Maanaadu (soundtrack)

Maanaadu is the soundtrack for the 2021

During the announcement of the project in late-June 2018, rumours regarding A. R. Rahman and Anirudh Ravichander as the music director surfaced through social media, as Venkat Prabhu had to collaborate with one of the composers for the first time.^[4][5] However, rubbishing these reports, Venkat chose to work with his regular collaborator Yuvan Shankar Raja for the film.^[6] Madhan Karky was brought in to pen lyrics for the album. In November 2018, a rough cut of the track, sung by Silambarasan titled "Unakku Naa Venum Di" was leaked onto the internet.^[7] However, Yuvan stated that he did not composed the song and the track is not included in the album.^[7]

Yuvan started composing the music album in January 2020, before the film's production.^[8][9] Since the film is based on time-loop genre, the producers decided to reduce the scope for songs, where the film would have only one track in the album.^[10] Yuvan had denied this, since he felt that an album needed minimum 3-4 songs in order to provide listeners, a wholesome experience.^[10] Within February 2020, the composer had finished work on all the songs from the film,^[11] with one of the tracks will be reportedly sung by Shreya Ghoshal,^[12] but was not chosen in the final soundtrack. Another song, with vocals by Silambarasan (later deciphered as "Voice of Unity"), co-crooned by Arivu, will also be included in the film.^[13]

Yuvan simultaneously worked on the film's score in mid-December. The background music and re-recording process were completed within September 2021, and literally the score will be bundled and released along with the soundtrack album.

The incomplete track list of the film (only having the name of the tracks) released during late-October, which had three theme songs — two themes for Silambarasan and one for the antagonist S. J. Suryah, a rap track written and sung by Arivu, remixed version of "Meherezylaa" and few tracks from the film score, produced during the re-recording has been presented.^[39] The music album however featured 7 tracks released on 7 November 2021.^[19] The latter was not included in the album, but released as a separate track on 19 January 2022.^[40]

Reception

"My erstwhile collaborations with Venkat Prabhu and Silambarasan have had myriad songs, but this is the first time our collaboration had a limited number of tracks. However, I am completely spellbound by the way music lovers and audiences have noticed my efforts in BGM and appreciated them."

— Yuvan Shankar Raja, on the response for his work in the musical score of Maanaadu.^[41]

M. Suganth of The Times of India, reviewing the first single "Meherezylaa", called it as "peppy and catchy". He further praised Yuvan for the arrangements of the song influenced with Western and Arabic music styles, adding that "The tune is typical Yuvan, with catchy beats ensuring that you instantly get hooked to the number. It is hard to capture the impact and nuances of a song based on just a single listen, but on the whole, 'Meherezylaa' is something that is new for Yuvan".^[42] A review from Behindwoods called the track as a "foot-tapping celebratory song".^[43]

Suganth rated the album and film score, 4 stars (out of 5) praising the two themes "Maanadu Theme" and "Dhanushkodi Theme" elevating the momentum of the scenes.^[44] A critic from Sify stated that Yuvan "amplifies the proceedings with his powerful background score".^[45] The Quint-based critic Sujatha Narayanan too praised Yuvan's work and added that "the background score is a rough and tough mix of staccato flutes, drum rolls and South-Indian percussion, which stays with the audience".^[46] A week after the film's release, the soundtrack topped the second position in iTunes.^{[47][non-primary source needed]}

References