Bigil (soundtrack)

Bigil (English: Whistle) is the soundtrack album for the 2019 Indian Tamil-language sports action film of the same name, starring Vijay and Nayanthara in the lead roles, and music was composed by A. R. Rahman with lyrics written by Vivek.

Development
The soundtrack and background score was composed by A. R. Rahman, marking his second collaboration with Atlee after Mersal, and also his fifth collaboration with Vijay. The album features five songs, with all lyrics written by Vivek. The music rights were secured by Sony Music India. Actor Vijay sung a song for this film, with lyrics written by Vivek, in which it was confirmed by a poster release, on 8 July 2019, which features Rahman, Vijay, Atlee and Vivek in the recording room followed by the song titled "Verithanam". Reports have stated that Vijay didn't sing a song for his films Udhaya, Azhagiya Tamizh Magan, Mersal and Sarkar which were composed by Rahman.

Overview

 * Singappenney

The song "Singappenney" and sung by A. R. Rahman, with Shashaa Tirupati, stating about how women should never fear that they cannot achieve anything; they should just go ahead and do whatever they want to. The lyrics call women to rise against everyone that laughed at them, questioned their abilities, and stopped them. Using the traditional symbols of lioness (Singappenney), a common theme in Tamil literature and poetry.

"Verithanam" is the second song from the film, rendered by Vijay. As a singer, this film marks the latter's first collaboration with Rahman. "Verithanam" is a completely dynamic song with the expressive voice of Vijay is the main highlight. In the interludes, the percussions, Shenai, and guitars will pull you to the music. Vivek's words add the might and confidence to the song which is evident in Thalapathy Vijay's voice.
 * Verithanam


 * Unakaaga

"Unakaaga" is a romantic melody number sung by Sreekanth Hariharan and Madhura Dhara Talluri. The song indulges in a very familiar premise, which feels like a song just made to underline a blooming romance between the characters of Vijay and Nayanthara in the film. The song opens with impressive flute music and Unakaga song starts to flow from the first note. The tune of the song gets more melodious from one phase to the next and hence Unakaga is a soothing soundtrack.

"Maathare" is another motivational song for women, with the vocals of Chinmayi and the chorus voices lent by Madhura Dhara Talluri, Sireesha, Akshara and Vithusayni. The song is something different from the other songs we have in the track. The song is a sharp and stinging insight on how the society views women, and how women are left in to live in silence. The words that have come from lyricist Vivek has such deep meanings and the slow tempo, classical tune of the song with mild chorus tugs deep at your emotions, making you feel exactly how the makers of the song intended it. "Bigil Bigil Bigiluma" is a theme song for the film, composed by A. R. Rahman. The percussions and Shenai take over the first half of the song, and with the exception of two-line interlude in the middle, this song is completely taken over by the orchestra. The track is devoid of any other lyrical portions, but it has to be mentioned to be a noticeable beat song.
 * Maathare
 * Bigil Bigil Bigiluma

Leak
On 16 July 2019, a song "Singapenne" was unofficially leaked through the internet. The leaked song is said to have been recorded from the film's set when Vijay and Nayanthara were shooting for it. Within minutes, the hashtags #Bigil and #SingaPenne were trending nationally on Twitter. Following the song leak, the makers decided to release the song as a first single, the next week, while "Verithanam" which was said to release first was pushed later. The duration of the original version of the song was nearly six minutes, while the leaked version lasted for about seven minutes.

Critical reception
The album received mostly positive reviews. Behindwoods gave the album a rating of 3.25 out of 5 and gave the verdict " A. R. Rahman perfect mix of class and mass music amplifies Bigil's verithanam!" IBTimes gave the album a rating 3 out of 5 stars, and gave the verdict "A. R. Rahman delivered a hit music album for Vijay in the form of Bigil". Moviecrow, gave a favourable review stating that "A.R.Rahman's third successive collaboration with Vijay and fifth over the years is an amusing mix. Between an elastic spectrum of staying true to the likes of ARR and satisfying the monstrous hungry of the fans of a huge stardom, the album is more of a mixbag balancing both. Sometimes ARR overtakes and sometimes he gets ruthlessly overtaken." Siddharth Srinivas, of OnlyKollywood rated the album 3 out of 5, stating that "Bigil scores well with its motivational numbers, which sit in line with the theme of the film. The other two songs are passable, but as the visuals arrive, they should fly higher. Though Rahman hasn’t put his best foot forward, this is a decent contribution that has sparks flying here and there."

