Special Feature: Emerging Next-Gen Composers of Tamil Cinema
Any path breaking year should be viewed in its proper context and not as a stand-alone year. The problem in viewing any event as stand-alone is that we fail to grasp the significance of seemingly trivial happenings which when viewed in its context assumes gargantuan proportions. Thus the context, for such a musically rich year as 2014 in Tamil cinema, was set way back in the previous years 2011, 2012 and 2013, when the first wave of the next-gen music composers silently germinated. That was a time when Tamil Music was wearing a rather sombre look with most of its bankable music composers like Yuvan, Harris and GVP having gone into a rut, plummeting downwards, churning out albums that sounded overtly generic and rehashed. The undisputed numero uno A.R.Rahman, though very relevant and formidable, was straddling several worlds simultaneously and hence could not devote all his energies towards Tamil cinema. This definitely contributed to the all-time ebb that Tamil film music was going through. That left a gaping void in the Tamil music scene. A void, which urgently needed to be filled. The situation cried out for change and was in dire need of a makeover, in desperate need for fresh direction. This call was emphatically answered by the new-gen composers who began trickling in under the surface making silent mini waves ever since 2011-12. With each album they grew from strength to strength, slowly but steadily changing the face of Tamil Music.
Ultimately, 2014 is the year where Tamil Film Music, which has been undergoing a rather exciting transition, truly blossomed and burst forth into a new, bold and exciting avatar. Let us take a look at this young bunch of talented daredevils who have brought about this storm and pushed Tamil cinema out of the transition phase and ushered in a musical era that is truly reflective of the times we live in: bold, experimentative and exuberant.
2014 has produced some scintillating chartbuster albums, some cult classics and some memorable melodies that have stormed their way into our hearts. However the most heartening aspect of 2014 has been the emergence and the consolidation of the Gen-Next composers who have finally lived up to the billing and ushered in a new era of sorts. Tamil Cinema has been bursting at the seams with incredibly talented, budding music composers who have collectively redefined the “sound” of Tamil film music. The sheer abundance of fresh talent is a very positive sign for the future of Tamil music. In the yesteryears when a director had to decide upon a music director for one of his seminal works, he would turn to Ilayaraja or A.R.Rahman to deliver the goods, in most cases. But today, he is spoilt for choice due to the sheer magnitude of great talents coming forth. Let us examine some of these precocious talents.
1. Anirudh Ravichander
The whiz kid who stormed into the scene with his global chartbuster “Kolaveri” and who made the entire cine industry stand up and take notice with a stellar scorcher of a debut in ‘3’ has had a mixed bag of a year, in 2014. While he has been churning out pop numbers and funky, youthful and foot-tapping songs with remarkable consistency, he however has to be wary of being branded as one-dimensional. Anirudh’s music, initially held out a lot of promise, sounding very fresh and youthful has off late followed a more or less predictable pattern. Anirudh is extremely good and arguably the best right now at the synth-meets-kuthu type songs which he amps it up with several layers of percussion, embellishing it with catchy layers of Nadaswaram and Tavil. This unique mix is what the Anirudh sound comprises of: heavy and catchy at the same time. But Anirudh is toeing a rather dangerous line. One laden with the eventual traps and dangers of becoming predictable and catering to a set audience without trying to go beyond. Being typecast is something that good composers religiously avoid. 
Let’s take a look at Anirudh’s body of work in 2014. He started off with a fairly energetic “Velai Illa Pattadhari” spearheaded by a scorcher of a title song and peppered with some soulful melodies like “Po Indru Neeyaga” and “Amma Amma”. However “Maan Karate” was raucous and middling at best, with the reproduction of stereotypical kuththu numbers that barely made any impact. This was followed by another poppy album “Kaththi” whose central highlight is the extremely catchy “Selfie Pulla”. Anirudh also has this tendency to sing multiple songs in each of his albums. While his voice does work for some of the songs(“Osaka Osaka”, “Kanave Kanave”), he must consciously avoid making this a trend. Anirudh is a composer who exudes and feeds off on energy. His strong point is his uncanny knack of composing funky tunes which have a catchy hook and he also has a penchant for breezy, youthful melodies. He does that well and the general public lap it up more often than not. They rarely scratch the surface. But for the more discernible music listener who’s generally looking for some more depth, more variety it becomes undeniably monotonous and tedious at times. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind as to the talent he possesses and the enormous potential that he can summon. But I feel he has lost his way a bit and become a tad predictable and banal. I would love to see Anirudh experiment with his music and choose scripts accordingly. He has proved his worth in the past and 2015 will be an acid test wherein he must go back to the drawing board and make the necessary tweaks to his sound and reinvent himself. There is plenty of youthful charm and chaotic exuberance in his music. He just needs to explore new avenues to become well rounded. That is what we expect from Anirudh in 2015.
