The two Islamic religious songs – Khwaja ji and the unlisted (in the CD) Zikr – are handled with a Rahman-level piety, but without compromising on commercial viability, with a deep, sonorous sound. Chillendra chillendra extends that quasi-religious/sufi sound in a decidedly more commercial template rather well, peppered with occasional Hindi words. Ghibran-regular Sundar Narayana Rao and Kaushiki Chakrabarty handle this well. Ghibran cranks up the sound beautifully in Enthaara enthaara, mixing world-music’ish backgrounds to a lovely tune! Shadaab Fairdi and Chinmayi rock this one! Rayile raa too is a fantastic listen – energetic, catchy music and a great melange of vocals led by Bonnie Chakraborty. Yazin Nizar takes on Yaaro ival‘s solo melody confidently, though it’s Ghibran’s ambient backgrounds that rule the song. The soundtrack’s delectable highlight is the wonderfully-filmy carnatic song Kannukkul pothivaippen, sung by Charulatha Mani, Sadhana Sargam, Vijay Prakash and R.Ganesh – this is a scintillating mix, taking in what seems like a heady mix of raagas Mukhari and Hamirkalyani/Kedar (thanks to a note by Charulata Mani on YouTube) Bhairavi and Behaag, orchestrated to perfection! The range of songs in this soundtrack is mind-boggling; Ghibran seems to have handled them with amazing dexterity! There is little doubt that Ghibran is the most exciting Tamil composer in recent times!
Keywords: Ghibran, Thirumanam Enum Nikaah, #200, 200
Note 1: It feels good that I had selected Ghibran as 2013’s Composer of the Year (along with Imman, of course) and ranked his Naiyaandi as the top soundtrack of the year. With this soundtrack, he has lived up to the ranking really well!
Note 2: Yaaro Ival’s CD listing credits EarthSync’s premium Indian vocals sample pack, Earth Moments – Voice of India! This is perhaps the first time I have seen a film composer crediting a vocal loop/sample!!