Composer & Producer
A. R. Rahman

Lyrics
Vivek.

Performer(s)
A. R. Rahman, Shashaa Tirupati, Vijay, Poovaiyar, Shrikanth, Madhura Dhara Talluri, Chinmayi, Sireesha, Akshara, Vithusayni

Musicians

 * Guitars : Keba Jeremiah
 * Flute : Kareem Kamalakar
 * Tabla : Sai Saravanam
 * Shenai : Balesh
 * Veena : Punya Srinivas
 * Pakhawaj : Satya Narayanan
 * Sarangi : Manonmani
 * Clarinet & Saxophone: Sax Raja
 * Shenai : Balesh
 * Strings : Chennai Strings *Orchestra, Macedonia String Orchestra

Conducted by Prabakar


 * Live Rhythms : V Kumar, T Raja, Vedha, Lakshmi Narayanan, Raju, Vikram, Hariprasadh, Ranjit, Krishna Kishore, P Guberan, Vetri, Pyare Lal

Additional vocals
Sangeetha, Poovaiya, Kaka Bala, KR Arjun, Rakthaksh

Backing vocals
Arjun Chandy, Veena Murali, Deepthi Suresh, Abinaya, Ala B Bala, Sowmya, Soundarya, Nakul Abhyankar, Deepak, Niranjana, Swagatha, Aravind Srinivas, Jithin, Shenbagaraj, Lavita Lobo, Narayanan

Personal

 * Backing vocals

Kids vocals
Riya K S, Nikhil P S, K R Arjun, Vidhya Rupini, K U Kokilapriya


 * Choral arrangement

Arjun Chandy, Nakul Abhyankar


 * Additional programming and arrangement

T R Krishna Chetan, Santhosh Dhayanidhi


 * Additional rhythm arrangement

Kumaran Sivamani

Sound engineers
Panchathan Record Inn, Chennai Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Suryansh, Barath, Riyasdeen AM Studios, Chennai Sivakumar S, Kannan Ganpat, Pradeep Menon, Krishnan, Manoj Raman, Aravind MS


 * Mixed by

T R Krishna Chetan, Pradeep Baskaran, Jerry Vincent


 * Mastered by

Suresh Permal


 * MFiT

S Sivakumar


 * Musicans coordinator

TM Faizuddin, Abdul Haiyum, Siddique


 * Musican fixer

Samidurai R

Music Label - Sony Music Entertainment India Pvt. Ltd.

Release
The audio launch event for the film was held on 21 September 2019 at Sai Leo Muthu Indoor Stadium, Sri Sai Ram Engineering College, Chennai where the film's cast and crew, except Nayanthara and all the other celebrities attended the event. A. R. Rahman along with other singers, musicians and technicians, performed live on the stage. The songs were released simultaneously on the same day, at all streaming platforms. Initially the makers and the team wanted to telecast the event live, but due to technical difficulties, the audio launch event was telecasted on Sun TV on 22 September 2019.

Marketing
On 7 June 2019, Sony Music Entertainment acquired the audio rights of Thalapathy 63, which is the working title of Bigil. The team released a poster on 8 July 2019, which features Atlee, Vijay, A. R. Rahman and Vivek in the recording room, for the first single titled "Verithanam". However, the first single "Singappenney" was released on 23 July 2019. The team released a music video on YouTube, which features Rahman and Shashaa Tirupati performing the song with other musicians while Vivek and Atlee make a starting appearance in the film. The song was released simultaneously on all streaming platforms the same day. The second single "Verithanam" was released on 1 September 2019, as the creative producer Archana Kalpathi released a video on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on 31 August 2019, which features the making of the song. The lyric video gained 1 million likes within six days of its release. The third single "Unakaaga" was released on 18 September 2019. The video jukebox was released on 20 September 2019.