The feature film soundtrack to the 2018 Indian Tamil-language coming-of-age romance film of the same name is composed by Govind Vasantha. The film starred Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha in the leading roles, and was directed by cinematographer C. Prem Kumar in his directorial debut. It revolves around two high school sweethearts, Ram and Jaanu, hailing from the batch of 1996 parted ways, and they meet at a reunion after 22 years. Govind was hired as the film's composer, following his relationship with Balaji Tharaneetharan during the production of Oru Pakka Kathai, where Prem Kumar handled the cinematography for the film. The delay over the film's release meant that 96 becoming the composer's third film to be released after Solo (2017) and Asuravadham (2018).
The soundtrack had eight songs in total; five of them featured only in the film. Govind had made use of minimal instruments in the film and had two playback singers Pradeep Kumar and Chinmayi, providing vocals to most of the songs in the film's soundtrack, and also serving as playback for the lead characters. One of the tracks "Kaathalae Kaathalae", was initially meant to be an instrumental, not being included in the album. But, as it received rave response, after being featured in the teaser, the song was released as a single from the film on 30 July 2018. The album in its entirety was released on 24 August 2018 by Think Music India, and opened to widespread critical acclaim from music critics, praising Govind for the music production and instrumentation, which were considered to be "fresh and vibrant" unlike mainstream songs dominated by EDM-based soundscape prevalent in Tamil films. It was further certified as the "best Tamil soundtracks of 2018". It also received wide consumer response from the audience and the songs, particularly "Kaathalae Kaathalae" topped radio and music charts. It eventually became a breakthrough for Govind Vasantha, who went on to work with prominent celebrities in the Tamil film industry.
The music of the film was nominated at several award ceremonies including Filmfare Awards South, where it won three awards at the Tamil branch — Best Music Director (Govind Vasantha), Best Lyricist (Karthik Netha) and Best Female Playback Singer (Chinmayi). The album won two awards each at the Norway Tamil Film Festival Awards (out of three nominations), Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards and Behindwoods Gold Medal Awards. The album was nominated at three categories at the Edison Awards and four at the South Indian International Movie Awards, but did not receive any win. Film critics had highlighted the songs, score and use of film music as metaphor, is considered as one of the factors, that had contributed to the film's success, apart from the performances of the lead actors, direction, scripting and other technical aspects.
Background Govind Vasantha (formerly credited as Govind Menon) signed his maiden Tamil project Oru Pakka Kathai, directed by Balaji Tharaneetharan in September 2014. During the period of delay over the film's release, following financial constraints, C. Prem Kumar, who worked on that film as the cinematographer, roped him for 96. Eventually, it was his third Tamil film to be released, the first being Solo (2017), where he was one of the 22 ensemble artists worked in the film and Asuravadham (2018), as a single composer. Prem Kumar believed that even before the film's shooting, the music would be an integral part of the film, saying that "though the film not being a musical drama, the emotions revolving around the characters will be conveyed through the music". As the film's story being set in one night, Govind said "I knew the characters in their entirety, their past and their future which didn't feature in the film. Maintaining the mood wasn't the challenge, but making sure the tunes didn't resemble each other was tricky".
Though the original soundtrack album had eight songs, five of them were featured only in the film. Three of the songs in the album are in a duration of about 5–7 minutes. The album had a minimal use of singers and instruments with only the guitar and violin interludes used in the film songs. Chinmayi and Pradeep Kumar were the playback singers for the lead characters Jaanu (Trisha) and Ram (Vijay Sethupathi), and predominantly contributed for most of the tracks. Govind Vasantha eventually recorded two songs for the film. The other singers were Gowri TP, who dubbed for the younger version of the character Jaanu (Gouri G. Kishan), and carnatic musician Bhadra Rajin. Since the director and composer felt that "her character was musically inclined and had wanted an artiste who could dub as well as sing", Govind initially zeroed another singer despite knowing that Chinmayi earlier gave voice-over for Trisha in the film Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (2010), he approached her and immediately agreed to be on-board after she liked the story.
Production The first song to be composed for the film was "Anthaathi", which had a poetry written by the director Prem Kumar was added to the end of the song, and recited by actor Nassar, though he did not act in the film. Govind took more than six months for the composition, because he felt difficult to crack that song. Govind said that "Anthaathi" is the central piece of the film's album, which was meant to be a love anthem with a holistic perspective on love. Govind made use of carnatic elements infused with rock-and-pop mix, a huge choir ensemble was used for the larger-than-life-experience, the song is about. He composed for promotional purposes and not used in the film. Eventually, when he watched the final cut with the team, he asked Prem Kumar to use the track in the film.
