Breakdown: Thenmerku Paruvakaatru, AR Rahman
Rain, wind and love woven into music. Diving into the production of a quintessential A.R. Rahman track.
I’m excited to make my first post here! It’s A.R. Rahman’s birthday today. What better way to celebrate than by writing about a song by the Isai Puyal himself?
Thenmerku Paruvakaatru is one of the standout hits from the A.R. Rahman soundtrack for the 1994 Bharathiraja film, Karuthamma. This song is a masterclass in sound-design and in many ways, a quintessential Rahman track.
The song’s lyrics and visuals revolve around the monsoon winds, rain and the love that sprouts between a young couple. In an album filled with some excellent folk numbers and deep tracks befitting the film’s setting and serious tone, Thenmerku Paruvakaatru is a breath of fresh air.
Sound Design
What blows me away is how rich the song sounds, while staying quite minimalistic in the grand scheme of things. In an era where orchestras and layers upon layers of programmed keyboards were the norm, Rahman manages to pull off a heist with just three key ingredients:
Percussion
Vocal Melody
Synth Pads & Lead
There's no fancy or overdone production, but what he does bring to the table, hits hard, and brings fullness.
Percussion in the driver’s seat.
Percussion is the king of this track, filling the lower frequencies, and setting the rhythm of the track all on its own.
Rahman pairs a good old kick on every beat with multiple percussive elements like claps and brushes. The percussion creates a pitter-patter effect, almost like… rainfall. The occasional tabla patterns and raindrop sounds add some spice to the space he creates.
Yet again, Rahman creates an extremely wide soundstage (the three-dimensional space we perceive music in while wearing a pair of headphones). He achieves this by panning different percussive elements to either side of the stereo channel to create depth.
It's quite something to close your eyes and listen to. I’d kill for an opportunity to listen to a 5.1 or Dolby Atmos remaster of this track.
While the rest of the track might be minimal in production, the percussion definitely isn't. There is just so much going on. I could swear I heard mouth-clicking noises at the 3-minute mark.
The Melody
The vocal melody in this track is outstanding. Vairamuthu’s lyrics complement the tune that darts up and down, and the vocals have an excellent rhythm on my own. Pause the song and read them out in tune, and you’ll see how wonderfully the fast-paced lyrics are interspersed by slower, long drawn out words.
As far as the mix goes, Rahman throws a lot of reverb on Chitra and Unnikrishnan’s sweet vocals, with a long tail. This adds to the ethereality of the track as the vocals feel like they linger, even after the words are gone. The only downside being that the sibilance is a little overwhelming at times (the hissing noise you hear when the letter ‘s’ comes up).
And that's it. For the majority of the time, there's not much else going on. The occasional synth pad kicks in (like at 0:50) to complement the vocals and add some ambience, before some lovely synth driven interludes.
I’d write a ton about the interludes themselves, but I’ll wrap it up by saying they add a richness and something incredibly fresh to the track in between verses.
This song is in many ways trademark Rahman. Incredible percussion, a great melody, minimal instrumentation and some great interludes. Another song I love that fits the same bill is Mayilirage from Anbe Aaruyire (Ah Aah).
If you like this song, or know more like it, leave a comment below! Subscribe to to get posts delivered directly to your inbox!