Agni Natchathiram (soundtrack)

Agni Natchathiram is the soundtrack to the 1988 Tamil-language film of the same name directed by Mani Ratnam and produced by G. Venkateswaran, starring Prabhu, Karthik, Amala and Nirosha. The film associated Ratnam's norm collaborators—composer Ilaiyaraaja and lyricist Vaali—whose soundtrack album featured six tracks. It was released through the Echo label on a double LP record, with three on each sides. The soundtrack consisted of electronic and synth-pop music, where most of the Carnatic melodies in the songs were fused with modern instrumentation. For the Telugu dubbed version titled Gharsana, all the lyrics are written by Rajasri.

Development
As Agni Natchathiram was filmed simultaneously with Nayakan (1987), Ilaiyaraaja too worked on both the films with the latter's score—consisted of only orchestra and string instruments—recorded in the mornings, and the former in the evening. It's music predominantly consisted of electronic and synth-pop; Ratnam's influence of western media through vidéothèques interested him to make an "Hollywood-style urban action film" but failing to do so, he instead decided to use electronic music in the film's score "to push the envelope in terms of style"; Ilaiyaraaja too had an exposure with the genre, as he previously used synthesizers for composing Punnagai Mannan (1986).

"Raaja Raajathi" was composed without string instruments, instead it fused synth-pop with jazz in the second interlude, and drums played by drummer R. Purushothaman. The opening stanza of the song was composed with two notes. Despite the dominance of electronic music, most of the songs were set in Carnatic ragas; "Vaa Vaa Anbe Anbe" is in Shivaranjani, "Thoongatha Vizhigal" is in Amritavarshini,  "Oru Poonga Vanam" is in Sudhadhanyasi, and "Ninnukkori Varnam" is in Mohanam. The song was sampled with synthesizers in the interludes.

Reception
Srushtisagar Yamunan of Scroll.in called Agni Natchathiram as the "trendsetter" for introducing "the sounds of electronic funk and synthetic pop" to the Tamil music listeners. The album achieved significant popularity post-release, with the track "Ninnukori Varanam" in particular. At the 9th Cinema Express Awards, Ilaiyaraaja won the Best Music Director award for his work in the film, along with Soora Samhaaram and Dharmathin Thalaivan.

Legacy
Anand–Milind adapted the song "Raaja Rajadhi" as "Tap Tap Tapori" for Baaghi (1990), and "Ninnukori Varnam" was sampled by musician Karthik for "Thooriga" from "Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru", an episode of Navarasa (2021). "Raja Rajadhi" was remixed by D. Imman for the film Durai (2008). In 2020, independent artists Malfnktion and Raka Ashok released an extended play, named as Raaja Beats, which juxtaposed Ilaiyaraaja's songs with bass and hip-hop sampled. Three of the songs: "Raaja Rajadhi", "Vaa Vaa Anbe" and "Ninnukori Varnam" were sampled for the album.

Popular culture
The song "Ninnu Kori Varnam" was parodied for a comedy sequence in the film Themmangu Paattukaaran (1997) featuring Goundamani, Senthil and LIC Narasimhan, where the latter comically pronounces the first line of the song. "Raaja Rajadhi" was parodied in the film 7G Rainbow Colony (2004), where Ravi Krishna and his friends perform the song on stage.