It’s been a while since Rajinikanth had a song that feeds his ‘superstar’ factor. After Kabali, Kaala and 2.0, where classy-Rajini was dominating the screen, his fans were starving for the mass-Rajini who had been in hiding for years.
So, when a music director like Anirudh Ravichander, who is an expert in resurrecting this mass-element of various heroes through songs like Thara Local, Aaluma Doluma and Sodakku, gets a chance to work in a Rajini movie at this point of time, there surely is going to be no limitations.
That is how the first single Marana Mass of Karthik Subbaraj’s Petta has come out. The song release Monday evening.
To suit the ‘Marana’ title of the song, Anirudh has really killed it with live percussion.
An extra surprise is the exemplary blend of Petta motion poster themes with this percussion set-up in the interlude and postlude. The trumpet piece breaks all into racy beats and makes it totally rousing.
The song starts off with a voiceover of Rajini that hints at his name in the movie – Kaali. Further substantiating the hunch, Vivek has written these lines, Niyayam Irundhu Edhuththu Variyaa… Unna Madhippen Athu En Pazhakkam, followed by Kaala Izhuthu Uyara Nenacha… Ketta Paya Sir Idiya Idikkum. Remember the dialogue, Ketta Paya Sir Intha Kaali from the iconic Mullum Malarum? So, Rajini is apparently going to be the same Ketta Payyan Kaali again in Petta.
Last time, it was in Lingaa that Rajini had his all-time voice of introduction songs, S P Balasubrahmanyam, recording the song. Now, Marana Mass, touted to be the intro-song of Rajini in Petta again has SPB. But, unlike his regular presence, this song also has Anirudh assisting him – actually Anirudh has more voice-time.
This, apparently, shows that the song starts with a group of youngsters praising Rajini. These youngsters could be students during a college cultural fest, as we already guess Petta is a campus-action-drama genre movie. And SPB sings it for Rajini as he walks in the amidst of his students in this cultural event.
While Rajini’s mass returns on the one side and SPB has come again on the other, lyricist Vivek silently arrives with one more dictionary of colloquial language after Sarkar’s Simtaangaran. Words like Thatlaattam, Thimuraama, Podu Thillala and Siluppi Vutta appear here and there. Though they are very limited compared to Simtaangaran, these words also simply convey the meaning when the phrases get completed.
We also see Bobby Simha in the lyrical video who should be one among Kaali’s students. There is a line Mudinja Varaikkum Anba Seru… Thalaiyil Yethi Vechu Kondadum Ooru, from SPB’s portion. If this is a lead to the character-profile of Kaali, then he must be the most loved professor on the campus for the students, who eventually sing a song praising him.
The only disappointment in the song was its run-time as everything gets done in just the blink of an eye. It is not even four minutes long like other racy numbers of Anirudh. Hope this is just a single-cut and Petta has a whole lot of ‘Marana Mass’ still left.