Songs and musician credits at the end.
A R Rahman has some iconic train-themed songs to his credit; songs where he has innovatively employed the rhythm of the locomotive. In Jigu Jigu Rail there isn’t much of that; the role of the train sound here is pretty much to bookend the track. However, there is something in the reggae rhythm (riddim?) that is evocative of the gentle chugging along of a train (I did find a fair few train-related reggae tracks on a cursory search, perhaps there is something in that choice?), and the video prominently features a toy train – although the highlight of the video is the composer trying his hand (and legs) at dancing! 😀 The inspirational track is part fun and part emotional, the Ellaam Maarum refrain in particular is soul-stirring. Fantastic use of bass (Keba Jeremiah I assume) and horns (Sunshine Brass), and of course the children’s chorus, that constitutes the aforementioned fun aspect of the song. I also liked how there is a synth melody underlining most of the song (made me revisit this bgm piece from Rhythm), sometimes independent of the main melody and thereby adding a nice touch to the proceedings. Also an inspirational song, but of a more assertive nature, exhorting women to rise up, is Kodi Parakura Kaalam. This one consists of three distinctive segments – first a helpless lament of sorts, beautifully delivered by Kalpana Raghavendar with some fine clarinet in tow (giving the segment a retro feel), before three more wonderful singers, Rakshita Suresh, Deepthi Suresh and Aparna Harikumar knock it out of the park with the punchy main section that features some great folk percussion and guitars. The percussion-led coda closes the song off at even higher energy levels. Great anthemic piece, and great writing by Yugabharathi. The album has one more equally well-executed all-female track in Utchanthala. A sombre, at times ominous sounding piece that took my mind back to Kaayam from Iravin Nizhal (the soundtrack itself feels to me like an extension of Iravin Nizhal’s soundscape sometimes). Deepthi Suresh, Sireesha Bhagavatula and Pavithra Chari deliver this one very effectively. Love that solo violin that makes an appearance in the final minute, later closing the song with a short violin+flute coda that feels like a nod to Promontory from The Last of the Mohicans. A R Ameen’s voice carries a Vishal Dadlani-esque edge in his fervent rendition of Veerane – he has really impressed in his recent singing ventures. But even with his singing and the song’s general vigour, it comes across as the relative weakling of the album.
Arivu and ARR’s first collaboration is quite a fitting choice for the movie’s theme/title track. Arivu’s own incisive writing and trademark delivery bring the attitude, and Rahman’s arrangements complement that perfectly; some deft touches in response to the lines, like the parai kicking in when Arivu sings vaazhvin osa adhu parai osa (The beat of the drum is the anthem of life) or the fanfare around the mannaa maamannaa phrase – I like how the titular phrase appears only towards the end of the song; kind of like a hero’s mass entry! Have to confess at this point that this is a track that has grown on me over time, I wasn’t too impressed with it on first hearing. On an aside, love that Arivu is wearing a shirt with Notorious BIG’s pic printed all over, in the lyric video. While Maamannan is a great album, one aspect that I found a bit missing here, compared to other Mari Selvaraj movie soundtracks with Santhosh Narayanan, is that raw intensity. Of course, it is likely that the setting of the movie itself is different from the previous ones, leading to this shift, but the one song where it does show up in brilliant fashion is Raasa Kannu. Rahman keeps the orchestration minimal here, and very folk – that 4-note string refrain that appears around the 1:16 mark and continues throughout the rest of the track has a mesmerising effect, even as Vadivelu’s powerful voice and the booming thavil phrases keep you tethered to reality. Vadivelu as choice of vocalist is a masterstroke, as he delivers Yugabharathi’s scorching words with the soulfulness that they deserve. The romantic Nenjame Nenjame comes as a soothing balm to the ear after the heaviness of the rest of the soundtrack. A gentle melody that the composer adorns with an equally tender arrangement – the use of percussion in particular is my favourite; vanishing during the interludes and reappearing with a new set of instruments in each stanza. There’s also the brief throwback-inducing appearance of the pan-flute, and the short bursts of piano phrases contributing to the song’s charm. And then the vocals. Vijay Yesudas and Shaktisree Gopalan are in excellent form here, but the composer also gets a ladies’ chorus to bring up a closing segment of over 1.5 minutes, singing a slight variation of the opening verse – lovely touch that. The melody interestingly has an Ilaiyaraja-esque feel to it at times, especially around that opening phrase.
Maamannan. A R Rahman‘s incredible run of form continues; that’s another winner just a couple of months since the last one, in Ponniyin Selvan 2. And this one features full length songs! In fact, it is more than just full length – 7 songs averaging almost 5 minutes per track. I cannot remember the last time we had a soundtrack with that kind of song duration. Would love for that norm to make a comeback!
Music Aloud Rating: 4/5
Top Recos: Too many to list!
Musician Credits
Song – Nenjame Nenjame
Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A.R.Rahman
Lyrics Yugabharathi
Singer Vijay Yesudas, Shakthisree Gopalan
Musicians
Additional Vocals Deepti Suresh, Aparna Harikumar, Vrusha Balu
Music Supervisor A.H.Kaashif
Project Manager Karthik Sekaran
Vocal Supervision Suryansh, Sreekanth Hariharan, Sarath Santosh
Guitar – Sunil Milner
Bass – Prashanth Venkat
Flute – Nikhil Ram
Strings – Chennai Strings and Sunshine Orchestra
Conducted by Jerry Vincent
Additional Programming Santosh Dhayanidhi, Prashanth Venkat, Soumya Sejpal
Sound Engineers
Panchathan Record inn – Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Sathish V Saravanan
AM Studio – Pradeep Menon, Sathya Narayanan, Ainul Huq
Mixed & Mastered by Suresh Permal
Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum
Song – Kodi Parakura Kaalam
Song Composed, Produced, and Arranged by AR Rahman
Lyrics: Yugabharathi
Singers: Kalpana Raghavendar, Rakshita Suresh, Deepthi Suresh, Aparna Harikumar
Music Supervisor A.H.Kaashif
Project Manager Karthik Sekaran
Vocal Supervision Nakul Abhyankar, Suryansh, Sreekanth Hariharan
Musicians
Guitar – Keba Jeramiah
Percussion – Hariprasad, Kaamil Saif, Guberan
Rhythm Arrangement Kumaran Sivamani
Sound Engineers – Panchathan Record inn
Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Prashanth Venkat, Sathish V Saravanan
Mixed by Pradeep Menon
Mastered by Suresh permal
Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum
Song – Manna Maamanna
Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by AR Rahman
Rap written & Performed by Arivu
Musicians
Additional Vocals – Sreekanth Hariharan, Sarath Santosh, Aravind Srinivas
Music Supervisor – A.H.Kaashif
Project Manager – Karthik Sekaran
Vocal Supervision – Arjun Chandy, Prashanth Venkat
Musicians – Percussion – Hariprasad, Kaamil Saif
Sound Engineers – Panchathan Record inn – Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Sathish V Saravanan
Mixed and Mastered by Nitish R kumar
Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum
Song Name – Jigu Jigu Rail
Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A R Rahman
Singer A R Rahman
Lyrics Yuga Bharathi
Kids Chorus S.T.Nishanth, J.Sarvesh, P.Pragadeesh, Neha Girish, R.Aadya, R.Diva Lakshmi
Additional Vocals – Khatija Rahman, Amina Rafiq, Sreekanth Hariharan, Sharath Santhosh, Deepthi Suresh, Sireesha Bhagavatula
Music Supervisor A.H.Kaashif
Project Manager Karthik Sekaran
Electric Guitars – Keba Jeremiah
Drums – Kumaran Sivamani
Sunshine Brass, Conducted by Lisa
Recorded by Vilva, Shridhar Ramesh
Additional Programming Prashanth Venkat, Suryansh
Rhythm Arrangement Kumaran Sivamani
Vocal Arrangement Arjun Chandy
Vocal Supervision Suryansh, Sreekanth Hariharan
Sound Engineers, Panchathan Record inn
Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Sathish V Saravanan
Mixed by – Nitish R Kumar
Mastered by Suresh Permal
Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum
Song – Raasa Kannu
Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A.R.Rahman
Lyrics – Yugabharathi
Singer – Vadivelu
Music Supervisor – AH Kaashif
Project Manager – Karthik Sekaran
Backing vocals – Sreekanth Hariharan
Orchestration – Suprava Mukherjee
Musicians
Chennai Strings & Sunshine Orchestra,
Conducted by Jerry Vincent
Supervised By Prashanth Venkat
String Instruments – SM Subhani
Music Editor Prashanth Venkat
Sound Engineers
Panchathan Record inn Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh, Sathish V Saravanan
AM Studios Pradeep Menon, Manoj Raman, Sathya Narayanan, Ainul Huk
Mixed and Mastered By Nitish R Kumar
Apple Digital Master and Dolby Atmos by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum.
Song – Veerane
Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A.R.Rahman
Lyrics Yuga Bharathi
Singer AR Ameen
Additional Vocals – Baala Boys, Sathya Prakash, Deepthi Suresh, Sireesha Bhagavatula
Musicians
Percussion – Hariprasad, Kaamil Saif, Karthick Vamsi
Sunshine Brass, Conducted by Lisa
Supervised by Vilva, Shridhar Ramesh
Rhythm Arrangement – Kumaran Sivamani
Additional Programming – Sarthak Kalyani
Music Supervisor – A.H.Kaashif
Project Manager -Karthik Sekaran
Vocal Supervision – Prashanth Venkat, Sreekanth Hariharan
Sound Engineers Panchathan Record inn – Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Sathish V Saravanan
Mixed and Mastered by – Nitish R kumar
Apple Digital Master by – Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator – Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum
