Songs and full credits at the end (interesting to see a person credited for music research!)
Ola Ola Kudisayila comes across as a throwback to the director’s previous movie Cuckoo, albeit with a different composer. Sean Roldan does well to recreate the grand, haunting, Raja-evocative soundscape (Chennai Strings’ violins and Balasai’s flute the highlights, while TM Adithya’s tabla makes for an interesting touch), and debutants Murugavel and Karthika Vaidyanathan do a fine job behind the mic. Sean employs Latino jazz elements for the political lampoon Ennanga Saar Unga Sattam that Arandhai Bava and K Perumal convey in a very folky style (quite liked the former’s singing, tremolo and all). The arrangement features a lot of interesting elements given the genre, but Emily Denison’s trumpet play is particularly commendable. The phrase Halla Bol doesn’t feel like a neat fit with the song’s otherwise Tamil lyrics, but the piece does effectively convey the rousing feel without being grandiosely anthemic in sound. A lot of that effectiveness is owing to Kalyani Nair’s work on the vocal front, with Sean Roldan for support.
Mannar Mannan Theme sees the composer give a brilliant blues-flavoured makeover to the kummiyadi tune (don’t know if the lyrics are from some traditional kummiyadi song too) that Rani does a good rendition of. The soundtrack’s best are the last two tracks though. Jasmine-u has Sean Roldan doing what he does best – a folk tune given a merry treatment involving a rich assortment of plucked strings (played by Subani), ethnic percussion, harmonium, kazoo et al. Adding to the light-heartedness is the English-Tamil combination in the lyrics that singer Sundarayyar aces on his part. With a soft, lullaby-ish melody and the gorgeous sweeping orchestration that rides largely on the strings (Esession Strings from LA, arranged by Pablo Hapenhayn), Chellamma is an absolute winner! M Lalitha Sudha delivers lead vocals on this one, with excellent support from Sean Roldan and K Perumal.
Joker. Director Raju Murugan manages to deliver an excellent soundtrack yet again, this time from Sean Roldan.
Music Aloud Rating: 8.5/10
Top Recos: Chellamma, Jasmine-u, Ola Ola Kudisayila
Full Credits
ENNANGA SIR UNGA SATTAM
Singers: Arandhai Bava , K. Perumal
OLA OLA KUDISAYILA
Singers: Murugavel, Karthika Vaidyanathan
JASMINE-U
Singer: Sundarayyar
CHELLAMMA
Singers: M Lalitha Sudha, K.Perumal, Sean Roldan
HALLA BOL
Singers: Kalyani Nair, Sean Roldan
MANNAR MANNAN THEME
Singer: Rani
Chorus singers: Vasanth Jayaraman, S. Raghavendra, Avinash, Shankar.
Trumpet – Emily Denison (Toronto, Canada)
Latin Percussions- Allwyn Jeya Paul
Indian percussions: Vikram Rozario
Indian Flute – Balasai
Tabla – TM Adithya
Additional Music production and Rhythms- Praveen Sparsh and Ravi G
Bass guitar – Sooraj Kumarr, Sean Roldan
Guitars: Chris Jason, Praveen Sparsh and Sean Roldan
Bouzouki, Banjo, Oud and other plucked instruments – Subani
“Chellamma” strings arranged by Pablo Hopenhayn and performed by Esession Strings (Los Angeles, USA)
“Ola Ola Kudisayila” strings arranged by Sean Roldan, conducted by “Yensone” and performed by Chennai Strings Orchestra.
Music research – Arun Suradha.
Music supervision and associate production – Prasanna Balasubramaniam.
Kazoo, winds and Trumpet arrangement – Susha Raja
Chennai Orchestra recorded by – Navneeth Balachanderan.
Recorded at Krimson Avenue Studios, 20 db, Am Studios and Roldan Records by: Sujith, Vishnu, Avinash, Pradeep and Sean Roldan.
Music composed arranged, and produced by Sean Roldan.
Mixed by Abin Paul and Mastered by Steve Smart – Studios 301, Sydney.
