Parugu (soundtrack)

Mani Sharma composed the film's soundtrack and background score in his first collaboration with both Allu Arjun and Bhaskar.^[1] Initially, Devi Sri Prasad was roped in as the film's composer after he previously worked with Bhaskar on Bommarillu (2006), before Sharma replaced him.^[1] Bhaskar described the songs were situational numbers that driven the story forward.^[2] Sirivennela Sitaramasastri penned lyrics for two songs: "Parugulu" and "Hrudayam", whereas Anantha Sreeram penned lyrics for the songs "Nammavemo Gaani", "Yelageyalaga" and "Manakanna Podiche" and Chandrabose wrote lyrics for the song "Chal Chal Chalo".^[2] The songs were performed by Hemachandra, Rahul Nambiar, Kailash Kher, Saindhavi, Ranjith and Saketh.^[3][4]

The film's soundtrack was launched on 29 March 2008 at a promotional event held at Durgam Cheruvu.^[2] The cast and crew attended the function and Chiranjeevi felicitated the event as the chief guest and handed the first cassette to Prakash Raj. The soundtrack was distributed and marketed by Aditya Music.^[5] The soundtrack was a huge success with record number of sales, and the songs "Nammavemo", "Hrudayam" and "Manakanna Podiche" were chart busters. Nammavemo has similarities to the Music Director's own creation, from the 2007 Tamil song, Devadhaiye Vaa Vaa. ^[3][4] The makers conducted another function to distribute double platinum disc shields on 17 May 2008, at Jayabheri Club in Hyderabad.^[6] Except for Bhaskar and Sharma, the rest of the crew attended the event.^[6]

The soundtrack received positive reviews from critics. IndiaGlitz wrote "Manisharma strives hard to make the album a musical hit and he succeeded in it."^[8] Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog wrote "Barring two tracks, Parugu affirms Bhaskar's vision as a director who knows his stuff and can extract good music from his composers – much like he did from Devi Sri Prasad, in his debut venture, Bommarillu."^[9]

Jeevi of Idlebrain.com wrote "Music by Mani Sharma is good. Mani Sharma gave Hollywood texture to the background music (especially the instruments used). Picturization of the songs is pretty good."^[10] Radhikha Rajamani of Rediff.com wrote "Manisharma's music is in sync with the film but perhaps not his best."^[11] A reviewer from Sify, while praising Sharma's music further indicated that "A couple of songs showing Allu Arjun in swing are good, while the remaining numbers are average."^[12]

The songs "Yelageyalaga" and "Manakanna Podiche" were reused by Sharma as "Ready Readya" and "Love Love" for the Tamil film Mappillai (2011).^[13]