Songs and album credits at the end.
The soundtrack’s first three songs – Muthu’s Journey, Kaalathukkum Nee Venum, Marakkuma Nenjam (well, two songs technically, Muthu’s Journey is an abridged version of Marakkuma Nenjam, presumably the piece that accompanied the movie’s teaser that came out last year) – play out almost like a single, long pleasant track. The two songs have multiple elements in common; both have ARR channeling a delightful 90s sound, both start off fairly similarly, and with minimal percussion before the folk beats kick in during the interlude alongside the backing vocals, and in both the tracks, if one were to pick up a weak link, it would be the male vocals, particularly in Kaalathukkum.. It is especially frustrating when you think of what a perfect song this might have been if not for Silambarasan TR’s singing. Rakshita Suresh is exceptional in her delivery of Thamarai’s lines, the arrangement is splendid, highlighted by Kareem Kamalakar and Kiran’s flute solos (love the touch of melancholy in the second interlude), the spaced out use of folk percussions et al. In Marakkuma Nenjam, it is A R Rahman himself leading the singing, and while his delivery isn’t exactly top-drawer either, the earnestness in his voice does make up for it to an extent. Nevertheless, the song properly takes off when he goes Pulla at the end of his first verse and passes the baton to the female chorus! It is Keba Jeremiah’s work on the guitars and bass, especially that lovely rhythm he provides right from the get-go, that particularly stands out in the backdrop of this track.
Back in 2020, ARR featured Shreya Ghoshal’s vocals in the beautiful waltz Taare Ginn. In VTK she gets to sing a similarly dreamy track that also carries a European-esque sound – Unnai Nenachadhum. The lyrics and the melody appear to be referencing a much older period, and Shreya and Sarthak Kalyani are on point with their rendition. There are times when the song takes me back to Innum Konjam Neram from Maryan, especially in the interlude when the kanjira is introduced. Love how an instrument called mugaveena (a predecessor of naadaswaram, apparently, played here by one of the foremost exponents of the instrument, Mambalam Sivakumar) has been used almost like a clarinet here. ARR songs have always been one of the primary reasons that I learned about the existence of a lot of musical instruments. Good to add two more to that list, mugaveena and ghatasinghari (which I assume is a variant of ghatam) thanks to this album. Sivakumar’s mugaveena makes a reappearance, in a more conventional form, in the surprise number of the album – Mallipoo. ARR seems to venture into the gaana zone with this one, a genre I am not sure he has tried before, and the result is a brilliantly quirky and addictive song – that machaan yeppo vara pora hook is likely to stay in your head for a really long time! Solid melody from the composer here, sindhubhairavi raga baased, possibly, and Madhushree handles it perfectly.
Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu. A R Rahman’s third album with GVM and STR. And if I were to rank the three albums, this would come second, after Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya. A great set of songs, occasionally let down by the vocal choices.
PS: Absolutely loving the kind of stuff that ARR has been dabbling in, this second half of 2022!
Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5
Top Recos: Mallipoo, Unnai Nenachadhum, Marakkuma Nenjam
Soundtrack Credits
Song Name – Mallippoo
Singer – Madhushree
Backing Vocals – Sivaangi Krish, Shenbagaraj, Santhosh Hariharan, Narayanan Ravishankar, Swagat Rathod, Sarthak Kalyani
Lyrics – Thamarai
Musicians
Live Rhythm – Krishna Kishore & Iniyan
Mugaveena – Mambalam Sivakumar
Music Supervisor – AH Kaashif
Project Manager – Karthik Sekaran
Sound Engineers –
Panchathan Record inn – Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh, Sarthak Kalyani
Mixed by – Nitish R Kumar
Mastered by – Suresh Permal
Apple Digital Master by – Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator – Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum, T M Faizudeen
Song Name – Marakuma Nenjam/Muthu’s Journey
Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A.R.Rahman
Singer – A.R.Rahman
Lyrics – Thamarai
Musicians
Ghatasinghari – Vedha
Guitars & Bass – Keba Jeramiah
Strings – Sunshine Orchestra
Conducted by Srikant Krishna
Orchestrated by Prashanth Venkat
Backing Vocals –
Rakshita Suresh, Deepthi Suresh, Suryansh Aravind Srinivas, Shenbagaraj, Sarath Santhosh, Aparna Harikumar, Vrusha Balu, Padmaja Sreenivasan
Music Supervisor – AH Kaashif
Additional Programming – Nakul Abhyankar , Suryansh
Vocal Arrangement – Suryansh
Sound Engineers –
Panchathan Record Inn – Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh, Shubham Bhat, Sarthak Kalyani
AM Studios – Sivakumar S, Sathya Narayanan, Ainul
Mixed by Pradeep Menon
Mastered by Suresh Permal
Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinators – Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum, Siddique, T M Faizudeen
Additional programming – Nakul Abhyankar, Suryansh
Vocal Arrangement – Suryansh
Song name – Kaalathukkum Nee Venum
Lyrics – Thamarai
Singers – Silambarasan TR, Rakshita Suresh
Song composed produced and arranged by AR Rahman
Musicians
Charango – Keba Jeremiah
Flute – Kareem Kamalakar, Kiran
Additional Vocals and Programming – Nakul Abhyankar
Sound Engineers – Suresh Perumal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh
Mixed by Krishna Chetan
Mastered by Suresh Permal
Apple Digital Masters
Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator – Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum, Siddique, TM Faizudeen
Song – Unna Nenachadhum
Composer – A.R.Rahman
Singers – Shreya Ghoshal, Sarthak Kalyani
Lyrics – Thamarai
Musicians
Live Rhythm – Krishna Kishore & Iniyan
Mugaveena – Mambalam Sivakumar
Music Supervisor – AH Kaashif
Project Manager – Karthik Sekaran
Sound Engineers –
Panchathan Record inn – Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh, Sarthak Kalyani
Mixed by Nitish R Kumar
Mastered by Suresh Permal
Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator – Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum, T M Faizudeen