Songs and credits at the end.
Composer Rex Vijayan’s singing is the only low point of the wonderfully immersive Uyirin Nadhiye. It is only past the halfway mark that the vocal department gets a facelift with the entry of Neha Nair. The song’s winning aspect is of course, its synth-led arrangement (synth handled by Shekhar Menon and Arun Suradhaa), peppered with some neat dilruba phrases (also played by Suradhaa). Neha goes solo in Kiliye whose orchestration is more associable with the composer’s usual style, but is delectably exotic – the hang drum (Athul P M) and oud (Benny Abraham) especially giving the song an ethereal touch.
The soundtrack’s other two songs are Shahabaz Aman’s show through and through. First of them, Mizhiyil Ninnum (lovely lines by Anwar Ali), is set in line with the singer’s Hindustani sensibilities – the ghazal-esque orchestration highlighted by Kishore Kumaar’s sarod and Chandrajith’s tabla. Beautiful melody as well, set to the comforting seven beat cycle that rarely fails to impress. Kaatil is the album’s most imaginative track (Aman shares composing credits with Vijayan on this one) – while the melody itself goes through unpredictable twists and turns, the rich backdrop sees some fab use of strings (arranged by Sushin Shyam, who also plays melodica for the song), lovely placement of Neha Nair’s backing vocals and an amazing bass line from Naveen Napier.
Mayaanadhi. Barring that misstep in Uyirin Nadhiye, stellar work from Rex Vijayan! What a year the man has had, churning out two of his career-best works in the only two movies he worked for in 2017.
Related Read: This interview where Rex Vijayan speaks about how he went about creating the songs for the movie (link via @milliblog).
Music Aloud Rating: 4/5
Musician Credits
Kaatil
Music – Rex Vijayan and Shahbaz Aman
Vocals – Shahabaz Aman
Lyricist – Vinayak sasikumar
Backing vocals – Neha S Nair
String arrangements & melodica – Sushin Shyam ,
Keys- Yakzan Gary Periera ,
Bass- Napier Naveen
Guitars – Rex Vijayan,
Recorded at 20db Studios by Avinash ,
Mixed by Abin Paul,
Mastered by Steve Smart
Recording engineer – Sai Prakash at My Studio Kochi
Kiliye
Music : Rex Vijayan
Lyrics : Rafeeq Ahammed
Singers : Neha S Nair
Hang Pan – Athul P M (Munna )
Oud : Benny Abraham
Electric Violin : Raghavasimhan
String Arrangement : Arun Suradhaa
Male Vocal : Nivas Raghunathan
Keys : Yakzan Gary Perier
Guitars : Rex Vijayan
Mixed By : Abin Paul
Mastered By : Steve Smart
Mizhiyil Ninnum
Music : Rex Vijayan
Lyrics : Anwar Ali
Singers : Shahabaz Aman
Female humming – Neha Nair,
Piano- Yakzan Gary Pereira ,
Guitars & Ukelele – Rony George ,
Sarod – Kishore kumaar,
Tabla -Chandrajith ,
Mixed by Abin Paul ,
Mastered by Steve Smart ,
Recorded at 20db sound studios by Avinash
Recording Engineer – Sai Prakash at Mystudio kochi
Uyirin Nadhiye
Music: Rex Vijayan
Lyrics: Vinayak Sasikumar
Singers: Rex Vijayan, Neha S Nair
Dilruba, Synths: Arun Suradhaa
Synths & Co-Producer: Shekhar Menon
Mixed By: Abin Paul
Mastered By: Steve Smart
