Vanakkam Chennai Songs – Anirudh Ravichander

Anirudh Ravichander was virtually an unknown artiste until the release of his first Kollywood movie ‘3’ aka Moonu, in which he produced the music. The album features some memorable songs including India’s internet viral, ‘Why this kolaveri di’ which gave the young music producer a taste of international recognition. Very impressive for his first.

Now on his third Tamil film music production titled ‘Vanakkam Chennai,’ Anirudh has brought together a few of the hottest independent artistes from India and abroad for what many predict to become his hattrick.

One of our favourite is ‘Oh Penne’ which is so catchy it has two versions featured on the soundtrack. The first is the official version which features North Indian musician Vishal Dadlani who sings in Tamil for the first time along with British R&b sensation Arjun Coomaraswamy (Arjun) who adds a line in English. This seems to be the most popular song so far. (Article updated with official music video).

The second is the International version, which is trademark ‘Arjun’ through and through. He has penned the lyrics in English and sung the majority of the song. Anirudh compliments the song with a few lines in Tamil. British producer Charles Bosco has reworked the track, giving it an old skool rnb favour with a hint of ‘Breathe n stop’ by Q tip fused with his trademark punchy electronic vibe towards the end. Overall this is a great entry for Arjun into South India’s music industry.

Another favourite is ‘Chennai City Gangsta’ which features female rapper Hard Kaur representing the wonders of Mumbai, followed by the talented rapper Hiphop Tamizha in a DJ friendly EDM track filled with vocals by Anirudh & samples of a country chicken!

‘Hey,’ a Celtic foot tapper which may just get you up to do the River Dance is also worth a listen. Time will tell if the catchy songs on this internationally sounding album will be popular amongst the Tamil youth or just a passing trend. However we congratulate Anirudh for providing the platform for independent artistes to showcase themselves. We look forward to his next project.