Kaaviya Thalaivan (soundtrack)

Background

A. R. Rahman revealed that he backed out from the Hollywood fantasy film Seventh Son to compose for Kaaviya Thalaivan, because it gave him the scope to innovate with folk music like never before.He had done six months research for the music of the film, especially working on nuances of several ragas and folk music prior to recording actual compositions. From October 2012 to July 2013 Rahman finished composing 90% of the songs, prior to commencement of filming. The makers did not finish a schedule and waited for Rahman to give them another song.Initially, the makers were skeptical about A. R. Rahman's agreement to the project. For an undisclosed song in the album, Rahman composed the lyrical tuning to six different iterations.Rahman was well aware of singer Haricharan's strong foundation in classical music. Unlike usual recording routes, the composer and singer had an impromptu sort of jamming session. Haricharan was diffident on the over-dramatizing lyrical works but agreed later. As per The Hindu, he was quoted saying "It is a period movie about street theatre, I trained myself by listening to legendary singers such as S. G. Kittappa and M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar." Haricharan has sung for ten tracks (inclusive of bit songs) in the album. The complete album was supposed to be written by Vaali but his untimely demise, he wrote the track "Alli Arjuna" for the soundtrack, his last poetic contribution to Tamil music. For this conversational track, Haricharan sang for both the characters 'Krishna' and 'Arjuna' by bringing alterations in his voice.As per the producer, S. Sashikanth, "Every song in this movie has a concept behind it. With "Yaarumilla" – that particular idea was based on the romance between Kitappa and KB Sundarambal. There were letters that Sundarambal had sent to Kitappa which are supposed to be on par with Shakespearan love letters! So the song’s inspiration comes from that."

In an interview with Deccan Chronicle Rahman was quoted saying, "Being a period film and the subject being about a dramatic trouple, I needed to go into the subject in some depth. Apparently, it was done for people to relate with the music of that era with immediate ease." The film has 20 bit songs of varying lengths that partly form the score. At The Economic Times, Rahman noted, "The limitation was the throw (performing on stage needs high-pitched tunes with dynamism) at which the songs needed to be composed." In October 2013, singer Madhushree announced that she had performed a duet titled "Thamana" with S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, however the track eventually did not feature in the soundtrack album. Seven original songs in each of the plays are featured in the film. All the compositions reflect the sound and musical preferences of the 1920s era.Director Vasanthabalan selected old verses of Madurakavi Bhaskaradas so as to tune them for selected songs. All the songs were recorded by early May 2014. Vasanthabalan confirmed in early September 2014 that Rahman was working on the background score of the film in his studio in Los Angeles.

Marketing

The audio rights of the film were sold to Sony Music India in April 2014. On July 25, 2014, preview clip of track "Sollividu Sollividu" (previously noted as "Karnamotcham") was released on Rahman's Soundcloud channel. The video preview clip of the making of the track, "Aye Mr. Minor" was released on YouTube on 5 August 2014. It was earlier reported that the album would launch on July 31, 2014, but sources confirmed that the album would release digitally on August 18, 2014

An event for the digital release of the album was held at A. R. Rahman's studio was aired through Suryan FM 93.5 across Tamil Nadu on August 18, 2014. The highlight of the event was an audio – visual presentation of the experiences of five theater artistes. All five namely PC Kalaimani, Nellai Sriram, Anandan, Prasad Rajendran and Tamilarasan were felicitated by A.R. Rahman.

Reception

The album received extremely positive reviews upon release. K. Siddharth of Sify stated that Rahman was "at his creative best!" in the album and gave it a rating of 4 out of 5 stars. Behindwoods chose "Vaanga Makka Vaanga", "Aye Mr. Minor!" and "Yaarumilla" as the picks of the album and rated the album 3.75 out of 5 stars, concluding, "Rahman brings back live instrumentation to its full glory !"Vipin of Music Aloud concluded, "One of the year’s most awaited soundtracks, and A R Rahman delivers in style. Big props to the singers (not just Haricharan) for a top class effort! Kaaviya Thalaivan. Go listen!", and gave a rating of 9 out of 10 for the album. S. Saraswati of Rediff.com wrote "Music by AR Rahman anchors the film well. Every song takes you back to an era that glorified music and understood its nuances. They form an integral part of the film and give greater depth to the narrative. There are a multitude of songs, but every song is handled differently, ensuring a thoroughly enjoyable experience." R. S. Prakash of Bangalore Mirror called Rahman's work "soothing and adds value" though he felt that it was not the best. Avinash Gopalan of Oneindia Entertainment called the soundtrack and background score as the film's backbone. Haricharan Pudipeddi felt that Rahman's work is one of the places where Kaaviya Thalaivan works.

However, Baradwaj Rangan of The Hindu wrote "The film opens with a dedication to legends like S. G. Kittappa and K. B. Sundarambal, but a soundtrack filled with those kinds of voices would be booed off the screen today. The singers sound lighter, more contemporary, even while rendering bits like Kaayadha Kaanagathe, which was immortalised on screen by T. R. Mahalingam – again, a voice that would most likely make the audience collapse into giggles."

The album topped the iTunes charts across India within a few hours after its digital release.

Original Version

The official track listing was released by Sony Music India on August 17, 2014.

Malayalam Version

All lyrics written by Rafeeq Ahammed.

Album credits

Malavika, Pooja A.V., Sharanya, Dr. Narayanan, Nivas