2. Ghibran
I still remember how refreshing “Vaagai Sooda Vaa” was, it was like a fresh water brook quenching and invigorating the drought-stricken desert lands. I particularly use this imagery because “Vaagai Sooda Vaa” came at an especially dry, hapless phase in Tamil cinema where music was heavily templatized and borderline pretentious and predictable. It was a blast of fresh air. Ever since, Ghibran has caught a lot of eyeballs and he is one of the composers I keep a close track of. After having a rather tepid 2013, Ghibran struck gold this year with “Thirumanam Enum Nikkah” an
d “Amara Kaaviyam”. Ghibran’s sound can be described as “broad”, at times refreshingly reminiscent of 90’s Rahman. He represents another glittering gem of the multi-faceted Tamil film music. His orchestration capabilities are enviable and some of his arrangements are so intricately woven like fine fabric. His music always has this intrinsic quality of instantly appealing to our soul.
“Thirumanam Enum Nikkah” was a comeback to his roots in the sense that it had strong melodic content, packed with lilting tunes and the signature arrangements. “En Thaara En Thaara”, “Kannukul Pothivaippen” are melodies that will stand the test of time. The entire album of “Amara Kaaviyam” was yet another exercise in excellence. The album had so much depth, so much soul, so much substance. It is one of my favorite albums of 2014. With its delectable arrangements, lush orchestrations and memorable melodies like “Dhaagam Theera”, “Mounam Paesum” and the like, Ghibran has taken it up by a notch and firmly cemented his place as one of the forerunners, when it comes to quality music, in Tamil cinema today. With Ghibran, it’s all about beauty and artistry. With three of Ulaganayagan Kamal Haasan’s movies in his kitty, 2015 promises to be a break-away, showstopper of a year for Ghibran. Can’t wait already!
3. Santhosh Narayanan
The very name sends a thrill down my spine. That’s the kind of impact this man has had this year. What a year this has been for this freakishly talented Genius. He announced himself with “Attakathi” (“Aasai Oru Pulveli”, “Vazhi Parthirundhen”) but he has always been the silent performer, the dark horse, the unsung hero of Tamil Film Music. There was always talk of an Anirudh or a Ghibran while discussing the next big thing. But this man has been playing along the sidelines, gathering steam steadily, without attracting too much attention. With every album he has been pushing the envelope, experimenting with genres, engineering new ones, exploring the scope of his sound, stretching his limits with an almost “Rahmanic” disregard for normal conventions. Each and every album of his since “Attakathi” has had something inexplicably unique. Listen to “Vazhi Parthirundhen” from Attakaththi or “Dhinakkudha” from Pizza or “Pa Pa” from Villa and you will know what I mean. His music is quirky, earthy, lush, orchestral, whacky and intuitive. Like the several hues of a rainbow. “Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water”. This Bruce Lee quote aptly describes what Santhosh is, right now. The Santhosh Sound as I would like to call it, is a game changer and with 2014, Santhosh has pretty much blitzed from being the Dark Horse to Leader of the young pack.
