Nanban (soundtrack)

Nanban is the soundtrack to the 2012 Tamil-language coming-of-age comedy-drama film of the same name directed by S. Shankar, starring Vijay, Jiiva, and Srikanth. Produced by Gemini Film Circuit, the film as an adaptation of Rajkumar Hirani's 3 Idiots (2009). The soundtrack to the film, features six tracks composed by Harris Jayaraj and lyrics written by Pa. Vijay, Viveka, Na. Muthukumar and Madhan Karky. The film's soundtrack was launched on 23 December 2011 through the company's subsidiary Gemini Audio. For the Telugu-dubbed version, Snehitudu, the album features six tracks written by Sirivennela Sitaramasastri, Vanamali, Ramajogayya Sastry. The soundtrack was also released on 19 January 2012.

Development
Harris Jayaraj and Yuvan Shankar Raja were initially approached to compose the film's music, while Shankar chose the former, whom he had worked in Anniyan (2005). This film also marks Jayaraj's first collaboration with Vijay. Albeit being a remake, Jayaraj and Shankar did not want to reuse any tracks from the original film, and had composed six tunes in the process intended to fulfill fan's expectations. Karky penned two songs for the film "Asku Laska" and "Enthan Kan Munne", the former is his 25th song as a lyricist. To experiment with the lyrics, he penned the first stanza in more than 16 different languages, expressing the word 'love'. The track "Heartile Battery" penned by Na. Muthukumar is a folk song set in Shuddha Dhanyasi raga. The film's teaser featured the song "En Frienda Pola" which received appreciation from audiences. The song is a montage number, which is based on friendship and the track also featured couple of English lyrics penned by Viveka, after the internet phenomenon of "Why This Kolaveri Di".

Release
The soundtrack album was released on 23 December 2011. The release coincided with the Harris: On The Edge concert tour held at the Hindusthan College of Arts and Science in Coimbatore. Preceded by the cast and crew and other celebrities, the event was attended by around 19,000 fans. The soundtrack to Snehithudu was launched at another event on 20 January 2012 in Hyderabad. It saw the attendance of the cast and crew, along with Ram Charan Teja and Dil Raju (the film's distributor). Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Sharman Joshi, who were part of the original film 3 Idiots, were also present at the event.

Reception
IndiaGlitz.com described at as a "mesmerizing" music album. Behindwoods.com labelled it a "winner all the way", with Jayaraj's successful streak continued with this film. Vipin Nair of Music Aloud called it as a "commendable job" from the composer. On the contrary, Pavithra Srinivasan from Rediff said that Harris Jayaraj had "obviously taken the safe route, sticking to his usual template for most of the songs in this album".