Kaatru Veliyidai – Music Review (Tamil Soundtrack)

Songs and credits at the end.

After using jugni in Highway, A R Rahman brings the Punjabi phrase to Tamil music with the Kaatru Veliyidai song titled Jugni. In fact most of the song is Punjabi/Hindi (written by Shellee and sung by debutant Tejinder Singh), interspersed with English rap by Raja Kumari (who last year released a Kolaveri-inspired English single) and Shikara. The confident vocals and the immersive, ambient backdrop make this an engaging piece. There is a brief Punjabi segment in Azhagiye as well (written by Navneeth Virk), but there it turns out to be the sore spot in an otherwise brilliantly done song. ARR’s jovial and occasionally wacky arrangement is complemented wonderfully by the vocals (Haricharan, Arjun Chandy, Jonita Gandhi), particularly the harmonies. Shasha Tirupathi is in incredible form in Vaan Varuvaan. The melody and the atmospheric sound however lend the song a strong sense of déjà vu; I end up humming Sahara Pookkal every time I hear this song!

Nallai Allai too faces a problem similar to Vaan, the singers (Sathya Prakash and Chinmayi in this case) doing a fine job while the song lets them down with a passable melody which even the guitar-led arrangement is unable to prop up much. Karthik Devaraj’s accordion is understandably the highlight of Tango Kelaayo that starts off with the Latino dance template before veering off into other territories and culminating in a fine strings-led crescendo. Diwakar and Haricharan handle the vocals in this one. Despite the familiarity induced by its folk flavour (I am still inclined to associate that with Alangatti Mazhai from Thenali rather than any other song), Saarattu Vandiyila is undeniably the song of the soundtrack. Once again, the singing is splendid – A R Raihanah is perfect choice to lead this one, and she is joined by Tipu, Nikhita Gandhi and a wonderfully employed chorus. Composer makes excellent use of plucked strings and folk percussion in the backdrop, but it is Kamalakar’s flute that rules the arrangement, present as an undertone in the vocal portions and coming to the fore in the interlude.

Kaatru Veliyidai has some good music, but, as a soundtrack, is not up to ARR-Mani Ratnam standards.

Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5

Top Recos: Saarattu Vandiyila, Azhagiye, Jugni


 

Music Credits

Saarattu Vandiyila

Music – AR Rahman
Lyrics – Vairamuthu
Singers – AR Raihanah, Tipu,Nikhita Gandhi
Backing Vocals – Arjun Chandy, Nivas, Santhosh, Aparna, Deepti Suresh, Abhay Jodhpurkar
Flute – Kamalakar
Guitar – Keba Jeremiah, Chris Jason
Percussions – T.Raja, Kumar, Yash
Mandolin & Santoor – Subhani
Saz & Ukulele – Lokesh

Azhagiye

Music – AR Rahman
Lyrics – Karky
Additional Punjabi lyrics – Navneeth Virk
Singers – Arjun Chandy, Haricharan, Jonita Gandhi
Backing Vocals – Sid Sriram, Bawa Sahni, Keerthi Sagathia
Guitar – Keba Jeremiah
Strings – Murali, Mohan, Basker, John
AdditionalProgramming – Ishaan Chhabra

Vaan Varuvaan

Music – AR Rahman
Lyrics – Vairamuthu
Singers – Shashaa Tirupati
Backing Vocals – Arjun Chandy, Poorvi Koutish
Flute – Kiran
Additional Programming – Ishaan Chhabra

Tango Kelaayo

Music – AR Rahman
Lyrics – Vairamuthu
Singers – Haricharan, Diwakar
Accordion – Karthik Devaraj
Additional Programming – Ishaan Chhabra, Jim Sathya

Nallai Allai

Music – AR Rahman
Lyrics – Vairamuthu
Singers – Sathya Prakash, Chinmayi
Backing vocals – Arjun Chandy
Guitar – Keba Jeremiah
Shehnai – Balesh

Sound Engineers – Suresh Permal, Srinidhi Venkatesh, Ishaan Chhabra, Karthik Sekaran, Vinay Sridhar
Mixed by TR Krishna Chetan
Mastered by Suresh Permal
Musicians Fixer – R Samidurai
Musicians coordinator – Vijay Iyer, TM Faizuddin

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