Let us do a recap on the dream year that he’s had. It started off with the memorable “Cuckoo”. The moment I heard the intricate arrangement of guitars, flutes and wind instruments in “Manasula Soora Kaathey” and his enchanting application of counterpoint with flutes, I realized this 
album was going to be special. Special, it was. The orchestration was spectacular throughout, almost Raja-esque. His use of vocal harmonies, violins, rich use of strings all coalesce to conjure up an aural feast. It is one of my favorite albums of 2014. Just when you think it couldn’t get any better, he unleashed another truly “monster” of an album in “Jigarthanda”. This is Santhosh’s ace in the hole. Loaded with country, acoustic, bluesy-folk sound, this just blew me away. The lavish guitar embellishments and the creation of a raw, heavy-duty “Tarantino-esque” sound for this gangster epic further established Santhosh’s incredible versatility. Tamil Cinema and I would say, even Indian Cinema has not heard this kind of a sound before. In my opinion, this soundtrack is path breaking and will prove to be quite an important milestone in the annals of Tamil Cinema. It’s like Karthik Subburaj gave Santhosh complete license to go crazy. And Santhosh obliged. He went full monty on this one. No holds barred. The sheer bundle of genres this album had is stupefying. Right from country, Folk, R&B, Reggae, HipHop, Jazz, Folk-Blues fusion. And this did not end here. The background score was astounding. It is possibly the best background score I have ever heard for a Tamil Movie in the last decade or so.
After touching such stratospheric heights Santhosh Delivered another gem in “Madras” which built on his sound and captured “North Madras” ingenuously, delivering some chartbusters like “Enga Ooru Madras” and soulful melodies like “Naan Nee” and “Aagayam Theepidicha”. The year ended on a high with “Enakkul Oruvan”, another solid album from this exceptionally gifted artist, complete with foot tapping songs, quirky funky numbers and his trademark acoustic melodies. The biggest strength of Santhosh lies in incorporating several genres like Latino, Jazz, Country and fusing it seamlessly with our own indigenous folk music. Further his associations with Gaana Baala and Pradeep have given some truly memorable numbers. Santhosh has been so consistent and so good that it did not escape the notice of the boss A.R.Rahman who has claimed to have been following his music closely. 2015 promises to be exciting for Santhosh as it will mark his Bollywood debut with Maddy’s bi-lingual sports drama “Saala Khadoos”/”Irudhi Suttru”. He also has Karthik Subbaraj’s “Iraivi”, Nalan Kumarasamy’s “Kai Neelam” and Jyothika’s untitled comeback film in his kitty. I sure hope Santhosh continues in this rich vein of form and bedazzle us all once again in 2015.
4. Sean Roldan
Here’s another composer who has raised the excitement levels up by a notch or two with his incredible musicianship. Sean Roldan, fresh from his highly acclaimed and successful stint at Independent Music, took matters by the scruff of the neck with “Vaayai Moodi Pesavum”. This debut was interesting with an incredibly grungy “Kadhal Ara Onnu”. That insanely catchy riff is still stuck in my head. Sean Roldan’s brilliance comes to the fore especially in the second half of the movie when it was his breathtaking background score that shouldered the enormous burden of narrating the entire story. Marvellous effort.
Then came one of the most delightful albums of the year in my opinion, “Mundasupatti”. With Mundasupatti, Sean Roldan clearly arrived big time. This album had some soul stirring country-folk compositions “Raasa Magaraasa” and delightfully breezy “Kadhal Kanave” tugging at our heartsrings. Sean Roldan scored yet again with his “Sathuranga Vettai”. It was an eclectic assortment of haunting melodies like “Munne Yen Munne” and fresh-from-lab tracks like ”Yemaarum Janame” or the lilting “Kadhala Kadhala”. Sean’s impressive range was on full display here. His strong point seems to be the deft handling of folk and alchemizing several elements into it. I would bet on Sean Roldan to become even bigger in 2015 provided he gets the right scripts. He is another phenomenal talent to watch out for.
Musically speaking, 2014 has introduced some of the widest and most diverse sounds spanning multiple genres. This year, the contours separating genres have been blurred and there is an effortless transference and amalgamation between a variety of genres, especially with folk as the base. I consider us listeners indeed lucky to be offered such a wide palette of musical styles to choose from. This is one year that will go down as one of the defining years in Tamil Film Music. It is the year when the young guns truly came into their own and created some inspired music that induced a paradigm shift in the sound of Tamil Cinema. These seeds which were sown in 2011-12 or so have, well and truly blossomed. This has ultimately made the veterans sit up and take notice.
2015 is set up very interestingly. Now with each of the trailblazers vying for top honors, the contest is intriguingly poised. Tamil Cinema is in an exciting place. Cinematically and musically.
Written by SRI KRISHNA
