Sivaji (soundtrack)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sivaji
Studio album by A.R. Rahman
Released	April 2, 2007
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	36:10
Label	AVM Music
Producer	A.R. Rahman
Professional reviews
Yahoo! India Movie Reviews [1]
A.R. Rahman chronology
Provoked (2007) Sivaji (2007) London Dreams (2007)

Sivaji is a Tamil language film directed by Shankar and produced by AVM Productions.

Early, on speculations were high that the songs would be remarkable as A. R. Rahman was paid two Indian Crores for the project, making him the highest paid Indian music director.^[2]

Contents 1 Background Score 2 Unofficial Versions 3 Official Version 4 Songs 5 Soundtrack Success 6 References

[edit] Background Score

A.R. Rahman is re-recording the background music in London.^[3][4] A.R. Rahman always does all of his important work in London. Previously some re-recording of the score happened in Paraguay.^[3] Foreign nations are being used to perfect sounds using more expensive equipment.

[edit] Unofficial Versions

As Sivaji became a major anticipated project, several false information about the soundtrack of the film were announced to websites and magazines. Despite the fact, that early on during the project, Vairamuthu confirmed he had written a song called, Vaa..ji Vaa..ji Sivaji, no other major details about any other song was mentioned. Rumours went around that certain singers had sung in the project, including Rajinikanth. However on October 11, 2006, the source, Behindwoods.com, mentioned that they had received credible information that Sivaji contained seven songs, five of which were set to be in the audio, with the other two being situational songs. Surprisingly, they also mentioned the five songs which were in the album. Vaa...ji Vaa...ji Sivaji^[5] was mentioned to be the opening song of the film. They also reported that a philosophical song titled, Unpeyar Ennada^[6] was in the film, as per usual Rajinikanth films since Baba. Another song titled, Jee Boom Ba^[7] was mentioned as its picturization was to be filmed in either fireign locations or in Karnataka featuring the lead pair. A song called, Talla Dimi Takka Dimi Pucha..^[8] was apparently supposed to contain Japanese lyrics and was set to be filmed in Japan, however the Sivaji crew did not travel to Japan for any purposes during the shoot. The final song mentioned was, Adaal Udan Pesadha Di... En Salangaiku Bhadil Solladi..^[9] and it was mentioned as a remix from another film titled Vanjikottai Valiban, Behindwoods.com labelled this song was set to come in the climax. However none of these possible songs barring Vaa..ji Vaa..ji Sivaji. were in the final audio cassette^[10]

Before the official audio release on April 2, on March 22, 2007 there was a huge dilemma sparked over the illegal release of three premilinary tracks onto the internet.^[11] Songs titled, Vaa..ji Vaa..ji En Jeevan Nee Sivaji, sung by Hariharan and Madhushree^[12] Sahana Saaral Thoovudho sung by Udit Narayan and Sujatha^[13] and finally a song titled, Oru Koodai Sunlight rendered by Tanvi, Shaggy and Blaaze became available on the internet.^[14] However despite the uproar these songs caused, they were dismissed as scratchings for the picturization. Later the tracks were offiically released with Chinmayi instead of Sujatha, in Sahana and Suresh Peters added to the group of singers in Style (Oru Koodai Sunlight).^[15]

[edit] Official Version

The official audio of Sivaji released in India and overseas on 2nd April, 2007.^[16] Unlike, other major films, no pooja was held for the event and the album hit the stands straight away. The original audio cassette cover had an image of four Rajinikanth's on its cover while as the CD version had an image of the lead pair on its cover.^[17] The first song in the album, is Balleilakka, which supposedly will feature Rajinikanth dancing with Nayanthara, who is making a guest appearance in the film. It is set to picturize him dancing and singing while returning to Tamil Nadu from the United States of America, with the backdrop of paddy fields. Over four hundred dancing extras will be used in the song including Pulikali artistes from Kerala. The songs lyrics were penned by poet, Na. Muthukumar and the song was sung by, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, who like he did in Amarkalam has sung without stopping for nearly two minutes. The other singers are, Rahman's elder sister, Reihana and Telugu language singer Benny.^[18]

The second song in the abum, is entitled, Style which is sung by Rags, Tanvi, Blaaze and Suresh Peters. The song was previously titled, Oru Koodai Sunlight and was picturized in Bilbao, Spain. The song praises Rajinikanth's style and hero qualities.^[18] The lyrics were penned by poet, Pa. Vijay. The third song is Vaa..ji Vaa..ji Sivaji, which was picturized at Hyderabad's Ramoji Film City, with sets at a cost of three Indian Crores. Reports claim the song picturizes Rajinikanth in knee-length warrior clothing as the King of Egypt and Shriya Saran as Queen. The song penned by Vairamuthu, has renowned singers, Hariharan and Madhushree singing.^[18]

The fourth song in the album is Athiradee and is sung by A. R. Rahman and Sayonara with lyrics written from poet, Vaali.^[18] The fifth and sixth songs of the album are titled, Sahana and Sahara - one being a peppy rendition and the other being a soulful rendition of the same number. Singing the peppy rendition is Hindi language singer, Udit Narayan with Chinmayi while the soulful rendition singers are Vijay Yesudas with Gomathishree, both songs have the lyrics written by poet, Vairamuthu, who was praised by Rajinikanth personally for his effort.^[18] The final song in the album, is a situational theme song entitled, The Boss sung by Naresh Iyer, Blaaze and Raqueeb Alam, with lyrics from Na. Muthukumar and Blaaze.^[18]

[edit] Songs

No.	Song	Singers	Picturization	Length (m:ss)	Lyrics	Notes
1	Balleilakka	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Reihana, Benny		6.08	Na. Muthukumar
2	Style	Blaaze, Tanvi, Rags, Suresh Peters		5.13	Pa. Vijay	Previously titled, Oru Koodai Sunlight. Another version was recorded without Suresh Peters
3	Vaaji Vaaji	Hariharan, Madhushree		5.49	Vairamuthu
4	Athiradee	A. R. Rahman, Sayonara		5.47	Vaali
5	Sahana	Udit Narayan, Chinmayi		5.21	Vairamuthu	Another version was recorded with Sujatha in place of Chinmayi
6	The Boss	Naresh Iyer, Blaaze, Raqueeb Alam		3.20	Na. Muthukumar, Blaaze
7	Sahara	Vijay Yesudas, Gomathishree		4.32	Vairamuthu

[edit] Soundtrack Success

The audio of Sivaji, which opened up on April 2, 2007 saw the biggest response to an audio track since the Rajiv Menon multistarrer, Kandukondain Kandukondain, which also had music by A. R. Rahman.^[19] There was a pre-order of about 105,000 CDs and 90,000 cassettes, before the release in Tamil Nadu, India. Repeat orders were received even by the close of the first day and many retail outlets reported stock outs.^[19] By the end of April 2, the total CD sales has notched up to about 140,000 and cassettes have touched 108,000 sales. On the overseas front, the sales of CDs in Malaysia and Singapore reportedly set new records for Tamil films in terms of the amount of tracks sold.^[19]

Within the first three days of the release of the Sivaji audio over 150,000 phone treats (ringtones, truetones and wallpapers) had been downloaded.^[20] Over Rs. 5,000,000 ($117,000) has been made from this.^[20] On the ring tone department, 200, 000 ring tones have been downloaded as of April 12, 2007. The popularity rating for ring tones of Sivaji songs are – Athiradee tops the list, followed by Vaaji Vaaji and Style finishing a close third.^[19]

[edit] References