Best Music Directors and Albums of Tamil Cinema in 2016
AR Rahman's single track Thalli Pogathey, from the movie Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada stayed in the music charts for almost the whole year of 2016, gaining him the numero uno position in the list of best music directors this year. His album also rekindled the Menon-Rahman magic with almost every song finding itself among the top rankers in the music charts. ARR is followed by Santosh Narayanan, thanks to his impressive albums - Kabali, Irudhi Suttru, Iraivi and Kodi. While Irudhi Suttru and Iraivi gave him a good head-start, Kabali cataputled him to the list of most sought-after musicians. He was pulled to the second position though, owing to some inconsistent albums in between.
This year's surprise package came in the form of Sean Roldan, whose soulful music in Joker brought him under the radar and earned him some big associations. And while Anirudh Ravichander retained his spot in the top 5 with his only album Remo (courtesy of the youth-appealing numbers), D. Imman gained himself a top 5 ranking because of the mass appeal of his hit numbers from Rajini Murugan (Title song, Enna Ma Ippadi Panreengalae Ma), Miruthan (Title song, Munnal Kaadhali) and Marudu (Karuva Kaatu Karuvaya, Otha Sada Rosa). He also produced some hummable numbers in the record number of work (12 albums) released by him this year alone.
Other Notable Works
Marginally missing the cut was composer Harris Jayaraj who inspite of delivering an instant chartbuster like Halena (Irumugan) failed to do the same with his earlier outing Gethu. Yuvan Shankar Raja delivered quality albums this year like Dharmadurai and Chennai 28 (Part 2), with the single Makka Kelanguthappa from the former, proving to be an instant hit for a folk number. Similarly Ilayaraja delivered some excellent background score in his 1000th composition Thara Thappatai, which earned him a National Film Award. While on one hand an established composer like GV prakash was seen giving both captivating as well as faltering numbers with his music (Visaranai, Theri, Kadavul Irukan Kumaru), on the other hand some noteworthy musicians like Nivas K Prasanna (Zero, Sethupathi), Justin Prabhakar (Oru Naal Koothu) and Darbuka Siva (Kidari) came across as promising this year.
Top 10 Albums(In Order of release date)
- Zero
- Ko2
- Iraivi
- Oru Naal Koothu
- Kabali
- Joker
- Kidaari
- Irumugan
- Remo
- Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada
Top 5 Background Scores
- Thaarai Thappatai (Ilayaraja)
- Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada (ARR)
- Chennai 600028 - II (Yuvan Shankar Raja)
- Aandavan Kattalai (K)
- Joker (Sean Roldan)
Other Awards
- Best Lyric writer : Uma Devi ( Maya Nadhi - Kabali)
- Best Mass number : Neruppuda (Kabali)
- Best Folk number: Makka Kalanguthappa ( Dharma Durai)
- Best Western number : Halena ( Iru Mugan)
- Best Male Singer: Sean Roldan (Adiye Azhage - Oru Naal Koothu)
- Best Female Singer: Nandini Srikar ( Kannama- Rekka)