Songs and musician credits at the end.
Sid Sriram’s Yaar Azhaippadhu starts off in a curious fashion – a flute solo that starts off languidly before the flautist Nathan picks up pace, as if suddenly realising 10 seconds in that he needs to get on with it 😀 Love that refrain though, that keeps popping up through the song. The occasional hint of processing in Sriram’s voice aside, I quite enjoyed the song – the melody is engaging, and the arrangement top notch. The melody, or a part of it, appears twice more in the soundtrack. First is in the short Unnai Thaane (very well delivered by Deepthi Suresh) where the placid melody suddenly takes off in the interlude with the soaring Yaar Azhaippadhu refrain (I assume there is some throwback reference in the visuals to justify this) before ending the way it began. And the other instance – my favourite among the three – is the instrumental theme piece titled Maara & Paaru which is a glorious throwback to early year Ghibran compositions with its haunting combination of keys and strings! Composer does a pretty good job in his other instrumental track of the album as well, the more frenetically paced piece titled Search of Soul. Shabir’s snake-and-ladder based analogies in the hip-hop track Pagada (that he himself delivers) are quite catchy, but in the overall album I would rate it as one of the weaker tracks.
Oh Azhage has a tune that is decent, but Ghibran’s sprawling backdrop that lifts the song considerably, as does Benny Dayal’s singing. There is a Hindi version of the song as well titled O Ajooba which I did not think much of, largely owing the diction by the singer, one of the composer’s regulars for a long time now – Yazin Nizar. Nizar does get a brilliant song in the soundtrack though, alongside Sanah Moidutty. Celtic music is a genre that seldom fails to entertain, and the composer here uses that base to craft an absolutely infectious piece in Oru Arai Unadhu – while the song understandably rides on the percussion and violins, both the singers are on point here. Another of the album’s top songs, Theeranadhi, is delivered by one more of Ghibran’s frequently featured singers, Padmalatha. Lovely classical-flavoured composition, this one (brindavana saranga, perhaps, the raga) that lady delivers with finesse, while the chorus lends it a slight qawwali-esque feel. And bringing up the rear is melancholic Kaathirundhen. Like Theeranadhi, this one too is classical-based (charukeshi raga, from the sound of it), and at the hands of the very competent and soulful Ananthu and Srisha Vijayasekar, the melody works like a charm.
In a recent interview around the movie, Madhavan apparently said that Maara isn’t an exact remake of Charlie, rather an adaptation with a few changes made to the original story. Perhaps the same reflects in the soundtrack as well – there aren’t a lot of songs in Maara that I was able to mentally equate to a song from Malayalam. What is quite evident, however, is Ghibran showing a level of consistency that he has not done in quite a long time. Gopi Sunder’s music was one of the key factors behind the immense success of Charlie; Ghibran therefore had big shoes to fill here. And the man does indeed rise to the challenge in style!
Music Aloud Rating: 4/5
Top Recos: Theeranadhi, Oru Arai Unadhu, Maara & Paaru, Kaathirundhen
Musician Credits
Yaar Azhaippadhu
Lyrics: Thamarai
Singer: Sid Sriram
Music: Ghibran
Theeranadhi
Lyrics: Thamarai
Singer: Padmalatha
Music: Ghibran
Oru Arai Unathu
Lyrics: Thamarai
Singer: Yazin Nizar & Sanah Moidutty
Music: Ghibran
Oh Azhage
Lyrics: Thamarai
Singer: Benny Dayal
Music: Ghibran
Kaathirundhen
Lyrics: Thamarai
Singer: Ananthu & Srisha Vijayasekar
Music: Ghibran
Pagada
Lyrics: Shabir
Singer: Shabir
Music: Ghibran
Unnaithane
Lyrics: Thamarai
Singer: Deepthi Suresh
Music: Ghibran
Maara & Paaru
Music: Ghibran
O Ajooba
Lyrics: Ravichand Nallappa
Singer: Yazin Nizar
Music: Ghibran
Search Of Soul
Music: Ghibran
Music Composed and Arranged by Ghibran
Additional Song Arrangements: LJ.Vijay & Hary Nair
Chorus backing Vocals: Aravind Srinivas, Sarath Santhosh, Shenbagaraj, Deepthi suresh
Srisha Vijayasekar, Roshini jkv
Songs Vocals Conductor: Gold Devaraj
Soundtrack Arrangements: Hary Nair
Flute: Nathan
String sections: Rithu & Balaji
String instruments : Subhani
Rhythm section : Prithvi
Production Management: Andria Miranda and Britto David
Recorded and Edited by Wesley, Chandrasekaran TK at Aksharaa Sound Forge
Yaar Azhaippadhu ,Oru Arai Unathu ,Oh Azhage : Mixed & Mastered By Balu Thankachan @ 20dB Studios
Kaathirunthen, Pagada Pagada, Search Of Soul : Mixed & Mastered by Abin Paul @ Mixwithabin, Chennai
Studio Management: Chandru, Ponnaiyan
Music Assistants : Gold Devaraj, Dr.V.Sritharan
Musician’s Fixer: Sudhakar
