Mersal

Mersal is the soundtrack of the 2017 Tamil action film of the same name directed by Atlee, which stars Vijay in a triple role with Nithya Menen, Kajal Aggarwal and Samantha as the female leads. The film, which marked the 100th production of Thenandal Studio Limited, has a soundtrack album features four tracks composed by A. R. Rahman, in his first collaboration with Atlee and his third collaboration with Vijay after composing for Udhaya (2004) and Azhagiya Tamizh Magan (2007), whilst Vivek penned the lyrics for all the songs in the film's soundtrack, also in his first association with Rahman. Being one of the most anticipated soundtracks in Tamil cinema, the album was released at a promotional music launch event held at Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai on 20 August 2017, by Sony Music India with the songs being made available for streaming via internet on the day of its launch. The soundtrack was a critical and commercial success, it was the first Tamil album to have more than 100 million streams between all music platforms. It fetched a number of accolades and nominations at various ceremonies. Production Since Atlee's norm collaborator G. V. Prakash Kumar, who worked with him on Raja Rani and Theri, became busy with his acting commitments, the director had plans to rope a different composer for this film, with S. Thaman being speculated for the project. However A. R. Rahman was announced as the composer in late-January 2017. Rahman started composing for the film's soundtrack after completing the re-recording of Mani Ratnam's Kaatru Veliyidai in March. In June 2017, G. V. Prakash Kumar was reported to record an energetic number in the film; it was the first song Prakash had recorded for Rahman after 18 years, since Mudhalvan (1999). In late-July 2017, Kailash Kher recorded the song "Aalaporaan Tamizhan", since Rahman felt that "nobody could reach the pitch apart from the singer". The song was also co-recorded by Sathya Prakash, Deepak and Pooja Vaidyanath. The same month, Shreya Ghoshal recorded a melodic number for the film. By September 2017, Rahman started re-recording works for the film's music and score. As a part of the promotions, the song "Aalaporaan Thamizhan" was released as a single on 10 August 2017, and eventually topped the charts online. The song portrayed the pride of Tamil heritage all across the world. Manoj Kumar R.