Ilaiyaraja composing music for a Srikanth and Trisha starrer made everyone raise their eyebrows as what will a 60 years old man do in such youthful love subject. At this age he is fit for doing serious, matured subjects like "Ramanaa". But Oscar films Ravichandran being the producer of this film who is known for his extravagance when it comes to publicity. He created a hype among fans about the music of "Manasellam" by saying that the songs are going to be a mega hit like "Payanangal Mudivathillai" songs. Moreover "Manasellam" being the third consecutive film in Oscar Ravichandran and Ilaiyaraja combo raised more and more expectations.

The album begins with " Chinna kuyilae", the song with Ilaiyaraja's label in it, penned by Karunanidhi and perfectly rendered by Karthik. Karthik sounds so matured and nearing perfection compared to his previous songs. Flute pieces float all through the song supporting Karthik's vocals. The lyrics are good and criticising the modern day music directors who damage our tympanic membrane and lyricists writing meaningless songs.Though the song is not set in latest trend, IR's magic seems to work out well in his 25th year in TFM.

"Iniya naal" by Sadhana Sargam and chorus has lyrics by Muthulingam. The songs begins with children's chorus lines and suddenly from nowhere Sadhana's humming sets in and she takes over the song in different tune and beats. It's a variety song and such complex compositions can only be handled by Raja. The chorus part could have been cut short to increase the palatability of the song.

"Iniya Nadhi" by Srinivas and Sadhana Sargam reminds us of old IR goldies amalgamated in modern trend music and beats. But there is some thing magnetic in this tune that you will hum the tune automatically after a few hearings and it is difficult to let it go off your lips. After a long time Vaali has penned lyrics for IR's music..

"Nee thoongum Nerathil" a beautiful song by Pazhani Bharathi and sung by Hariharan. It starts with the ticking sound of a clock as the Background music, showing the innovative thinking of Raja. It is a melodious lullaby song, a lover sings for his girl. Since melody is his cup of tea, Ilaiyaraja has done a wonderful job and this song has soothing effect on the listener's ears. The same song by Sadhana Sargam features in the same album and both are really treat for melody lovers.

Mu.Mehta has written the lyrics for "Oru Jodi Kuyil" by Vijay Jesudas . V.J. is absolutely not the right choice for this song. The situation is like, the hero sings and wishes a newly wed couple through this song. Ilayaraja's involvement is totally lacking in this song , may be he is fed up with composing songs for same old situations like this.

" Highwaysle" by Surendar, Tippu and Karthik has a lot of Tanglish lyrics and the credit goes to Palani Bharathi.When it comes to fast paced youthful songs, Raja is not strong and which is clearly seen here. He repeatedly uses the same kind of beats which is tiring and boring.

Then comes the "Midnightla" song by Malgudi Subha and if only this song has not featured in this album, it would have been a "worth buy".Only for such songs we have fast forward buttons in our music systems.

Overall it is a nice album with more appealing melodies and pathetic dance numbers. Though Ilaiyaraja has tried his best to cater the needs of young generation only his melodies leave a mark and Yuvan shankar Raja or other younger MD would have been a better choice for this film.