Paruthiveeran Soundtrack

I think a lot of village based Tamil films are going to get released in near future. After Veyyil and Sivapathigaram, here is “Paruthiveeran” which is also a village based movie. Paruthiveeran set in a village of Madurai has got a soundtrack that would be apt for the movie than stand alone audio. There are totally 6 songs in which three of them are Yuvan’s kind of folk melodies and the other three folk songs are very authentic to the place in which the movie is set in. It is pretty clear that though it is a village based movie, Yuvan has tried hard to bring a new sound in the first three songs, be it in the minimal orchestration or the catchy tune or song structure or the choice of rhythm and percussions and the use of synth, Yuvan has done a commendable job in bringing native flavour and also giving it a new colour.

Yuvan should be lauded for the choice of singers. Illayaraja is just apt for “Ariyatha Vayasu” and he sounds very enthusiastic whenever he sings for Yuvan. Krishnaraj who sung some of the hits of Deva in the late 90’s is back in “Ayyayyo”. He is always good in folk songs be it “Thanjavooru Manneduthu” or “Eechi Elumuchi (the only song he sung for A.R.Rahman), he has been doing a great job but somehow didn’t get the recognition he deserved. Madhumitha started her singing career with Yuvan’s “Kalli Adi kalli’ from Nanda. She is one of the rare talents who are under utilized in Tamil film music. She could easily have done justice to any Tamil song that Shreya Ghosal has sung so far. Listen to her sweet voice in “Sa ri ga ma”.

In 80’s, when Illayaraja was composing for village based movies, no movie director cared for the authenticity in the sound of the music, they just wanted a hit song and that is why Illayaraja was able to do folk songs that is both authentic and catchy. But now directors prefer the raw sound of the folk songs and they want it as it is. Even Illayaraja did a song like this in “Devadai” and more recently in “Virumandi”. I don’t think he did this kind of folk songs in 80’s. You can also see other directors using such raw folk songs in “Veyyil” and “Sivapathigaram”. So we can’t blame composers for this, infact I don’t consider these songs as their own compositions. Actually, these songs are really catchy, just their format and the sound stops it from reaching a wider audience. But what a composer can do, with all these restrictions is that he can bring new melodies and new rhythms for such songs and that would bring some difference otherwise often heard folk songs like how IR did in so many songs, one which comes to my mind immediately is “Oththa Rooba Tharaen”.