie release year
- 1950
- Lyrics added on
- 3 Sept 2025
Lyrics & meaning
Beyond the translation
Overall song meaning
This uplifting song celebrates human dignity, self-reliance, and hard work, emphasizing that human beings are meant to thrive in this world through active effort. It highlights the paramount importance of agriculture and local production, urging citizens to cultivate the goods required by their country rather than relying on external help. Furthermore, it advocates for gender equality in labor, noting that when men and women in every household work hard together, societal well-being and prosperity naturally follow. The song concludes with the classic Tamil proverb 'Eattu surakkai karikku uthavadhu', warning that theoretical knowledge alone is useless without practical execution.
Writing craft
Poetic devices
Adukkuthodar (Repetition for Emphasis)
“Vattamittu vattamittu vayalvelyil”
The words 'vattamittu vattamittu' are repeated consecutively to evoke rhythmic movement and continuous work in the fields.
Pazhamozhi (Proverb Usage)
“Eaetu surakaai karikku uthavadhu”
The song uses the classic Tamil idiom 'Eaetu surakaai karikku uthavadhu' (a drawn bottle gourd cannot be cooked into curry) to stress practical labor over bookish theory.
Iyaibu (End Rhyme)
“Naame payir seiyalaagume / Paadu pattal nalamagume”
The lines end with harmonizing verbal suffixes such as 'seiyalaagume' and 'nalamagume' to create a flowing, musical cadence.
Did you know?
Trivia
Digambara Samiyar (1950) was a famous detective thriller produced by Modern Theatres and directed by T. R. Sundaram. The soundtrack featured early lyrics by legendary poet Kannadasan, who ingeniously incorporated traditional Tamil proverbs and themes of post-independence national self-reliance into mainstream cinema.
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