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This is Rahman’s first Tamil composition after wining the Oscar. This is also the first time Gautham Menon is working with Rahman.It would be fair to say this was the most anticipated album of the year.

Omana Penne | Singers: Benny Dayal, Kalyani Menon

The percussion in this song stands out right from the start. The kind of rythmic song that is soothing to the ears. Well suited for Benny Dayal and he has excelled as usual. The nadaswaram bit, heard on and off in the background, takes the song to another level towards the end. Unfortunately, the music masks the lyrics at places, thereby reducing the pleasure to some extent, but with such lovely music, the complaints wont be loud.

Anbil Avan | Singers: Devan Ekambaram, Chinmayi

A peppy number if you can call it. The initial segment sets up the song very well. Devan has done a commendable job. Chinmayi adds a soulful effect to the song and has backed up Devan very well. The chorus has done as good a job as the lead singers. The traditional marriage music that comes in the middle of the song offers splendid transition.

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa | Singers: Karthik

Another song comprising of amazing guitar scores, with Karthik’s voice competing with the amazing music through all the changes in pitch. The music is loud at places and the voice of the singer is subdued at places, something that is predominant in this album.

The lyrics becomes clear only after a few listenings, which is a shame since Thamari continues to out do herself in the lyrics department time and again. Despite these foibles, the short song packs a punch and is a good title song.

Hosanna | Singers: Vijay Prakash, Suzanne, Blaaze

This has to be the most popular song of the album. Amazing music, singing and lyrics combine to create this masterpiece that is bound to be wildly popular with the crowd. What begins as a melody with soothing music and soulful female chorus parts transitions beautifully into rap and then back to melody. Vijay Prakash has beautifully captured the mood of the song . Suzzane, with her excellent singing culminating in a mesmerizing humming has made the song better, if that is even possible. Blaaze is good with what he does, as usual.

Kannukkul Kannai | Singers: Naresh Iyer

While one was thinking that the guitar has been the favorite of Rahman in this album comes this number with fantastic violin interludes. Awesome westernized music with amazing tamil lyrics from Thamarai truly symbolizes the position that tamil culture should be in – embracing the western world while holding on to, and spreading, its roots. Naresh Iyer does the song with finesse and his uttering of the words does justice to the lyrics.

Mannipaaya | Singers: A.R.Rahman, Shreya Ghoshal

Shreya and Rahman. Awesome combination. Throw in Thirukkural and we get a magical song. The keyboard really owns this song and the flute makes an appearance making the album even more varied. Shreya is really the highlight of the song, with the music vying to catch the listeners attention. Dont miss the kural rendered in amazing chorus with the flute in the background.

Aaoromale | Singers: Alphonse

A song that starts slow, goes on to pick speed slightly and makes you say Wow after listening to it. Thats Aaromale! With amazing guitar scores that give you the feel of country music, and invigorating malayalam lyrics, this song will be quickly liked by the music aficionados. This song’s popularity will be like the song itself -slow, but will start to rise once people have listened to it a few times. This is a true fusion of western and south Indian music, something that Rahman always wanted to capture. My personal favorite.

While Hosanna will be popular with the crowd, Mannipaaya and Aaromale bring in variety to the album. While it is slightly saddening that the amazing lyrics get masked at times by the music, it can still be ignored. Like any Rahman album, the songs will take some time to pickup ( apart from Hosanna that is!) but will last long, satisfying every kind of music lover. Time and again, Rahman manages to wow us.