Thug Life – Music Review (Tamil Soundtrack)

Songs and musician credits (to be updated as I get more info) at the end.

When the 15 second soaring segment from Vinveli Nayaga dropped as part of Thug Life’s first look a few months back, I expected it to be some kind of a mystical piece. Instead, what greeted me in the soundtrack was a blast of nostalgia! A pulsating piece that could easily work as the theme song of any of the several action-adventure shows from the 90s that a lot of us grew up watching. Composer A R Rahman was perhaps going for some kind of anime inspired theme here (judging by the Japanese phrases uttered by Kamal Hassan at a point etc) – he of course spruces it up amply with expansive violins and a well-employed chorus (love that operatic second interlude!). Shruti Haasan is a great choice to lead the proceedings, and A R Ameen chips in well with the English refrain. Add Karthik Netha’s words to the mix, and this is a hero anthem that is delightfully different from the ones we are used to. The highlight of Jinguchaa for me is that immensely catchy title hook delivered by Vaishali Samant and Shaktisree Gopalan (especially love it when it is a call-and-response between the two), one that the song keeps coming back to even as the melody flows along different routes in each verse (and a third voice joins in as well on occasion – a competent Adithya RK).  Keba Jeremiah and Keith Peters are unsurprisingly brilliant on the guitars, but it is the brass section that makes this the most boisterous of all the wedding songs that the A R Rahman-Mani Ratnam team have given us (I have made a compilation of those many wedding songs here, in case you are keen on doing a recap!). I am eagerly waiting for the full video to be released, even the snippets that are in the lyrical video are so infectiously joyful! Jinguchaa isn’t the only song that finds great use of horns. My favourite bit of, rather the only segment I enjoyed from Sugar Baby is the close to one minute bit that starts around the 1:27 mark with an eruption of horns and drums, adding to the song’s intrigue. Found the song pretty disappointing otherwise, especially since it starts with that very promising oriental twang (shamisen, I am guessing?) et al. Alexandra Joy, Shuba and Sarath Santosh handle the vocals here.

In his movies from around the mid-90s, director Priyadarshan used to do this little thing that I quite liked – while something was going on in a scene, a conversational snippet from some background character(s) not in the scene would echo across the soundscape, giving that sequence something of an ethereal touch. That is what came to mind as I heard the faint background dialogues in Anju Vanna Poove – the song I was most excited about pre-release, and has turned out to be my favourite from the soundtrack. One of the main reasons for my excitement was Charulatha Mani, and she sounds wonderful here with her soulful rendition of the serene, folk-flavoured melody. Adding to the atmospheric vibe of the song are the twinkly percussive notes (marimba or kalimba I guess), the occasional synth sounds (continuum fingerboard?), and the gentle flute phrases (not sure if some of those are synth-generated as well). The most brilliant thing about the arrangement is the composer’s employment of the thoroughly endearing children’s chorus. Took my mind back to Gurus of Peace, a song that was incidentally also based on a folk piece – Poraalae Ponnuthaayi. And like Poraalae, this one too has a sad version sung by A R Rahman himself. The melody and lines remain the same but the arrangements turn much more sombre, starting with a dramatic violin prelude. The cheery elements in the original version are pretty much all stripped away in favour of pensive sounds of piano and strings. Rahman’s own poignant rendition – the best he has sounded in a long time – that truly drives home the pain and melancholy. The way Muththa Mazhai starts – the tanpura strains, the classical flavour (puriya dhanashree raaga), sensual overtone – a Hai Rama comparison was inevitable. But of course, the composer pivots into qawwali mode just under a minute into the track, switching to a lighter raaga as well in the process. Had I not already known that this song had a qawwali element, I might have enjoyed that transition even more, but the sudden eruption of tablas at Innum Varum Endhan Kadhai was still a pleasant surprise. The melody, a female voice at the lead, the rhythm etc. made me wonder if there is a subtle nod to Naushad’s Teri Mehfil from Mughal-e-Azam (a song which incidentally also inspired Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Shikayat not so long back). Speaking of the female voice, I do believe that Dhee isn’t perfect in this song, in the more classical heavy bits you can feel a bit of dissonance with her style of singing (which Chinmayi pulled off amazingly in the audio launch version), however, she does a great job over the rest of the song. And while the outpouring of support for Chinmayi around the song has been great, I also feel that the pile-on against Dhee’s version has been unfair, and I don’t buy the theory that ARR was forced to use her instead of Chinmayi because of the ban – if he was indeed looking for a replacement for Chinmayi, I doubt he would have gone to a singer whose style is totally different from hers. This is the version Rahman chose to go with in the album, and it should have remained that way. That said, the resurgence of support for Dhee in recent days, including Chinmayi’s praise in interviews, has been gladdening. Anyway, those were my tuppence on the matter, back to the song. Love the addition of the pakhawaj/mridangam to the percussion around the second reiteration of the title verse. Even the male chorus reiteration in the second interlude gets a fillip with the female chorus joining in. Modifying the final chorus melody to enable a seamless segue back to the puriya dhanashree melody is a brilliant touch from the composer. As is Dhee’s Innum Varum Endhan Kadhai fade-out into a whisper, to the accompaniment of the gentle smattering of tabla and harp. What continues to rankle me as I listen to the song though, is the use of the phrase Dum Maaro Dum – what is that even doing in such a song?! Rakshita Suresh is outstanding in the sultry Engeyo that really deserved to be a longer piece. But even in that short duration, we are treated to a delectable mix of jazz and flamenco. Lovely use of trumpet here, standing out among the other instruments. O Maara by Paal Dabba and Let’s Play by thoughtsfornow are the only songs that have failed to make much of an impression on me – between the two though, I prefer the former, especially for the guitar solo towards the end!

