Pi Lullaby - Controversy!

[Raji Ram]

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Controversies add 'pep' to life. The latest is the 'PI Lullaby controversy'!

The Pi lullaby song written by Smt. Bombay Jayashree is this:

"kaNNE kaNmaNiyE

kaN uRangAyO kaNNE


mayilO? thOgai mayilO?

kuyilO? koovum kuyilO?

nilavO? nilavin oLiyO?

imayO? imayin kanavO?

malarO? malarin amudhO?

kaniyO? kaniyin suvaiyO?"


The controversy is over the lines "mayilO? thOgai mayilO? kuyilO? koovum kuyilO?" which are translated as

"Are you a peacock or its feathers? Are you a koel or its music?". I think 'thOgai mayil' refers only to 'mayil'

and koovum kuyil refers to 'kuyil'. The meaning given in the translation will be correct only if the words are,

"mayilO? mayilin iRagO? kuyilO? kuyilin isaiyO?". This seem to be my controversy!! OK now, the relatives of

the late poet Irayimman Thampi say that these lines are copied from the lines in a lullaby song where Thampi

asks whether the child is a dancing peacock or a singing koel (chAjAdi Adum mayilO? mridhu panjamam pAdum

kuyilo?) Actually there are two more lines which could be called copied from the original. They are these:

"poovil niRanja madhuvO? pari poornEndhu thandhE nilAvO?"


These comparisons are very normal in poetry but the problem has probably appeared because four of those

comparisons from another lullaby are taken and sent as 'original lyrics'!

Comments are :welcome: .

 

[Raji Ram]

Pi's Lullaby - Bombay Jayashree - Tamil Song

Omanathinkal Kidavo - Yesudas

 

[Raji Ram]

The news:

Late poet's relatives lose sleep over Jayashri's lullaby...

 

[kunjuppu]

Raji,

this song is a candidate for Oscars and all the worms will come out of the woodwork, trying to find a feast.

No matter what, there is no copyright law in India, and Bombay Jayashree was simply awesome with this song.

for those who have not heard this song, please click on the url below

Bombay Jayashree - Life of Pi - Lullaby

and for those who want to read how some hot heads react to this 'controversy' and something to make your blood boil , please read raji's connected url

 

[suraju06]

When Kannadasan(or is it Vaali) wrote "இந்தப்பச்சைக்கிளிக்கொரு செவ்வந்திப்பூவில் தொட்டிலைக்கட்டி வைத்தேன், அதில் பட்டுத்துகிலுடன் அன்னச்சிறகினை மெல்லென இட்டுவைத்தேன்" he would never thought that the words or the sequence in which they are set would remain his intellectual property for ever. I think people should learn to respect when some one becomes creative on an inspiration.

 

[sankara_sharmah]

According to the Indian Copyright Act the period of Copyright is Life+60 that is Copyright expires 60 years after the death of the author. Of course this copyright act did not exist at the period of the author of "Omana Thingal Kidavo".

22. Term of copyright in published literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works.-Except as
otherwise hereinafter provided, copyright shall subsist in any literary, dramatic, musical or artistic
work (other than a photograph) published within the lifetime of the author until sixty years from the
beginning of the calendar year next following the year in which the author dies.

So this song is in Public Domain.

One can set this song word by word to rap music and there is nothing the descendents of the author can do.

No acknowledgements of art works in Public domain is necessary.

The TV and the press people are aware of this.

But controversies sell.

The descendents get some free TV coverage and cheap publicity. That is all.

 

[SANDHYAV]

Did we not read in THE HINDU,in which BJ actually said Ang Lee changed some words to have some "global rhyme", this TOI is an interesting controversy wow!
The Hindu : FEATURES / METRO PLUS : Cradling a dream

Though he does not understand Tamil, he would ask if I could replace a particular word with something else
a Taiwanese, Ang Lee.”

 

[Iyyarooraan]

I think all those words are purely Tamil. Does it mean that nobody can use those words? Talk of intellectual property may drive us crazy. In that case I think nobody can write stories or novels even using scientific combo words. Here you can neither claim copyright rights without respecting them ourselves.