Mersal Music Review: AR Rahman’s Tunes Mix Mass With Class

Mersal’s soundtrack, scored by AR Rahman was launched on Sunday at an gala event in Chennai. The maestro, in the 25th year of his musical journey in films, performed the two unreleased songs – “Macho” and “Mersal Arasan”, live at the venue. The other two tracks, an anthem-like “Aalaporan Tamizhan” and melody “Needhane” were released as
singles, days before the launch.

The title track, “Mersal Arasan” has been voiced by Naresh Iyer, GV Prakash, Vishwaprasadh, and Sharanya Shrinivas. The album seems to experiment with the synergy between rustic and treated sounds, like a
combination of mass and class. While “Mersal Arasan” has a  smattering of techno, for a title track, the number is surprisingly underwhelming. Nevertheless, the combination of beats tend to grow on you, though not electrifying. Notably, Naresh Iyer is singing for Rahman after a period of four years. He had sung for the Tamil version of Raanjhanaa in 2013.

The other new song is “Macho”, sung by Sid Sriram and Swetha Mohan. The singer who has a track of unconventional songs now has yet another unique love number to his credit. While the basic rhythm reminds of the song “Bang Bang” (from Hrithik Roshan’s movie by the same name), it is the orchestration and the lyrics that stand out. The contrast of strings and the brighas in the melody against the tech sounds in the track make for another fascinating fusion.

The song is also another example of how the maestro accommodates contemporary trends in his numbers. While it was the loopy app in OK Kanmani (Parandhu Sella Vaa), here it is the endearing mix of Tanglish in Vivek’s lyrics — Speakitta, touchitta, takeitta are some of the products of a language synergy, now part of common lingo. The lyrics also talk about a clash between ‘class and mass’, an apparent reference to Kajal and Vijay in the song. An interesting trivia to be mentioned here is that the song also has a phrase ‘icy doll’ which is Atlee’s nickname for Kajal, as he revealed at the album launch event.

Courtesy : indianexpress