Vaali crosses 5000 songs

The ever-youthful legendary lyricist Vaali is surely a man to be celebrated. He has just finished writing his 5000th song for Shankar’s ‘Endhiran’. Whatta massive achievement, we say!“Little beetle leaf, beetle nut, few papers and a pen this is what I need to start writing a poem,” says the great man naively.“My childhood passion was to become an artist. There was a popular artist called Maali who was working in Vikatan then. One of my close friends named me Vaali after that artist and told that I would become popular like the artist one day,” revealed the poet whose original name is Rangarajan.It was TMS who invited Vaali to Chennai and cinema. Vaali became a household name when MGR was in his career’s peak. “I penned ‘Machchana’ Pathingala while I was working for ‘Oodum Mehangaley’ and ‘Naan Aanaiyittal’ songs meant for MGR. Same way I gave ‘Chikku Bhukku Rayiley’ for Rahman, then went on to give ‘Thathai Thathai’ for Yuvan,” says the poet with pleasure.The 78-yr old Youngster’s songs were loved by the people of 4 generations. Yet the man is not outdated, he can still write kinky duets and give lyrics for peppy youthful songs.Loads of wishes for the legend to give us even more memorable lines...