Naan Mahaan Alla is the soundtrack album to the 2010 film Naan Mahaan Alla directed by Suseenthiran and produced by Studio Green, starring Karthi, Kajal Aggarwal, Jayaprakash and Soori. The soundtrack album featured five songs composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja and lyrics written by Na. Muthukumar and Yugabharathi, and was released through the Think Music label on 24 July 2010.

Background While Suseenthiran earlier worked with V. Selvaganesh for his previous film Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu (2009), he opted for Yuvan Shankar Raja to compose music for Naan Mahaan Alla; he found the background music was crucial in the film's second half, which was the reason for Yuvan's involvement. The film would mark Yuvan's third collaboration with Karthi after Paruthiveeran (2007) and Paiyaa (2010).

The film's soundtrack featured five songs, while only three of them were used in the film in their entirety. The track "Oru Maalai Neram" was excluded from the film; the song was performed by Javed Ali and Shilpa Rao, the latter in her Tamil playback debut. The song "Va Va Nilava Pudichi" is repeated at the end of the album, with singer Rahul Nambiar credited for both. Nambiar, however, stated on his Facebook site that two versions were recorded featuring his and Haricharan's voice, respectively, but that both songs in the album were rendered by Haricharan only and his own version wasn't included at all.

According to Karthi, Yuvan worked for 12 days for the score of the second half, which "hardly has any dialogues", adding that he was the one "who narrates the story in the second half through his music".

Release The soundtrack album was released on 24 July 2010 at Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai. Besides the film's cast and crew, the event saw the attendance of directors Hari, N. Lingusamy, Vetrimaaran, Vishnuvardhan, Ezhil, music composer Devi Sri Prasad, producers Dayanidhi Azhagiri and Abhirami Ramanathan. The audio CD was unveiled by Hari and received by Lingusamy.

Reception The song "Iragai Pole" became hugely popular, topping the charts for several weeks. It has been ranked as one of the popular songs of 2010.

Critical response Pavithra Srinivasan, in his review for Rediff.com, wrote that "there are many moments when Yuvan slips into "template" mode, when he simply flips out an older tune to suit newer purposes. But there are also moments when he shows his creative side, and those make the entire song light up – Iragai Pole is an example" and called the album as "worth a listen". Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog wrote "Two super hit soundtrack, in essence".

A reviewer from Sify wrote "Yuvan Shankar Raja's music (Irgai Pole is the pick) and background score is spellbinding." Renju Joseph of News18 wrote "The music by Yuvan Shankar Raja has a feel-good flavour." Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu wrote "Just four songs—and Yuvan mesmerises! Mostly shot as montages, the numbers keep the tempo intact."

Track listing

Accolades +Accolades for Naan Mahaan Alla (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) and nominee(s) Result Vijay Music Awards11 May 2011Best Song Sung by a Music Director (Jury)Yuvan Shankar Raja for "Iragai Pole"Filmfare Awards South2 July 2011Best Music DirectorYuvan Shankar RajaBest Male PlaybackYuvan Shankar Raja for "Iragai Pole"Vijay Awards25 June 2011Favourite Song"Iragai Pole"

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