''Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa'' is the soundtrack of the 2010

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

romance film Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...

of the same name, directed by

Gautham Vasudev Menon Gautham Vasudev Menon (born 25 February 1973) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor who predominantly works in Tamil cinema, Tamil film industry. He has also directed Telugu cinema, Telugu and Hindi cinema, Hindi films th ...

. The soundtrack album and background score were composed by

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

, collaborating with Menon for the first time. The lyrics for the songs were penned by Menon's usual associate,

Thamarai Thamarai (born 10 November 1975) is a noted Tamil poet and lyricist. She is a prominent figure in the Tamil literary world. She made her debut in the Tamil film industry through the 1998 film Iniyavale, which was directed by Seeman and music co ...

along with

Kalyani Menon Kalyani Menon (23 June 1941 – 2 August 2021) was an Indian playback singer who worked in the Indian film industry. After beginning her career in the 1970s as a classical singer, Kalyani established a parallel career as a singer in the film ind ...

and

Kaithapram Padma Shri Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri, popularly known as Kaithapram, is a Malayalam lyricist, poet, music director, actor, singer, screenwriter, music therapist and performer of Carnatic music. He debuted with the movie Ennennum Kannett ...

, the latter penning the Malayalam lyrics in the album. The album was released on 25 December 2009 in

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with several film personalities participating at the grand function. It was the first time that a Tamil film audio release was held in London. It was followed by an audio launch function which was also held in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

on 6 January 2010.

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

released the album worldwide. The album opened to critical acclaim from music critics. The audio was marked as #1 in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, in terms of advance bookings. The album was ranked among the best musicals of 2010. A collector's edition of the film was released on 1 December 2010, which featured two unreleased tracks. The same soundtrack album was reused in the simultaneous Telugu version ''

Ye Maaya Chesave ''Ye Maaya Chesave'' () is a 2010 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. The film stars Naga Chaitanya and Samantha in her debut. It was produced by Manjula Ghattamaneni under the banner Indir ...

'' (2010) and its Hindi remake ''

Ekk Deewana Tha ''Ekk Deewana Tha'' () is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon, featuring Prateik Babbar, Amy Jackson (her Hindi debut), and Manu Rishi in lead roles. The film is a remake of Menon's own ...

'' (2011).

Album information

The first song in the album, is "Omana Penne", which features

Silambarasan Silambarasan Thesingu Rajendar, nicknamed as Simbu or his initials S. T. R., is an Indian actor, filmmaker and musician in Tamil cinema. He began his acting career by playing roles as a child artist in films directed by his father T. Rajendar, b ...

dancing with

Trisha Trisha is a unisex given name, usually derived from the female Latin given name Patricia. Notable people and characters with the name include: People *Trisha (actress), Indian film actress Trisha Krishnan (born 1983) * Trisha Baptie (born 1973 ...

. It is set to picturise him dancing and singing while they meet together. The song was sung by,

Benny Dayal Benny Dayal (born 13 May 1984) is an Indian playback singer. He is a prominent singer in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati and Marathi and more languages films. He has sung more than 3500 songs in 19+ Indian languages. ...

and

. The second song in the album, is entitled, "Anbil Avan" which is sung by

Chinmayi Chinmayi Sripaada is an Indian playback singer, working mainly for the South Indian film industry. She is also a voice actor, television presenter, radio jockey, and an entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of a translation services company ...

and Devan Ekambaram. The song was picturised in

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USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The third song is "Mannipaaya", which was picturised around ECR in

. The song has singer

Shreya Ghoshal Shreya Ghoshal (born 12 March 1984) is an Indian singer and television personality. One of the highest-paid and most well-established playback singers of Indian cinema, she has received four National Film Awards, four Kerala State Film Awar ...

along with

himself singing. The fourth song in the album is "

Hosanna ''Hosanna'' () is a liturgical word in Judaism and Christianity. In Judaism it refers to a cry expressing an appeal for divine help.Friberg Lexicon In Christianity it is used as a cry of praise. Etymology The word ''hosanna'' (Latin ', Greek , ...

" and is sung by

Vijay Prakash Vijay Prakash (born 21 February 1976) is an Indian Playback singer and also a Music Composer from Karnataka. He has given his voice for predominantly Kannada and Telugu language films. In addition, he has also sung in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam an ...

Suzanne D'Mello Suzanne D'Mello, formerly known as ''Suzie Q'', is an Indian playback singer of Bollywood films and other regional films. She also has voiced jingles for television advertisements. Career Over the years, Suzanne has worked with several music d ...

and

Blaaze Lakshmi Narasimha Vijaya Rajagopala Sheshadri Sharma Rajesh Raman (born 15 October 1975), professionally known as Blaaze (), is an Indian Tamil language playback singer and rapper in Indian cinema who specializes in writing and performing rap m ...

, which already made huge waves before the official audio release. Additional vocals for the songs were penned by Vivek Agarwal, Dr. Narayan, V. V. Prasanna,

Haricharan Haricharan Seshadri, known mononymously as Haricharan (born 20 March 1987), is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, playback singer, and musician who predominantly works in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu music and cinema. He sung 2000 songs in films, albu ...

