Maara is the soundtrack album to the 2021 film of the same name directed by Dhilip Kumar; an adaptation of the Malayalam film "Charlie" (2015), the film starred R. Madhavan and Shraddha Srinath. The film's musical score is composed by Ghibran, whose soundtrack featured ten songs with lyrics written by Thamarai. Three songs—"Yaar Azhaippadhu", "Oru Arai Unathu" and "Oh Azhage"—were released as singles, before the album was released under the Think Music label on 1 January 2021.
Development.
The film's music and background score were composed by Ghibran in his first collaboration with Madhavan. Describing it as a "musical film", Ghibran considered Maara as different from his previous films, which were thrillers and action dramas. Since the film was an adaptation of "Charlie", Ghibran took no references from the original film and provided creative freedom to include specific songs which resulted in the inclusion of the songs being different from the original film. The songs were recorded at Ghibran's studio during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India.
Release.
The film's music and background score were composed by Ghibran, with lyrics written by Thamarai. On 28 October 2020, Think Music India released the lyrical video of the first single "Yaar Azhaippadhu", sung by Sid Sriram. The second single "Oru Arai Unathu", sung by Yazin Nizar and Sanah Moidutty was released on 20 November 2020. The third single "Oh Azhage" sung by Benny Dayal, was released on 4 December 2020. The full album was released on 30 December 2020.
Reception.
M Suganth of "The Times of India" wrote "Ghibran’s evocative music only enhances the joie de vivre that is an undercurrent of this tale." Sudhir Suryawanshi of "The New Indian Express" noted "Ghibran's background music and Thamarai's evocative lyrics add so much to such scenes as well." Karthik Keramalu of "The Quint" wrote "what makes the film watchable mostly is Ghibran’s background score. It holds all the pieces together, as if it were a cupboard of emotions." In contrast, Nirmal Jovial of "The Week" wrote "The film’s music by Ghibran is average. There is not one soul-uplifting song in this film. The background score is too loud at times."
Avinash Ramachandran in his analysis of Tamil film music in 2021, noted that Ghibran's music along with the soundtrack of "Master", "burst with an identity, a soul".
Personnel.
Credits adapted from CD liner notes: