Moondram Pirai (soundtrack)

Overview

The soundtrack was released through the record label Agi Music. The number "Kannae Kalaimane", which is based on the Kapi raga, with shades of Natabhairavi, was written by Kannadasan in "about two minutes" time, after listening to the film's story and the situation for the song. Kannadasan was present at the recording session of the song, which took place in September 1981. It was the last song which Kannadasan wrote before his death in October 1981, during the making of the film. "Poongatru" was based on the Sindhu Bhairavi raga.

The original soundtrack edition of Moondram Pirai does not include the song "Ponmeni Uruguthey", but re-releases of the soundtrack on iTunes and Raaga.com do so, as the fourth and third tracks respectively. "Poongaatru Puthithaanathu" is incorrectly listed on the original soundtrack edition as "Poonkatru Thalattudhu", but this mistake was corrected in the iTunes re-release, while at Raaga.com, it is simply listed as "Poongatru". In all the three soundtrack editions, "Kanne Kalaimane" is the first track, while the track numbering for the other songs vary.

Critical reception

The soundtrack received positive critical reception. The song "Ponmeni Uruguthey" that was picturised on Kamal Haasan and Silk Smitha developed cult status. G. Dhananjayan, in his book The Best of Tamil Cinema called the music "outstanding", further saying that the songs contributed significantly to the success of the film. Hari Narayan of The Hindu said, "The lullaby "Kanne Kalaimane" sees the tranquillity reach a crescendo." Another critic from The Hindu, Shankar, called "Vaanengum Thanga" a "dream song". On the song, "Kanne Kalaimane", Balu Mahendra said that it "stirs you to this day". In July 2011, D. Karthikeyan of The Hindu singled out the film's re-recording and ranked it alongside the music director's other films such as Mullum Malarum (1978), Uthiripookkal (1979), Nayakan (1987) and Thalapathi (1991).