A.R. Rehman is a great music director. I love his 'Vande Mataram' song. It is so nice to the ears. I heard this song for Tamizh Semmozhi Maanaadu 4-5 times. Only a couple of lines in the beginning of the song, has registered in my mind. Everything else is just loud noise. Karunanidhi is a great writer, his lyrics are not heard at all. Direction by Goutham Menon is not up to the mark either. Many singers are used for each and every line, but we are not able to recognise their voices in the medley, except for a few voices!
Although Tamil and a few other languages such as Greek, Latin and Sanskrit enjoy the status of classical language in the academic world thanks to their antiquity and rich literary heritage, Tamil is the first living language to be given the official status of a classical language. (the Hindu article)
As mentioned above, Tamil is a very ancient language. It seems to be dying slowly. Tamil scholars like Karunanidhi are trying to revive this language, but is this enough? We might think that he is conducting this conference for political gain, but he is a true Tamil lover. Even our ex-CM Jayalalitha is good in this language. But they are not able to improve this language, esp. the 'spoken Tamil', in any way.
Until a few years ago, the spoken Tamil language was not this bad to the ears. Now, even the accent of the educated people while speaking this language is becoming bad to worse. Yes, now English is influencing everywhere. But I don't see this much deterioration in other regional languages, in pronunciation. Whether it is political meeting or other conferences, or interviews, people are confused whether to use pure Tamil or colloquial Tamil. Even writer Sujatha, actor Kamal Haasan, who are good Tamil writers, while giving interviews, get confused which form of Tamil to use. I don't see this problem in Hindi or Kannada or anyother language.
தமிழ் - this is Tamizh, which is the correct way to pronounce, Tamil. But most of the people use this 'l' instead of 'zh'! அவள் becomes அவல். In Tamil language, like in Marathi, there is difference between two 'la's, like here: '
सकाळी ' and here: 'ठेवला'. The original Tamil language is so nice to hear, but now, whenever I hear people speaking this 'gal gal' Tamil, I get so upset and angry. This has invaded the Tamil writing also in sign boards. Earlier only illiterate people were not able to speak good Tamil. Now, I hear, lawyers, doctors even Tamil teachers, using this Tamil.I just hope these leaders will take steps to revive good Tamil...first they should train their party cadres to speak good Tamil in political meetings, then give their attention to schools.
Destination Infinity has done a post on this subject with some beautiful photos of the World Classical Tamil Conference venue.
Many national leaders and international leaders, including our President, are attending this conference. A huge amount of tax payers' money is being spent on this conference ...Coimbatore roads are re-layed (even the good ones!), the bus terminal is renovated to international standards!
Let us hope that our language will revive its past glory.
