On January 24, 1992, in two pages of a lined notebook, singer Minmini wrote down the words of a Tamil song that would be loved by generations. In clear round letters of Malayalam, the singer from Kerala took down the Tamil words of 'Chinna Chinna Aasai', the first song in Mani Rathnam's popular award-winning film Roja. It was the first time that AR Rahman was composing music for a film. The story, Minmini's notebook pages and the handwritten lyrics was recently shared on the Facebook page ‘Malayalam Movie & Music Database’ by Shijo Manuel, a music connoisseur.
In the yellowing pages of Minmini's notebook, some of the lyrics are crossed out and rewritten. The author of the post speculates that there must have been a last-minute change in lyrics.
On top of the page, Minmini has written the names of Mani Rathnam and Dilip Seghar — as Rahman was known as then.
Lyrics of 'Chinna Chinna Asai' in Malayalam, written by Minmini / Credit - Shijo Manuel
Roja was released eight months after that song was recorded — on August 15, 1992. AR Rahman got instantly recognised for the genius he is. Minmini, too, got noticed for being the voice of this melodious song. She sang the Telugu and Hindi versions of the song as well.
Shijo adds that it was on another January 24, 1991, exactly a year before 'Chinna Chinna Aasai', that Minmini sang a song for music maestro Ilaiyaraaja – ‘Love nna love’ for the film Meera — making her debut in Tamil.
Minmini, who is from Kerala, had made her Malayalam singing debut for the film Swagatham in 1988. In the 1990s, she sang quite a few popular songs like ‘Souparnikamritha’ (Kizhakkunarum Pakshi), ‘Paathiravayi neram’ (Vietnam Colony), semi-classical songs in Kudumbasametham, and so on. In 1993, Minmini had an issue with her voice following which she took a break from singing. She made a comeback in 2015 through the film Mili. Now she runs a music school in Kochi.
Watch: 'Chinna Chinna Asai' from Roja