. This song was picturised in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. The fifth song is titled "Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa", which name is the album's title. The voice was rendered by Karthik, and had additional vocals by Vivek Agarwal. The sixth song is named, "Kannukkul Kannai" – one being a peppy number sung by

Naresh Iyer Naresh Iyer (born 3 January 1981) is an Indian playback singer. Born Mumbai, Iyer is fluent in Malayalam,Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and Marathi. Naresh Iyer has rendered 2000 film songs in several Indian languages and has several chart hits to hi ...

. The final song in the album, is entitled, "

Aaromale "Aaromale" () is a song from the 2010 Tamil film ''Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa'' and Telugu film ''Ye Maaya Chesave'' composed by A. R. Rahman, featuring lyrics by Kaithapram and the word Aaromale frequently used in the 2012 Hindi version of the s ...

" sung by the music director

Alphons Joseph Alphons Joseph is a music director and playback singer in the Malayalam film industry who got a break as a film music composer after composing for the film '' Vellithira''. Alphons is also noted for singing the famous song " Aaromale" from the ...

, with Kaithapram's Malayalam lyrics.

Release

Unofficial versions

Before the official audio release, the track "

" was leaked and went viral on the internet. Later the track was officially released with the same singer but another strophe had been added to the song.

Official version

The official audio of ''Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa'' was released at the

BAFTA Awards The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cere ...

held at

on 25 December 2009, which was attended by several film personalities, including the lead actors

and

, composer

, lyricist

, director

amongst others attending the event, which also featured a live unplugged performance. On 6 January 2010, another audio release function was held at

Sathyam cinemas SPI Cinemas is an Indian multiplex chain originally owned by the SPI Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The company is often lauded for its premium quality and inexpensive pricing. Its theatres, primarily Sathyam, are often used by ...

with several film personalities participating in the grand function, amongst the cast and crew, after which the original audio cassettes and CDs were available in stores. Three songs and a trailer was screened at the event. The audio was released by

Kamal Haasan Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, playback singer, television presenter and politician who works mainly in Tamil cinema and has also appeared in some Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali l ...

, who has previously acted in Gautham's direction in the film ''

Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu ''Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu'' () is a 2006 Indian Tamil-language neo-noir action thriller film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. The film stars Kamal Haasan, Jyothika, and Kamalinee Mukherjee in prominent roles, while Prakash Raj, D ...

'' (2006). The CD's & cassettes cover released by

Sony Music India Sony Music Entertainment India Pvt. Ltd. is the record label operated by Sony in Chennai, India. The company began operation in 1997, and it was the first record company in India to be 100% foreign-owned, with Sony being a Japanese corporatio ...

had an image of three

's and on the right side a

. All the lyrics are penned by Menon's usual associate,

and the Malayalam lyrics by

and

. As a part of the film's promotion, the audio cassettes and CDs were released across the world via

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

's online retail store, and also made available digitally on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

Nokia Store Ovi by Nokia ( fi, ovi, translation=door) was the brand for Nokia's Internet services. The Ovi services could be used from a mobile device, computer (through Ovi Suite) or via the web. Nokia focused on five key service areas: Games, Maps, Media, ...

, and an iPhone application, in which will allow the users to stream and listen to the full-length songs from the film, download the songs, wallpapers and other movie related information. This initiative is a first for an iPhone application that is entirely based on movie OST. It is the result of the joint efforts by Sony Music Entertainment India and Dot Com Infoway Mobile Studios, a Chennai-based Software and Mobile applications developer. The service will be available to any registered user of iPhone apps across the world, where a user will be charged $1.99 (139 in terms of INR) for downloading the application facilitating unlimited streaming of the songs from the album and $2.99 (213 in terms of INR) to download the whole album. The software company has also made sure to restrict unauthorized sharing of the content through this unique application, where a user who downloads the songs on his iPhone or

iPod The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...

will not be able transfer it to any other unauthorized device.

Collector's edition

A collector's edition special pack, titled ''A. R. Rahman Collectors' Edition Pack of Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa'', was released by Sony Music on 1 December 2010. This edition included two additional songs, BAFTA audio premiere,

T-shirt and liner notes of the songs. The additional songs, a female version of "

" and "Jessie's Land" were performed by

and Megha respectively, at the audio premiere held at

on 11 December 2010.

Other versions

Telugu version

The same soundtrack was also used in the Telugu version of the film, ''

'', which was simultaneously made and released with the Tamil version. The Telugu version of the soundtrack was released on 3 February 2010. It also had the same set of vocalists except for Rahman, who was replaced by Karthik for the Telugu version of "Mannipaaya" which was titled ''Vintunaava''. The lyrics were penned by

Anantha Sreeram Chegondi Anantha Sriram is an Indian songwriter who predominantly works in Telugu cinema. Career Sriram has written lyrics for 990 Telugu film songs in his fourteen-year-long career in the industry. ''Kaadante Aunanile'' was the first film he ...

