music and cinematography are considered the calling cards for a film and in that sense the team behind thani oruvan seems to have hit their mark as the audio and the visuals of the film have been gathering praise from many quarters hip hop tamizha adhi the composer for the jayam ravinayantharastarrer says that director mohan raja wanted the essence of his independent music projects he wanted social messagedriven music that im known for so this film was a return to my indie roots says adhi and adds even the two romantic numbers that i had to compose are not in the usual filmsong format raja had screened the scenes so that adhi could get an idea of how to approach the songs and the background score during one recording session the idea of themes for the hero and the villain struck him i suggested the idea to raja anna and that is how theemai dhaan vellum and aasai peraasai were born we brought in jayam ravi and arvind swami and wrote the lyrics freestyle by jamming together arvind even told me after rahman im recording only for you says adhi cinematographer ramji says that he thought raja was seeking him out for a family entertainer ive mostly been shooting for films with dark subjects and was looking for something sunny and because hes done family films i thought raja wanted me for one such project but he surprised me by saying it was a thriller he says ramji reveals they have shot thani oruvan mostly on film he explains digital can pack in too much detail i didnt want that i wanted the subtlety you get in film only the climax and a flashback portion were shot in digital since they wanted to make the villain more glamorous than the hero the cinematographer lit up the set for the artist rather than according to the script but this move has paid off as people are appreciating me for the shots that have arvind swami he says for one duet ramji shot the leads in close range even though the setting was a beach ive used more closeup shots to showcase the intimacy between the hero and the heroine he says