Music          :  A.R.Rehman
Direction   :  Kathir
Lyrics         :  Vaalee and Pa. Vijay
Audio         :  Sony Music

Viral infections are of several types and one among them is Slow virus infection. Slow virus infection is where the progression of infection is slow but is persistent. Kaadhal Virus is a slowly infecting virus for sure. Though initially one may feel immune to it, after subsequent hearings, it invades the listener and slowly infects him without his knowledge.

For the first time, Sony Music has stepped into tamil film music and the credit goes to the whizkid. A.R.Rehman and Kadhir combination always work out well and usually raises a lot of expectations. For the first time, Pa. Vijay also has written lyrics in Kadhir’s movie along with Vaalee his favourite lyricist. Another feature of the album is that, in this album, Rehman has given a song to T.R. Silambarasan for whose father he had played keyboard.

The album opens with Vasunthara Das crooning  “Ey Ey Enna aachu”, a youthful song penned by Pa. Vijay. It’s a “Shakalaka Baby” kind of song addressing the boys and no one other than Vasunthara would have performed better. The tune reminds us of “Raathiriyin sonthakaaraa” from “Paarthaale Paravasam”. They should have avoided the Chennai slang “Mavane” in between the song, which is a bit indecent to be from the lips of girls. But with the scintillating beats and jubilant voice, the song is sure to be a chartbuster. Next comes, “Enna sonaalum”, a beautiful melody by Unnikrishnan and Harini with lyrics by Vaalee. It is a 100 % Rehman style melody that will move the lovers listening to it alone. But our tamil fans’ tastes have changed and according to them, such melodious songs are meant for going out and having a puff. It’s in the hands of Kadhir to picturise the song attractively to tie the audience to the seats.

“Vaan nila” rendered by Karthik and Srinivas is a Rock n’ Roll style song we get to hear after a long break in tamil film music. Vaalee has written the lyrics but without the help of the audio cover with lyrics printed, you can’t follow the lyrics at all, thanks to the dominating percussion. But no one can keep the legs still listening to the song. While the pallavi part goes well, suddenly charanam part is a bit weird and makes the listeners think there’s some problem with their music system due to the flow of the tune.

S.P.Balasubramanian and Swarnalatha  together present an olfactory treat in “Enthan vaanil” song penned by Pa. Vijay. Swarnalatha has just hummed and laughed throughout the song.  As usual S.P.B. is irresistible. This song is again a nice piece of melody.

Then comes the “Bailare”, the FTV style song by T.R. Silambarasan and Tippu. Vaalee has given cool lyrics and the singers also have performed well. But still the song is somehow odd. Wondering why they jumped from MTV style to FTV style. The beats are enchanting and we’ll have to wait and see how the audience receive this song.

Next comes, “Oh Kaadhale” a full throated performance by Mano and Clinton. This song reminds of “Uyire” from “Bombay”, “Thoda Thoda” from “Indira”. The song can be easily mistaken for a song by Harris Jeyaraj meaning a remix of Rehman’s remixed song.

Overall, Kaadhal virus is an average album with peppy dance numbers and soft melodies alternating. It may not meet the expectations built up due to the A.R.R.– Kadhir Combo and audio rights by SONY. Usually Kadhir and Rehman experiment a lot in their films. But here other than the FTV style song, nothing is new. Moreover Rehman introduces at least one new voice in his every album and here he has used all  familiar voices.

Already we can feel the outbreak of Kaadhal virus among the youngsters and time has to answer whether  the infection is going to be an endemic or epidemic or pandemic.