Playback singer Charulatha Mani, whose Anju Vanna Poove from Thug Life turned into a chart-topping favourite, is back with a breezy new independent single, Thendralil. And this time, she’s not just lending her voice, she’s wearing three hats as composer, singer and lyricist. Launched recently by Makkal Selvan Vijay Sethupathi, the track drifts through images of the ocean, sunlit sands and restless waves, capturing a tender story of love and longing.
Talking to Indulge, Charulatha says, “I had been meaning to compose for a while. I studied composition at the conservatorium in Australia, and I am also Carnatic-trained here as a singer. So I felt it was the right time to bring all of that together and do something fun and creative from my own perspective, and tell a story. I often write poems in Tamil, but I never really had the courage to say them out loud. Then everyone in my family said it is nice, you just need to have the confidence to do it. So finally, at the beginning of last year, I brought all of this together. After Anju Vannapoovai, my visibility and profile had improved, so it also felt like the right time to explore growing as an artiste.”
The song, she reveals, arrived rather organically. “One afternoon I was sitting with my guitar, just experimenting with three or four chords, and the hook came quite naturally. Then I wrote and shaped the swaras and the first two stanzas. It all came together from there. I took my time with it, especially the production side. I also recorded a live sarangi because I really loved its sound. My good friend and wonderful artiste Manonmani played the sarangi. Then the mixing and mastering were done professionally by Midhun Manoj. After that, Divo Music came on board. They took the song and created a video with a young, motivated creative team. The director, Dharen Karthik, led the visual storytelling that features Maalavika and Dhavan. They also used my lyrics to help shape the narrative.”
At its heart, Thendralil is a love song, though it carries a quiet emotional depth. “The song has a feminist lens in a way, but that is not the central intention. I wrote it as a simple love song from a girl’s perspective. She is missing her partner who is away for work, and she longs for his presence. The story is set on a beach. She sits by the shore thinking about her lover who has gone across the seas. I wrote it during a time when my husband was in the United States for a few months and I was here. One afternoon I was having coffee and missing him, and it just came from that feeling.”
The music video leans into that emotional core, adding a touch of drama. “In the video, the narrative developed further. The team asked me about the meaning of each line and built the story around it. It became quite celebratory and dramatic. He goes out fishing; she worries about him, and asks him not to go. He reassures her that he will return. At one point, she believes something has happened to him, but later she finds a necklace she had given him on the shore. Eventually he returns at dusk, and although there is a sense of struggle and separation, it ends happily. The ocean, the sand, the sun, and the waves all frame this emotional journey of love and longing.”
Charulatha also makes a brief appearance in the video and was completely at ease in front of the camera. “I was comfortable in front of the camera. I have been on camera before, including television work and some acting experiences, so this did not feel like acting as such. It was more about performing and singing on screen,” she says.
Stepping into the role of composer, however, proved to be both liberating and testing. “As a composer, this was a new experience for me. As a singer, especially with a Carnatic and improvisational background, we often interpret songs in our own way even when someone else has composed them. But doing everything myself was both exhilarating and isolating. It felt like being given complete creative freedom for the first time, and then constantly checking in with yourself. That process really strengthened my confidence. It is just you making all the decisions, so you experience both freedom and pressure. I learned a lot about self-confidence and trusting my instincts. I had to question everything, from instrumentation to melody choices, even the level of ornamentation I wanted.”
Her meeting with Vijay Sethupathi, who launched the track, was just as memorable. “It was a very pleasant experience. We were discussing who would be a good person to launch the song, as it has a very earthy and authentic Tamil feel. Someone suggested his name, and we all immediately felt he was the right choice because he embodies natural Tamil cinema in a very genuine way. We approached him through Seenu Ramasamy, a family friend and director who supported the project. Everything happened quite quickly. We met him, and interestingly, he said he had already seen some of my performances, which was very encouraging. He listened to the song and said he really liked the melody. He felt it had a strong groove and was very catchy. The meeting itself was very warm and natural, and he was very open and appreciative.”
Looking ahead, Charulatha is keen to build on this momentum. “There is a strong independent music wave happening, and many singers are now exploring that space. I would like to release more independent songs regularly, but also eventually score for films because I enjoy creating themes and motifs. With my background in Western classical and opera as well, I like the idea of associating themes with characters and emotions, and developing that into film music. I would also like to collaborate with directors and build musical narratives together. At the same time, I am working on discipline. I realise it is important not to treat this as a one-off experience but to keep releasing work consistently.”
She signs off on a buoyant note: “I am also singing for upcoming films with some very good composers, and I have more independent music coming up. Overall, it feels like a good phase creatively, and interestingly, composing has also made me a better singer because I understand a composer’s intention more deeply now.”
For more updates, join/follow our
https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb677uz60eBXiDYheb0n