Mining hidden musical diamonds - Underrated albums 1

music Summation X - Albin December 07, 2021

"What is more truly valuable is often underrated"

Listening and enjoying songs is an integral part of our culture in India. Irrespective of the ages, each and everyone will have few songs associated with their life. 

In India, songs are associated with films unlike western countries where we found soundtracks in their films not songs. They used to convey emotions and enhance the viewing experience through soundtracks. They listen songs which are being independently by independent artists.  

But in India, songs play a major role in films. Apart from conveying emotions, songs play a key role in bringing audience to theatres. Here, in India we associate songs with films alone. Although the trend is changing steadily where we began to see talented independent artists producing amazing songs and some impactful yet entertaining soundtracks getting its due respect, songs won't leave films in India. 

A recent example is the film Doctor where the soundtracks were used to convey emotions and elevate the visual experience. But for market pull songs were used. The song Chellamma which has no association with the film was played at the end credits as it was deliberately used to pull all kinds of audience towards theatre. So music albums containing songs won't extinct in India.

Each one of us will have different music taste. But all we listen is the songs and soundtracks which are popular in the genre we like to listen. But there are hidden diamonds in all genres. So starting from this article we tried to bring you some of the underrated music albums in South Indian film industry (predominantly Tamil) to beautify your playlists. 

Let's get in to the vibe.

Underrated the word itself becomes overrated these days. A song or an album becomes hit when the tracks receives huge reception from the mass audience. But this is influenced by n number of factors such as 
  • The star cast of the particular film 
  • The music composer of the film 
  • The situation and the placement of that particular song 
  • The picturization of the song. 
  • More importantly the music composer and director association and comfortness and the narration of that particular situation by the director.
  • The results of that particular picture.
  • Some set of audience expects template numbers from their composers. But sometime the experimentation may not worked well 
  • The music label that a particular album is being released.
In the 90s and in the early 2k’s the mode of listening is mainly by audio CD’s and cassettes. But now the trend is typically changed. Now it depends on views on Youtube, no of streams on streaming platforms such as Spotify, Wynk, Gaana, Saavn etc.,
But there are so many beautiful songs which becomes unnoticed due to the above mentioned reasons. So, we tried to explore and revisit those underrated gems.

Film:  Irandam ulagam (The second world)
Star cast:  Arya, Anushka Shetty 
Director:  Selvaragavan
Music:  Harris jayaraj  
Lyrics: Vairamuthu 

Harris Jayaraj is well known for his melodies and upbeat melodies and for his album hits. Many of his albums such as Minnale, Varanam aayiram and many of his albums were evergreen chartbusters. But there are very few unnoticed albums in his filmography and in that list "Irandam ulagam" grabs our attention

Source: Twitter 

This film was released in 2013 and at that time we just used to listen the songs that are telecasted on television Kanimozhiyae and pazhangalla as these songs were telecasted the most at the time of release of this picture.

While scrolling over social media feeds lots and lots of mentions about this "Irandam ulagam" album as an underrated and truly a masterpiece of Indian cinema. Then only I just revisit this album has nearly 6 tracks and an instrumental track. While listening the entire album I just felt that this album deserves more.!

Such a scintillating stuff from Harris Jayaraj. Not to forget the exceptional lyrics penned by the veteran lyricist Vairamuthu. This music album has 6 tracks, 5 songs and one instrumental track.
  • The way the composer treated the song “Raakkozhi raakkozhi” is spine chilling. Such a parallel universe kind of composition. He just used the water droplets as a beat throughout the track. The ambience and the euphoria the song created is just wow. A must try number! 
  • And other numbers “Mannavanae En mannavanae by Shakthishree Gopalan is truly a bliss 
  • "En Kadhal Thee" by the legend SP.Balasubhramanyam is just lilting and subtle
  •  Theme of irandam ulagam by Chennai orchestra packed with a complex arrangements and programming. Vinnaithandi anbe vanthai from Vijay Prakash  are other noteworthy numbers.
The audio rights of this album was bagged by Sony music but the saddest thing is that this album hasn't yet get its proper digital release.

The result of this film was not in favour of the makers of the film and thus the album went unnoticed.

Streaming/SMI links:    



Film:  Nenjam Marappathillai (The heart never forgets)
Star cast:  S J Surya, Regina Cassendra, Nandita Sweta 
Director:  Selvaragavan
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja  
Lyrics: Selvaragavan

Source: Escape artist and Rockfort entertainment

Yuvan Shankar Raja is one of the greatest composers in Tamil film industry who have many underrated albums with him. Nenjam marappathillai album is one among them.  

Nenjam marappathillai was the reunion of the terrific duo Selvaragavan - Yuvan Shankar Raja. The film got delayed due to several issues which made a gem of an album to go unnoticed. Also the album was not properly launched. The album was released in yuvan's own music label U1 records. This album deserved a big music label to reach wider audience. 

Nenjam Marappathillai is a quirky horror thriller by Selvaragavan. The music album was also quirky. It contains four tracks, three songs and an instrumental track. Yuvan maintained a retro throughout the album and he will teleport you to an entirely different world through this album.

  • Good bad and ugly - Yuvan's best instrumenntal track till date but didn't get the due recognition. Yuvan infuses the track with three different moods and this ends with a bang. One of the very few instrumental tracks with international standards in India. Plug your earphones and close your eyes to experience the real horror.
  • Malai Varum Vennila - Want to listen a retro melody in yuvan's signature then this is your pick. Dhanush's voice and this Selvaragavan's quirky lyrics add the value. 
  • Kannungala chellangala - One of the wacky tracks in India where Yuvan infuses retro melody and EDM effectively into a single track. This song got some attention after the movies release yet not achieved what it deserved. Give it a try. Worthy track. Watch out of the funny lyrics. 
  • Apart from these tracks, there is another track which is strictly for listeners who wants something different (High on EDM).

Nenjam marappathillai album is one of the different yet entertaining music albums in India.These tracks will definitely find a place in your playlists for sure.



Film: Kochadaiyaan
Star cast: Rajinikanth Deepika Padukone
Story screenplay and direction: Soundarya Rajinikanth and KS Ravikumar
Music: AR Rahman
Lyrics: Vairamuthu

Pic credits: Eros now

This film Kochadaiyaan got released in the year 2014 the story line is based on true events about the pandyan king Ranadheera Kochadaiyaan. 

This was the the first film got released in motion capture technology which itself become disastrous to the film.

The songs and the original soundtrack of this film where penned by AR Rahman. There are lots of albums such as Endhiran,Kaatru Veliyedai, kaaviya thalaivan, I(Ai), 2.0,Chekka sivantha vaanam released for AR Rahman during 2010 to 2020. We personally felt that Kochadaiyaan is the masterpiece of that decade. 

Almost each and every song in the album is unique in its own way but the saddest part is that the whole album remains unnoticed due to the result of that film.

  • The opening number "Enge pogutho vaanam" by the Legend SP Balasubramaniam packed with his very own vibrance. Rahman's rich orchestration adds granduer to this epic intro number of Rajinikanth.
  • The songs "Manamaganin sathiyam" by Haricharan and "Manapenin sathiyam" by Ms.Latha Rajnikanth adds flavour to the album.
  • The song "Medhuvaagathaan" by Sadhana Sargam and SP Balasubramaniam and "Idhayam" by Chinmayee sripaada and Srinivas is just like a choco syrup on an ice-cream and these tracks are a delight for melody lovers.
  • This album was further honeyed with AR Rahman's rich and royal signature London session orchestration. The instrumental track "Rana's dream" is just Idiosyncratic in its own way. Finally "Karma veeran" song is in AR Rahman's way of motivation.
  • Maatram ondrudan maaradhadhu song is Rajinikanth's musical advice. Haricharan's soulful voice and vairamuthu's extrodinary lyrics are fantabulous.

One of the power-packed, colossal underrated gem of albums that Tamil cinema ever produced.

Streaming/SMI links:



Apart from these three, there are plenty of terrific music albums that have gone unnoticed due to various reasons. We will try to bring those in upcoming articles. 

Vocabulary

Disparaged
This means regard or represent as being of little worth.

Sentence Usage
He disparaged his competitor.

Thank you.

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Summation X - Albin

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