While we lived by 2020 craving for normalcy, 2021 reminded us of the futility of making lengthy-time period plans. Seeing such a life in phrases of music is smart as a result of, throughout a interval that always missed the beats, jumped scales, and was interspersed with lengthy spells of silence, all of us tried to discover a sense of rhythm to the happenings. With such hope, film theatres had been reopened, and as soon as once more, we noticed movies popping out each week, with the first three months of 2021 seeing the type of rush that has outlined its closing week. We had been dancing to ‘Vaathi Coming’ and ‘Vaathi Raid’; we had been moved by Maara’s ‘Yaar Azhaippadhu’ and ‘Oh Azhage’. Both these January releases had been musical successes as properly and had greater than the traditional 5-six soundtracks. The songs of Anirudh and Ghibran burst with an id, a soul, and whereas there have been a quantity of a lot-liked albums in 2021, we noticed that songs had been slowly dying, and these albums served as resurgence.
How can we not go on to discuss Santhosh Narayanan, who not solely gave albums like Jagame Thandhiram, Karnan, Sarpatta and Parris Jayaraj, but in addition was the man behind the pleasant, necessary single, ‘Enjoy Enjaami’. If Maajja’s Enjoy Enjaami opened up mainstream Tamil cinema audiences to the thought of music movies as a separate entity, there was additionally some controversy over the sidelining of the prolific Arivu. Nevertheless, this might be thought of as his 12 months too, provided that his voice was behind some of the most necessary tracks of 2021. Be it his rap model or the profundity of his lyrics, the 12 months noticed the rise and rise of Arivu, who kickstarted the 12 months with a Vijay movie for which he rapped in Telugu as properly. His energy was tapped in the politically charged lyrics (Jai Bhim, Tughlaq Durbar, Jail, Maanaadu) with some enjoyable tracks (Aranmanai three, Mandela, Jagame Thandhiram) too displaying his versatility and accentuating star presence (Master, Annaatthe).
Over the years, the quantity of songs in movies have been on a decline. This places large strain on composers to ship hits each single time. This is probably why we noticed an inflow of numbers with ‘trendy’ lyrics in the means of ‘Jalabula Jung’ (Don) or ‘Baahubali killed Kattappa’ (Sivakumarin Sabadham). But what stood out, as soon as once more, was the energy of melodies. What Ghibran started in Maara, Imman—who else—continued with ‘Marandhaaye’ or ‘Iniya Thanimaiye’ (Teddy), ‘Saara Kaatre’ (Annaatthe), ‘Uthira Uthira’ (Pon Manickavel), whereas Vishal Chandrasekhar additionally pitched in with ‘Bodhai Kaname’ from Oh Mana Penne.
The music of this 12 months had an necessary function—pardon me for the pun: virality. While this has at all times been the case with promotional songs, this 12 months maybe noticed a tectonic shift. Finding a spot in Instagram reels appeared to take priority. The hook step of Eeswaran’s ‘Mangalyam’ music grew to become a pattern, and the 12 months noticed tracks like ‘Neeye Oli’ (Sarpatta), ‘Bujji’ (Jagame Thandhiram), ‘Per Vechaalum’ (Dikkiloona), and ‘Tum Tum’ (Enemy) gaining traction as ‘instagrammable’ numbers. Did it translate to viewership for these movies? Perhaps the consultants can weigh in.
This was additionally a 12 months wherein the sounds and sights of Tamil Nadu had been documented in music. And this was singularly spearheaded by who I believe is the composer of this 12 months: Santhosh Narayanan. He gave us a haunting but deeply impactful album in Karnan the place there was experimentation inside the confines of the conventional constructs of our people music. He additionally delivered a real-blue gaana album in Parris Jayaraj, and with out skipping a beat, gave us one of the most myriad albums of this 12 months, Jagame Thandhiram. He then ended the 12 months with Sarpatta Parambarai, wherein he experimented with devices, genres and voices. Meanwhile, Anirudh continued from the place he left off in Master to provide us one other electrifying album in Doctor, one wherein even a ‘swara varisai’ grew to become a rage. Composers like Sean Roldan (Jai Bhim), Aruldev and Kaber Vasuki (Aelay), and Darbuka Siva (Rocky) gave us soundtracks that weren’t solely fantastic standalone albums but in addition elevated the flavour of the onerous-hitting movies they belonged to. GV Prakash Kumar, even in a seemingly off 12 months, delivered a ‘Kaathodu Kaathaanen’ and ‘Nagarodi’ (Jail), and ‘Pachigalam Paravaigalam’ (Bachelor), and I can’t wait to see what he has in retailer subsequent 12 months, with some fantastic initiatives lined up. Another huge identify who experimented with type was positively Yuvan Shankar Raja, whose lengthy-pending movie, Nenjam Marappadhillai discovered its option to the theatres. He additionally offered us with a rousing background rating for a template masala actioner in Sulthan, and the famed Venkat Prabhu-Yuvan combo delivered but once more, however this time with extra deal with the rating than on songs. And but, for all these high composers of our technology, it was a remastered model of Ilaiyaraaja’s ‘Per Vechaalum’ that went most viral. Such was 2021. Such is Ilaiyaraaja’s greatness.
We additionally noticed music video singles on YouTube that rising stars of Tamil cinema seemed to cement their reputation with. Social media stars like Ashwin Kumar and Shivangi used it efficiently to remain in the public eye, and use it as a stepping stone into cinema.
Interestingly, it was not simply the films of 2021 however even the music that turned out to have pan-Indian aspirations. This pattern gave us the extraordinarily catchy ‘Vaa Saami’ (Pushpa) sung by Rajalakshmi for Devi Sri Prasad, and of course, Andrea’s ‘Oo Solriya Mama’ from the similar movie. Although RRR is gearing to hit screens in 2021, the ‘Naatu Koothu’ music grew to become common not only for its tune but in addition for its ‘hook step’ that went viral on social media. These recreation-changers had been rounded off by AR Rahman, who was half of Tamil cinema solely by the dubbed variations of his personal 99 Songs, the Dhanush-starrer Atrangi Re (Galatta Kalyanam), and Vera Level Sago, a single from Sivakarthikeyan-starrer, Ayalaan.
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Some of the skills from Tamil cinema confidently staked declare to being worthy of high-tier standing with composers like Vivek-Mervin (Sulthan), Bharath Shankar (Mandela), Nivas Okay Prasanna (Kodiyil Oruvan), Simon Okay King (Kabadadhaari) and Ron Ethan Yohann (Vanam and Navarasa) delivered credible soundtracks. While many of these numbers typically get submerged underneath all the consideration for the actors, the artists behind them typically get masked underneath these filters. While the work deserved extra love, the artists too deserved extra consideration.
Tamil cinema appears to be going by a season of flux, because it appears to be coming to phrases with transferring into new vistas, whereas not fairly desirous to let go of the conventional means of doing issues. Traditional melodies exist alongside the rap phenomenon that has taken over our cinema. Meanwhile, although songs go viral, our largest composers are actually half of movies that don’t fairly have songs. Spoken poetry discovered its means into mainstream cinema by Rocky’s ‘Kaalam Oru Dhrogi’, however then we additionally had Hip-Hop Tamizha’s ‘Sivakumarin Pondaati’, a music that was principally gibberish in nature. The reality is, there are listeners for all types of music. With one other 12 months coming to an finish, we’re as soon as once more transferring to the subsequent with the hope that life may simply get higher. And the place else can we flip to, if not music, to gas this hope?
