Introduction
The Tamil movie industry is among the top regional language movie-making business where money speaks in big numbers. Last year after the pandemic what we saw was a rush of grandeur movies that had big budgets exceeding 100 crores (1 crore=10 million). Movies like Beast, Sarkar, Valimai, Master, and Annathai (three of them Vijay movies) speak of the opening day collection topped 25 Crores. This is sure where fans still love going to theaters to watch their favorite god-like movie stars dance and romance and fight on the big screen. Most of the songs in Tamil movies are visually rich to the extent that the videos themselves have an audience.
Tamil movies are exceptional in that this south Indian regional language movie business has excellent storylines, great actors, and directors. It does not mean another language has such quality movies made, but just to say that movies are an important part of their culture. Here at the beginning of the year 2023, we are trying to assess the music scene of 2022 to figure out the winners of last year so that we still know who the most happening people in this movie business are.
Here are the top fifteen songs from movies for the year 2022 from Tamil movie music.
Position one
Song Title: Arabic Kuthu Album/Movie: Beast Vocals: Anirudh Ravichander & Jonita Gandhi Composed by Anirudh Ravichander. Anirudh and his ability to know what the Tamil audience wants. This song even became an international sensation. The winner here is none other than Jonitha Gandhi who sang excellently. She amazes everyone with her excellent vocals and ability to learn a different language and know a different culture and made so many good songs in the Tamil language. A winner all the way.
Position Two
Movie – Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kadhal, Song – Two Two Two, Music by Anirudh Ravichander, Lyrics – Vignesh Shivan, Vocals – Anirudh Ravichander, Sunidhi Chauhan & Sanjana Kalmanje. The second place is this catchy, yet musically well-done with superb singing by Sunidhi Chauhan who joins Anirudh again to make this a super success. The video is super entertaining to watch with Tamil’s only female superstar Nayanthara dancing to the tune. The winner here is Anirudh with year after year has been doing this super hit song. Talent is galore.
Position three
Song Credits: Title: Megham Karukatha, Movie: Thiruchitrambalam, Composed by Anirudh Ravichander, Lyrics & Vocal by Poetu Dhanush. Dhanush all the way. His talent is amazing and his presence on screen is such a charm to watch. Here the winner is Dhanush who wrote the song, acted in the scene, and sang under the music direction of Anirudh. Super talented Dhanush.
Position four
2022 was a super-rich year for the Tamil music scene with ARR composing music for many movies. Although in numbers this is down here the songs from this movie are such a warm experience. Like all ARR music, one must listen to the song a few times and try to sing it once to feel the song. Song: Mallipoo Composer: A.R. Rahman, the lucky singer who got to sing this for ARR, is super talented Madhushree. Lyrics by Thamarai.
Position five
Anirudh and his music again found a top position with this song from the super successful movie at the box office Don. Song Title: Jalabulajangu Album / Movie: Don, Composed by Anirudh Ravichander, Lyrics – Rokesh, Vocals – Anirudh Ravichander.
Position Six
This is an incredibly beautiful song made by none other than Yuvan and sung by him along with Aditi Shankar. Song: Madura Veeran, Singer: Yuvan Shankar Raja & Aditi Shankar, Lyricist: Raju Murugan. Aditi is an actor/ Singer and the daughter of filmmaker S. Shankar. Yuan had to prove a lot to match his famous dad Illayaraja. This is a song he should be immensely proud of, having climbed the charts where the competition is with some of India’s best music makers.
Position Seven
Movie: VIKRAM Song Title: Pathala Pathala, Album / Movie: Vikram, Composed by Anirudh Ravichander, Lyrics – Kamal Haasan, Vocals – Kamal Haasan & Anirudh Ravichander. Kamal’s comeback movie after a big break. A highly publicized movie where the song still shows an old Kamal trying to remind the audience of the charm of dancing that he is famous for. The song is written and sung by Kamal himself with Anirudh to Anirudh’s music direction.
Position Eight
Song Composed, Arranged, and Produced by: Yuvan Shankar Raja Lyrics: Pradeep Ranganathan Singer: Sid Sriram. Sid Sriram had been a phenomenal force in the Tamil movie music scene. Over the years he remained one of the unique voices in the entire southern music scene. This is his winner here finding a song that hit the charts.
Position Nine
Song Credits, Song Title: Mayakkama Kalakkama, Movie: Thiruchitrambalam, Composed by Anirudh Ravichander, Lyrics: Dhanush, Vocals: Dhanush. Another song from the movie Thiruchitrambalam finds a place in the top charts. This is evidence of how popular Dhanush is among his fans. Those who like him like his movies, and his songs. A winner all the way.
Position Ten
Ponni Nadhi Song Title: Ponni Nadhi – Tamil, Album: Ponniyin Selvan Part – 1, Song Composed and Arranged by A. R. Rahman
Singers: A.R. Rahman, AR Raihanah, Bamba Bakya. 2022 was blessed to have the master craftsman ARR gave the music score to this epic movie made in Tamil. by the genius movie director Manirathnam. The entire background score of the movie is something to listen to and enjoy as well. Ponniyin Selvam is a movie based on a 1955 novel written by Kalki. Another highlight was Aishwarya Rai came back to act in Tamil after a long break.
Position Eleven
Another A.R. Rahman song made for the Movie – Cobra Song – Thumbi Thullal Music – A. R. Rahman Singers – Nakul Abhyankar, Shreya Ghoshal. Nakul although not so famous as a playback singer, had been actively singing in many south Indian movies. He was a part of A.R. Rahman’s jazz band, Nafs. Here ARR gave a chance to have this singer sing this hit song along with Shreya Ghoshal.
Position Twelve
Song Name: Kaalathukkum Nee Venum, Composer: A. R. Rahman, Singers: Silambarasan TR, Rakshita Suresh, Lyrics: Thamarai
Position Thirteen
Music: Ghibran, Singer: Shweta Mohan, Lyrics: Chandru. This is one of my favorite songs of the author. Shwetha is the winner grabbing this opportunity out of many singers a music director like Ghirbran may have (a genius music director). Also, the song is very well made with such a unique melody that shines in Shwetha’s gorgeous voice.
Position Fourteen
Movie – Mudhal Nee Mudivum Nee Song – Mudhal Nee Mudivum Nee Singer – Sid Sriram, Darbuka Siva Composer – Darbuka Siva Lyrics – Thamarai
Position Fifteen
Song Title: Dippam Dappam Album / Movie: Kaathu Vaakula Rendu Kadhal Composed by Anirudh Ravichander Lyrics – Vignesh Shivan Vocals – Anthony Daasan & Anirudh Ravichander
Addendum: Song of the year for 2021
Song: Adiye Music Composer: Dhibu Ninan Thomas Lyrics: GKB Singer: Kapil Kapilan. Although this song and movie don’t belong to the year 2022. We did not cover the year 2021. So, this one is an outstanding song that made and hit chart. The singer Kapil Kapilan and the music director Dhibu Ninan Thomas are exceptional talents to watch for in the coming year.
END NOTES
Tamil movies and the music industry is a very much happening music industry in the entire country. An amazing amount of effort is made behind the movies to make this happen. Kudos to the entire Tamil movie fraternity for the quality of music and movies that are made in Kollywood. Thanks for reading and happy singing in 2023.
