Songs, and artist credits (to the extent available) at the end of the review.
My favourite song from A R Rahman’s long -awaited reunion project with Rajeev Menon back in 2018 – Sarvam Thaala Mayam – was the track co-composed by ARR and Menon, Varalaama, a wonderfully realised raagamaalika that never got the love it deserved (IMO). In Iravin Nizhal, the composer goes on a similar route with Paapam Seiyathiru Maname – a siddhar paadal (a form of folk music) written by Kaduveli Siddhar. This video by Carnatic musician Prince Rama Varma has a nice explanation of siddhar paadal and the most famous song in the genre, also written by Kaduveli Siddhar (the video is in Malayalam though). As I understood it, siddhar paadal feels a bit like baul sangeet in Bengal, paanan paattu in Kerala etc. It is fascinating how much this peripatetic bard practice exists across cultures. And in almost all of these, there appears to be some plucked string instrument involved. With bauls it is the ektara, in Kerala there’s the nanthuni/yaazh/pulluvarkudam, I would imagine that even in siddhar paadal there was something similar in use. In what I assume is a nod to this fact, the basic rhythm for Paapam Seiyaathiru is provided by one such instrument (not sure if live or synthesised), and the effect it has is just incredibly calming, especially in the first minute and a half when there is no other instrument to steal the limelight (Also a random aside – the instrument’s twang that kicks off the song prompted a revisit of Mitwa 😀 ) Rahman subtly builds the instrumental layers onto this beautifully unhurried track – the mohan veena that heralds each switch in raga (guessing the ragas are kedaaragowla/saama, hamir kalyani, hamsanaadham – could not figure out the minor scale raga at 2:38), ghatam, kanjira all delightful additions to the proceedings. The icing on the cake is of course the delicate, brilliant rendition by Niranjana Ramanan and Keerthana Vaidyanathan. The melody also lends itself very well to the soulful, achingly short theme piece titled Shadow of the Night.
Shreya Ghoshal is in splendid form in Maayava Thooyava, a charming melodic piece that would have been a nice fit in Kaaviya Thalaivan. Here too the instrumental build-up is gradual, resulting in a rich profusion of strings (Sunshine Orchestra) and mridangam (D A Srinivas) that gives the song a thoroughly satisfying ending. Got to know thanks to a friend that the interlude arrangements are a bit different in the Telugu version of the song, interestingly, the dilruba solo replaced with a vocal + conversational segment. Expressing a heartbreak in an unexpectedly boisterous fashion is something ARR has done in the past as well – Heer (Tamasha) comes to mind. Bejara is a similar attempt with similarly impressive results. The composer goes for a street sound here, and the combination of horns (Omkar Dhumal) and percussion (Sivamani) delivers it in style. Haricharan and Bamba Bakya do a fine job of delivering Parthiban’s lines that feature some smart wordplay. Those occasional touches of sivaranjani raga coming in Haricharan’s voice are likely to take your mind back to the Alli Varugiraale segment from Kaaviya Thalaivan’s Alli Arjuna. Being the soundtrack of a movie titled Iravin Nizhal, you can understandably sense a quietness, a feeling of night on occasion. Nowhere else is it as prominent as in the dark, haunting Kaayam that kind of follows in the footsteps of Madura Marikozhundhae from Chekka Chivantha Vaanam. With an almost free-form singing by Khatija Rahman, Deepthi Suresh, Soundarya Bala Nandakumar, Veena Murali and Sowmya Mahadevan for most part, this song feels most representative of the seemingly unconventional nature of the movie itself. It is only around the 4:15 mark that the song turns “regular”, with what turn out to be the opening lines of another track from the album. Fine singing by the ladies in this one. Kannethire is the song that gets briefly referenced towards the end of Kaayam, sung in its expanded form by Sarthak Kalyani with some brief but very effective support from Hiral Viradia. Lovely waltzy melody that benefits as much from the use of guitars (and mandolin, I think?) as it does from the top-quality singing.
Iravin Nizhal. Fabulous soundtrack from A R Rahman that strikes a good balance between the esoteric and conventional; the best work that he has produced in Tamil in quite some time.
Music Aloud Rating: 4/5
Top Recos: All of them (but Paapam Seiyathiru definitely ranks first)!
PS: Thanks to @pnamblat for providing the link to the siddhar paadal explanation; you can read his insightful analysis of Paapam Seiyathiru here.
Soundtrack Credits
Kaayam
Song Composed, Arranged and Produced By A R Rahman
Singers: Khatija Rahman, Deepthi Suresh, Soundarya Bala Nandakumar, Veena Murali, Sowmya Mahadevan
Lyrics: Radhakrishnan Parthiban
Additional Vocals: Elfe Choir
Conducted by Roe Vincent
Flute: Kamalakar
Strings: Sunshine Orchestra
Conducted by Jerry Vincent
Music Supervisor: Nakul Abhyankar
Sound Engineers:
Panchathan Record inn:
Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh, Sarthak Kalyani
AM Studios:
S Sivakumar, Pradeep Menon, Krishnan Subramanian, Aravind MS, Sathya, Ainul
Mixed by Pradeep Menon
Mastered by Suresh Permal
Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator: Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum, Siddique, TM Faizudeen
Maayava Thooyava
Song Composed, Arranged and Produced By A R Rahman
Singer: Shreya Ghoshal
Lyrics: Madhan Karky
Mrudangam: D A Srinivas
Dilruba: Saroja
Flute: Kareem Kamalakar
Strings : Sunshine Orchestra, Conducted by Jerry Vincent
Music supervisor: Nakul Abhyankar
Sound Engineers: Panchathan Record Inn,
Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh, Sarthak Kalyani
AM Studios,
Sivakumar S, Pradeep Menon, Sathya, Krishnan, Aravind MS
Mixed By Pradvay Shivashankar
Mastered By Suresh Permal
Apple Digital Masters Riyasdeen Riyan
Musicians Co Ordinators Samydurai R, Abdul Haiyum , Siddique, TM Faizudeen
Bejara
Song Composed, Arranged and Produced By A R Rahman
Singers: Haricharan Seshadri, Bamba Bakya
Lyrics: R. Parthiban
Mandolin: Subhani
Saxophone: Omkar Dhumal
Rhythm: A.Sivamani
Chennai String Section conducted by Jerry Vincent
Music Supervisor: Nakul Abhyankar
Sound Engineers:
Panchathan Record inn:
Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh, Sarthak Kalyani
AM Studios:
S Sivakumar, Pradeep Menon, Krishnan Subramanian, Aravind MS, Sathya, Ainul
Mixed by Pradvay Shivashankar
Mastered by Suresh Permal
Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator: Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum, Siddique, TM Faizudeen
Paapam Seiyathiru
Song Composed, Arranged and Produced By A R Rahman
Singers: Niranjana Ramanan, Keerthana Vaidyanathan
Lyrics: Kaduveli Siddhar
Kannethire
Song Composed, Arranged and Produced By A R Rahman
Singers: Sarthak Kalyani, Hiral Viradia
Lyrics: R. Parthiban
Shadow of the Night
Song Composed, Arranged and Produced By A R Rahman
