From Kolaveri Di to Arabic Kuthu: The rise and rise of Anirudh

MUSICANA

During the promotions of ‘Vikram’, Kamal Haasan called Tamil music composer Anirudh Ravichander ‘the child of technology’. “He works at an unbelievable speed and it’s crazy how his mind works. The machines help him match his style,” he had said in an interview earlier.

A fine blend of speed and technical brilliance is perhaps the catalyst for Anirudh’s dominance in the pandemic era. He has pulled off a humongous task of satisfying the 90s generation which believed A R Rahman was ‘the god of music’.

Anirudh is also hot among social media users, whose taste is fickle-minded and demands unending.

He is a sought-after name in Tamil cinema today, so much so that he was in the first-look poster of Rajinikanth’s next with Nelson, a never-before-seen phenomenon. Even a big name like Shankar chose to move beyond his frequent collaborator, the Oscar-winning Rahman, and roped in Anirudh for his ambitious sequel of ‘Indian’ (1996).

Since 2021, Anirudh has unleashed hit after hit in ‘Master’, ‘Doctor’, ‘Beast’, ‘Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal’, ‘Don’, and ‘Vikram’. “He is a genius at coming up with hooks,” Kairam Vaashi, critic at ‘Film Companion’, dwells on his talent.

“While working with lyricists, he chooses trendy and local lingo, and he is brave to experiment, like using gibberish for his songs. Mind you that’s a music director’s responsibility,” he says.

The quirky lyrics have done it for Anirudh multiple times — be it ‘Arabic Kuthu’ and ‘Jolly O Gymkhana’ from ‘Beast’, ‘Dippam Dappam’ and ‘Two Two Two’ from ‘Kaathuvakula Rendu Kadhal’ (K2K), and most recently, ‘Jalabulajangu’ from ‘Don’.
From ‘Aaluma Doluma’ to ‘Vedalam’, you sense repetitiveness in Anirudh’s dance numbers but you can’t help but groove to them — such is the energy.

To his credit, his film albums have at least one quality melody (‘Andha Kanna Paathaaka’ from ‘Master’ and ‘Naan Pizhai’ from ‘K2K’). The use of Western style of music makes him special, notes Kairam. “In ‘Master’, there is ‘Master The Blaster’. In ‘Vikram’, ‘Once Upon A Time’ is catchy and hummable,” he says.

The quality of his re-recordings, from his debut project ‘3’ (2012) to ‘Vikram’ (2022), has improved vastly, says young playback singer Arvind Mukundan. “He has adapted to changing times and is confident of giving what the producer wants,” he says.

For an earlier generation, who grew up listening to Ilaiyaraaja, Anirudh’s music might not be exciting. “You don’t understand the lyrics and the tunes don’t stay in your mind. That’s the issue with current composers,” opines senior critic S Shivakumar. “In the early 90s, I had the same impression about Rahman before he produced some lilting scores. I wake up to a Kishore Kumar or an Ilaiyaraaja song. Play the basic music of Ilaiyaraaja and I can tell you which song it is. That joy doesn’t exist in today’s songs,” he says.

All said and done, for someone who became a national sensation at 21 with ‘Kolaveri Di’, it’s impressive how Anirudh didn’t lose his way. A popular entertainment channel recently adjudged him as the best of the decade. There was a debate if the extremely gifted Santhosh Narayanan deserved the honour. Arguments and discussions will continue. But it’s undeniable that Anirudh’s music doesn’t just accompany a film. It can transform it.