Aarum Kaanathe by Najeem Arshad, Rajalekshmi, Nisanth Thapasya

The Secrets album has several strong tracks, but Aarum Kaanathe is the one most listeners come back to first. Najeem Arshad, Rajalekshmi, Nisanth Thapasya sets the tone from the very first bar — it is clear from the opening notes that this song means business.

The performance by Najeem Arshad, Rajalekshmi, Nisanth Thapasya is the centrepiece here — controlled where it needs to be, open where it counts. For fans of a talented ensemble cast, Aarum Kaanathe is one of those songs that immediately conjures specific scenes and emotions.

2022 marked the release of Secrets, and Aarum Kaanathe was the track that ensured the album would be remembered. Listeners have described the experience of Aarum Kaanathe differently — romantic, melancholic, uplifting — which suggests the song is large enough to hold many truths.

In 4:10 minutes, Aarum Kaanathe builds, opens up, and resolves in a way that feels complete rather than truncated. It is, simply, one of the better songs to come from Malayalam in recent memory — and the numbers agree.