Sivaji: The Boss

A.R. Rahman lives up to his reputation as one of India's best music composers with this film.

When Tamil cinema's biggest names such as Rajnikant, Shankar and A. R. Rahman join hands in Sivaji: The Boss, the soundtrack of the film has to be the most awaited music release of the year. Millions of Rajnikant's die-hard fans have enough reasons to celebrate as Rahman has delivered the goods this time – unlike the last fiasco Baba, which was one of the most unexpected disappointments in Rajnikant's and Rahman's careers.

Sivaji's soundtracks starts with Balleilakka, a typical Rajnikant introductory number sung with gusto by none other than S. P. Balasubramaniam. The next track Style will definitely appeal to the youth with its funky music and rendition. Vaaji Vaaji Sivaji is a winner all the way with Hariharan and Madushree singing melodiously to Rahman's foot tapping beats. Apparently a whopping Rs30 million has been spent making this song a visual treat.

The energetic fourth track Athiradee, sung by Rahman and Sayonara, should become the most popular song in Tamil Nadu in the next few months. Rahman's voice is the highlight of this song. These first four songs are enough to fullfill fans' expectations, but the good songs just continue to roll. Sahana for example, is a pleasant number that has been soulfully rendered by popular Bollywood singers Udit Narayan and Chinmayi. The theme song The Boss will definitely sound better onscreen with Rajnikant's charismatic personality. The album ends with Sahara, which is another version of Sahana.

The soundtrack is already turning out to be a big money spinner and helping the cause of spreading the craze that Sivaji is turning out to be in South India.

When the soundtrack was released on April 2, 2007, Rajnikant fans queued across Tamil Nadu from the wee hours to get their hands on copies of the album. One fan came with a mini CD player, listened to the songs outside the music store and on being highly satisfied with the music, started distributing sweets to other fans.

A record 80,000 CDs were snared from all the stores in Tamil Nadu by the second day of the release and CDs were being sold in the black market at three times the retail price.

Even Mumbai, soaked as it is in Bollywood glamour, was not spared the Sivaji craze. The album has got some newfound non-Tamil speaking music fans in India's film capital.

The UAE with its expat Tamil population, has always had a strong Rajnikant fan base and the release of the soundtrack could not go unnoticed. Rajnikant fans were anxiously visiting music stores regularly in Dubai and Sharjah to inquire about the release of the OST. The initial lot of CDs were lapped up instantly, which only proves one thing. Sivaji's music should end up becoming the best selling Tamil soundtrack in the UAE if present sales figures are anything to go by.

Don't be surprised to see a dubbed Hindi version of the Sivaji soundtrack in the near future.