Rajni, Shankar, A.R. Rahman and AVM have got together for the first time. The expectations have been too high for this movie. And how are the songs? Do they live upto the expectations? Shankar and AR Rahman have been a great combination right from Gentleman. So, how is it this time?

I went into Music Yogi’s distribution office in SP Road, and got my CD at 8 AM itself :D This album has 7 tracks. Am not sure if all of them would be picturized. I would be happy, if they are ;)

Balelakka - SPB, Raihanah, Benny & Chorus 6.06 Lyrics: Na. Muthukumar
Song starts with the women singing ‘Sooriyano chandirano. Yaar ivano sattena sollu’. Forget listening to this song in a movie hall, as this is Rajni’s intro song. SPB is at his usual best with the combination of pulse raising drum beats at the background. And dont even try singing along with SPB. You might run out of breath, when he goes sadugudu sadugudu. Decent song, which you will get to hear umpteen no of times in the future. Super beginning!

Style:Rags, Tanvi, Suresh Peters, Blaaze 5.10 Lyrics: Pa Vijay
First one minute you wonder whats happening. Then you get to hear the Guitar, and the pace of the song picks up. The song is all about Style, from what the lyrics suggest. ‘Ada ada asathudhu un style un style’. My favorite part of the song is when Tanvi goes ‘ragaLai sei rowdhiraveera, miraLa sei manmadha maaRa, kani thedum kalagakkaara’. These lines really took me by surprise. As in, the song is kind of western in pronounciation and lyrics. All of a sudden you get to hear description of a guy in chaste tamil. Too good.

Vaaji Vaaji Hariharan, Madhushree & Chorus. 5.47 Lyrics: Vairamuthu
A song where Vairamuthu flaunts his Tamil :) ‘Poombaavai aambal aambal punnagayo mouval mouval’. Hariharan sounds different in this song. Slow rhythmic beats accompany Hariharan and Madhushree. Guess, I need to listen to this atleast 1 more time. I was so tempted to listen to Rahman’s song, that I didn’t listen to this again :D Madhushree disappoints :(

Athiradee: AR Rahman, Sayanora 5.45 Lyrics: Vaali
Frankly speaking, first time I heard the song I was disappointed big time except for the electric guitar. Listen to it 3 times, and you will be hooked to it for ever. Electric Guitar rocks big time. Deadly beats, funky lyrics like ‘Thee thee thee jagajyothee jagajyothee Billa Ranga Baasha dhaan ivan pistol pesum beshaa dhaan’. Rahman was changed his style of singing, and altered his voice modulation as well. Effect is brilliant. If you have a good music system, then this song will be in your playlist for quite sometime. And that electric guitar. Sigh. I wish I had a Bose home theatre, just for this song. Brilliant song. Do listen to it, back to back 2 times and you will know what am talking about. I would like to know how many layers BOSS has used in this song. Vaali has let his hair and beard down for the lyrics. Cuba, Castro, Roger Moore, Eddie Murphy all feature in the lyrics :P And yes, I feel this sounds similar to JAM of MJ. But some say Dangerous. Am not too sure. But the traces are there at only 1 place. Its not a remix song ;)

Sahana: Udit Narayanan, Chinmayee 5.19 Lyrics: Vairamuthu
Vintage Rahman. Lovely melody. Udit Narayan has got a lot of flak for his pronounciation. But he seems to have put in lots of effort to get it right. And it shows. Except for few places, his pronounciation is decent. My respect for Chinamyi has risen, after this song. Is this the same girl who sang ‘Tere Bina’. She has so much variety in her voice., especially the diferent ways of singing ‘ohohoh’. Is shankar a big fan of Mridangam or something. I have observed Rahman and Harris(In Anniyan) use Mridangam quite prominently in his movies. In this song, the Mridangam is not prominent but you surely cant miss it. Rahman comes in the middle and sings dheem thana dheem thana.

The Boss: Blaaze, Naresh Iyer, Raqueeb Alam 3.18 Lyrics:Na.Muthukumar, Blaaze
When the song starts, you feel the swoosh from right to left. I somehow got a feeling, that this music would be used many times in the movie, whenever Rajni does something crucial? Was anticipating a theme music kind of thing. But the lyrics of this song let me down big time. Did T Rajendar write the lyrics? ‘Vaada vaangitu vaada beeda vaangitu vaada beeda vaaila poatukoada poda poda pozhachu poda’ or something like that and then ‘Sachin adicha sixer dhaanda Sivaji adicha puncher dhaanda’. Seriously, lyrics spoiled this song :( I couldnt concentrate to the music, due to this stupid lyrics. I dont think I will like this song, even though the audio clarity is mindblowing. Even Pettai Rap lyrics sound better than this. Cha!

Sahara: Vijay Yesudas, Gomathi Sree & Chorus 4.30 Lyrics:Vairamuthu
Can I nominate this song as ‘Song of 2007′ please? Unlike his dad, Vijay Yesudas can pronounce La rightly. This is the sad(?) version of Sahana. And then Gomathi Sree sings Thirupavai, then a flute piece followed by Vijay Yesudas humming ‘Sahara’. Aaaha. Bliss. The song is only for 4.30 minutes. Wish this songs duration was 10 minutes. Where were you Gomathi? A great find for Tamil cine music. Hats off to you! In my opinion this is the best song of the album, and one of the best song composed by Rahman. Wish Rahman composes music for Thirupavai and Thiruvembavai. Vijay Yesudas, Flute player(Naveen?) and Gomathi compete with each other to bring out the best. Lovely!

Overall, the album is really good and has lived up to my expectations. You have a typical Rajni song, followed by couple of stylish songs and then both versions of Sahana. You can buy this song just for the sad version of Sahara. Gomathi. You have a fan here. You are the star of the album, just after BOSS.

The Audio CD costs 100 Rs. You get a poster of Rajni, lyrics and also a VCD of Baasha. Worth buying it.

Musicians Coordinators: Samidurai, Ganesh(Toronto)
Recorded and Mixed at: Panchathan Record Inn, AM Studios Chennai, Phase One studios, Toronto.
Musicians: Natarajan-Nathaswaram, Ivan- Guitar
Athiradee Additional production by Ranjit Barot
Athiradee Additional voices: Karthik, Mohammad Aslam and Naresh Iyer
Ballelakka: Additional voices-Swetha and Darshana
Vaaji Vaaji: Arabic vox..Agtani, Strings orchestrated and conducted by Srinivasa Murthy
Music Assistants: Satish Chakravarthy, Krishna Chetan
Recording Engineers: S.Sivakumar, Karthik V, Mohammed Safiullah
Mixing Engineers: H Sridhar, KJ Singh
Mastering Engineers: H Sridhar, S Sivakumar