Hindi version

The same soundtrack was also used for the Hindi remake, titled ''

'' which is also directed by Gautham Menon. The soundtrack was released on 23 December 2011.

Track listing

The tracklist was released by A. R. Rahman's official website on 16 December 2009.

Reception

The album received overwhelmingly positive reviews from music critics and listeners. Indiaglitz gave the album 4 out of 5 stating "Vinnaithandi Varuvaya is a cute little album that has experimental score by Rahman. The man with Midas Touch, Rahman is at again. The album is a rich treasure not just for Rahman-fans but to genuine music-lovers too. The music composer seems to have set a trend which others would soon emulate." Behindwoods rated the album 3.5 out of 5 stating "In a rather telling interview with

Nik Gowing Nik Keith Gowing (born 1951) is a British television journalist. Overview Nik Gowing was educated at the Simon Langton Grammar School in Canterbury and Latymer Upper School in London, followed by the University of Bristol. A foreign affairs ...

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

, Rahman expressed his deep desire to bring South Indian (he sweetly included all the four states) music out of its narrow confines and popularize it all over the world because it had so much to offer. He has taken a huge step in that direction with this album. Though the music sounds global, it has some tasteful native sensibilities." Rediff rated the album 3 out of 5 stating "It isn't possible to toss an opinion of an A R Rahman album based on just one listen. This composer has a talent for coming up with numbers that grow on you. Lyricist Thamarai stands out, as well. Having said that, it doesn't look like VTV is one of her best efforts. Blame the post-Oscar hype or the burden of too many projects but aside from a few moments of brilliant heights, ARR pretty much sticks to his proven template. In this collection, he's gone more for the western crowd, it seems and there's little space for experimentation. A discerning music-lover might be left yearning for something more. For diehard ARR fans though, it's a musical treat." Music Aloud gave the rating of 8.5 out of 10 stating "To sum up, it is refreshing to hear a set of totally new tunes from a Gautam Menon flick. Rahman has started off his 2010 campaign in style. And in ''Aaromale'', he has once again shown why he is a league apart from other music directors of his time." Milliblog reviewed "Gautam’s fish-out-of-bowl state shows as he grapples with Rahman’s divergently different melodic palette." Radioandmusic.com gave the album 3.5 out of 5 and reviewed "Experimental in nature, the album Vinnaithandi Varuvaya exudes freshness. My pick in the album includes Hossana which would go well with the audiences, Alphonse Joseph owes Rahman for beautiful composition- Aaoromale and Mannipaya."

Accolades

Album credits

Credits adapted from A. R. Rahman's official website.

Producers

Songwriters

(Composer & Arranger) *

(Lyrics)

Performers

Devan Ekambaram Devan Ekambaram (born 25 December 1975) is an Indian American film playback singer, actor and composer. He began his career as a playback singer in Tamil films and later branched out to many other south Indian languages as well like Telugu, Kann ...

, Karthik,

, Suzanne,

, Megha

Musicians

Nadaswaram The Nagaswaram (nādḥasvaram) is a double reed wind instrument from South India. It is used as a traditional classical instrument in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Kerala. This instrument is "among the world's loudes ...

- Natarajan *

Guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

- Johny George, Sanjeev Thomas, Keith Peters *

Violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

- Ganesh Rajagopalan *

Flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

- Naveen Kumar, Kiran *

Cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

- Elith Martyn *

Strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

- Chennai Strings Orchestra (conducted by V. J. Srinivasamurthy) *

Choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

KM Music Conservatory KM Music Conservatory (KMMC) is a higher education institution founded in 2008 by the A. R. Rahman foundation. Located in Arumbakkam, Chennai, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the conservatory offers a range of part-time and full-time course ...

Backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

, Vivek Agarwal, Dr. Narayanan, V. V. Prasanna, Haricharan Seshadri,

Personnel

* Additional programming and arrangement - T. R. Krishna Chetan,

P. A. Deepak P.A.Deepak (Adrushta Deepak Pallikonda) is a mix engineer and record producer. He won the 2010 Grammy Award for the " Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media" for the movie ''Slumdog Millionaire''.Grammy Website. "http://www.grammy.com/nom ...

, Hentry Kuruvilla, Vivianne Chaix * Additional vocal supervisor - Srinivas Doraisamy

Sound engineers

Panchathan Record Inn The Panchathan Record Inn and AM Studios is composer/music director A. R. Rahman's studios on his street at Kodambakkam, Chennai in Tamil Nadu. History The Inn was established in 1989, attached to Rahman's backyard, and developed into one o ...

, T.R. Krishna Chetan, Vivianne Chaix, Suresh Perumal, Kannan Ganpat * AM Studios,

- Sivakumar S

Production

* Mixed by -

, K. J. Singh * Mastered by - Sivakumar S * Musicians co-ordinatior - Noel James, T. M. Faizuddin * Musicians fixer - Samidurai Music Label -

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

Pvt. Ltd.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (Soundtrack) A. R. Rahman soundtracks Tamil film soundtracks 2010 soundtrack albums Sony Music India soundtracks