While working on the track, he produced another slower and ambient version of that song named as "Kaathalae Kaathalae", since "he was in the mood for composing that track". He did not want to include the song in the soundtrack album or in the film; it was later included in the first 1-minute teaser that was released on 12 July 2018. Later, as the song went viral, Govind reinstated the plans to work on it and a 3-minute song has been made from it which went on to be featured in the album as well as in the film. After multiple requests from fans, the song eventually released as the lead single from the album on 30 July. The song was sung by Chinmayi and Govind Vasantha. He produced two alternate versions of that song, with one of them being crooned by veteran playback singer Kalyani Menon. It was her last song to be recorded before her death in August 2021. In an interview with The Hindu, Govind said that he composed that song within 15–20 minutes. It was eventually planned to be an instrumental track featuring only the violin interlude but went with the flow and composed as a vocal song. He did not edit the film according to the song, and was included in the rough cut.
For the track "Vasantha Kalangal", Govind composed a one-minute and fifteen-second guitar interlude appear in the introductory part of the song which communicates about loneliness. The track titled "Life of Ram" was recorded within 10 minutes. The album was eventually recorded using classical and unprocessed sounds, since Prem Kumar wanted the music to be subtle and "the songs to be cut from the same piece of cloth as the background score". In addition to the soundtrack album, Govind planned to reuse the original numbers composed by Ilaiyaraaja being included in the film and then release it into a separate soundtrack album, while Think Music decided to negotiate the rights for the albums from the respective music labels. One of the songs titled "Yamunai Aatrile" sung by Chinmayi was released on 15 February 2019. However, the plan was dropped as Ilaiyaraaja accused the music director for using his yesteryear compositions, though the director had obtained permission from him.
Critical reception
Songs The album received rave reviews from music critics saying it as one of the 'best Tamil soundtracks of 2018'. A critic from The Indian Express wrote, "Govind gives us an eclectic yet symbiotic soundscape, a soundtrack that brims with emotion that touches your soul. The entire album just takes you to a place where you forget everything, except the world it creates." Surendhar MK of Firstpost called the soundtrack of 96 "as a breath of fresh air" as he felt that "Tamil music scene was being dominated by EDM-laden pieces and heavily auto-tuned vocals". Further calling it as "effusively enthusiastic", Surendhar praised Govind for bringing out "a vibrant and rhapsodic soundscape that is chock-full with the most original sounds". Sharanya CR of The Times of India wrote, "Govind Vasantha gives us one of the best albums of this year and sets a benchmark for romance in Kollywood".
Behindwoods gave a review saying "Heart-melting lyrics and soul-wrenching music that oozes with love!" giving a rating of 3.5 out of 5. Indiaglitz scored 3.25 for the soundtrack and said "Mostly on the melancholic side, understanding the album of its core theme will help appreciate it even more". Suhansid Srikanth of Moviecrow gave 4 out of 5 stars and stated the album as "a cassette you would want to have on your pack in your travel" and "a mood piece with its heart all over". He further went onto say "Govind Vasantha's indieness along with the sereneness in the vocals of Chinmayi and Pradeep Kumar (who have sung most of the songs) breaks all the conventional patterns in the structure, rhythm and even the rendition and lyric flow of the songs."
Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion stated it as a "one-of-a-kind album that takes you on a trip into unknown territories" and "breathes love right from start to finish, and approaches it in a way like never before." Rangan praised Govind Vasantha for giving "a lovable soundtrack that had a long-standing effect on the listeners", further calling it as "a brilliance of the highest order". Srinivasa Ramanujam of The Hindu called the soundtrack as a "musical masterpiece"; praising the composer for bringing "beautiful unconventional tunes with the help of two exceptional singers crooning the beautiful lyrics by Uma devi and Karthik Netha". Vipin Nair of Music Aloud wrote, "Govind Vasantha finally gets his well-deserved big break in Tamil, and knocks it right out of the park!", giving it a score of 4.5 (out of 5). Karthik Srinivasan from Milliblog called it "easily the best Tamil soundtrack of the year", as did Siddharth K. from Sify who also called it "one unique musical experience". On the contrary, Archana Nathan of Scroll.in wrote that "the soundtrack is dramatically different from [Govind] Vasantha's previous compositions in Malayalam cinema. Unfortunately, barring a few instances of brilliance, the rest of the soundtrack does not leave much of an impression, except for two songs – Anthaathi and Kaathale Kaathale – all tracks seem to embody a similar sombre and intense mood that works well only in a few places."
Film score