Thug Life. A thoroughly entertaining soundtrack from A R Rahman for his mentor that features the most diverse spread of genres that we have heard in an ARR album in a long time!

Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5

Top Recos: Anju Vanna Poove, Vinveli Nayaga, Muththa Mazhai, Engeyo

Song Title: Vinveli Nayaga

Song Composed and Arranged by A.R.Rahman

Lyrics: Karthik Netha

Singer: Shruti Haasan

RAP Performed by: A.R. Ameen

RAP Written by: Prashanth Venkat

Music Supervisor: Nakul Abhyankar Prashanth Venkat

Project Manager: Karthik Sekaran

Drums: Kumaran S S

Budapest Scoring Orchestra –

Recording Studio : Rottenbiller Studios

Conductor: Peter Illenyi

Orchestra Indian Representative- Balasubramanian G

Session producer: Bálint Sapszon

Recording Engineer: Viktor Sazbo

Librarian: Agnes Sapszon, Kati Reti

Choral Arrangemet – Arjun Chandy

Choral: Deepthi Suresh, Aparna Harikumar, Aparna Narayanan,

Nayansee Sharma, Arusha Balu, Sarath Santhosh, Abijith Rao,

Shenbagaraj, Narayanan, Sai Sharan

Additional Orchestral Programming: Shubham Bhat

Orchestrators: Samarth Srinivasan, Nipun Bhatnagar

Additional Programming: Pawan CH

Sound engineers-

Panchathan Record Inn, Chennai: Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Sathish V Saravan, Bharath Arjunan, Aravind Crescendo

AM Studios, Chennai: Sivakumar S, Pradeep Menon, Krishnan Subramanian, Aravind MS, S Padmasharan

Panchathan, Mumbai: Nitish R Kumar, Harshil Pathak, Naval Chikhliya , Dilshaad Shabbir Shaikh

Uno Records, Chennai (Live Drums Recording)-

N. Kiran Surath

Assisted by – R.Sivasathya

Song Mixed and Mastered by Nitish R Kumar

Dolby Music Mix and Technical Lead: Riyasdeen Riyan

Musicians Co Ordinators: Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum

Song Title: Jinguchaa

Song Composed and Arranged by A.R.Rahman

Lyrics: Kamal Haasan

Singers: Vaishali Samant, Shakthisree Gopalan & Adithya RK

Guitars: Keba Jeremiah

Bass Guitar: Keith Peters

Flute: Kamalakar

Music Supervisor: Nakul Abhyankar

Project Manager: Karthik Sekaran

Additional Programming: Santhosh Dhayanidhi, Prashanth Venkat

Rhythm Programming: Kalyan

Vocal Supervision: Sarath Santhosh, Suryansh, Sreekanthan Hariharan, Haston Rodrigues

Sound Engineers:

Panchathan Record Inn, Chennai –

Senior Engineers: Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran

Assistant Engineers: Satish V Saravanan, Bharath Arjunan, Aravind Crescendo

Panchathan, Mumbai –

Dilshaad Shabbir Shaikh, Harshil Pathak, Naval Chikhliya

Mixed by Nakul Abhyankar, Suresh Permal

Mastered by Suresh Permal

Dolby Atmos Mix and Head of Technicals: Riyasdeen Riyan

Musicians Coordinator: Samydurai R, Abdul Haiyum

Song Title: Sugar Baby

Song Composed and Arranged by A.R.Rahman

Lyrics: Siva Ananth and A.R. Rahman

RAP: Shuba

Singers: Alexandra Joy, Shuba, Sarath Santosh

Music Supervisor: Nakul Abhyankar Prashanth Venkat

Project Manager: Karthik Sekaran

Musicians: Sax – Omkar Dhumal, Trumpet – Angelin

Choral Supervisors: Suryansh, Arjun Chandy, Sarath Santosh, Sreekanth Hariharan

Additional Programming: P A Deepak, Nakul Abhyankar, Prashanth Venkat

Sound engineers-

Panchathan Record Inn, Chennai: Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Sathish V Saravan, Bharath Arjunan, Aravind Crescendo

AM Studios, Chennai: Sivakumar S, Pradeep Menon, Krishnan Subramanian, Aravind MS, S Padmasharan

Panchathan, Mumbai: Harshil Pathak, Naval Chikhliya , Dilshaad Shabbir Shaikh

Big Whisker Studio, Goa: Akash Kumar

Song Mixed and Mastered by P A Deepak

Dolby Music Mix and Technical Lead: Riyasdeen Riyan

Musicians Co Ordinators: Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum

Song: Muththa Mazhai
Singer: Dhee
Lyrics: Siva Ananth
Music: A.R. Rahman

Song: Anju Vanna Poove
Singer: Charulatha Mani
Lyrics: Karthik Netha
Music: A.R. Rahman

Song: O Maara
Singer: Paal Dabba
Lyrics: Paal Dabba
Music: A.R. Rahman

Song: Engeyo
Singer: Rakshita Suresh
Lyrics: Siva Ananth
Music: A.R. Rahman

Song: Let’s Play
Singer: thoughtsfornow
Lyrics: thoughtsfornow
Music: A.R. Rahman

Song: Anju Vanna Poove (Reprise)
Singer: A.R. Rahman
Lyrics: Karthik Netha
Music: A.R. Rahman

Related