Kadal (pronunciation^ⓘ) is the soundtrack album composed by A. R. Rahman for the 2013 Tamil film of the same name, directed by Mani Ratnam that stars Gautham Karthik and Thulasi Nair in the lead roles. Noted poet-lyricist Vairamuthu and his son Madhan Karky penned lyrics for three songs each. Sri Lankan rapper Aaryan Dinesh Kanagaratnam made his debut for Indian cinema with one of the songs. The album was released under Sony Music India on 28 November 2012.

Director Mani Ratnam's usual associate music composer, A. R. Rahman was signed to compose the songs as well as the background score for the film. Rahman visited Mani Ratnam at one of the filming locations near coastal areas of Thiruchendur where they had a boat ride into the sea to discuss about the songs.^[1] In an interview, Rahman stated that the music of Kadal is a blend of Christian gospel, blues and Carnatic music as the film plot portrays Christian fishermen.^[2] Rahman claimed the sea to be a huge inspiration and hence the song "Chithirai Nila" was born out of this inspiration. As Mani Ratnam insisted on romantic numbers, Rahman composed "Nenjukulley" and "Moongil Thottam" in the same tempo.^[3] The songs were alternate choices for Ratnam but he retained both.^[3] On composition of song "Adiye", according to the composer, most Christian gospel songs have a blues feel to them. However, he clubbed the folk genre with jazz vocal backing into it as picturisation was to be done on a village boy. Initially, Ratnam wanted the composer to croon the track but the latter had already finalised "Elay Keechan" and hence "Adiye" was sung by Sid Sriram.^[4] The operatic Italian version of song "Anbin Vaasale", sung by Natalie Di Luccio was used in the background score of the film.^[5] A gibberish song sung by A.R. Rahman, used only in the film was featured on the character Celina (played by Lakshmi Manchu).

The soundtrack features seven songs and two of the songs penned by Vairamuthu are taken from "A Compilation of Vairamuthu's Poems" and third one from his work about sea odyssey, Thanner Thesam.^[6][7] The song "Magudi Magudi" features vocals and lyrics by Sri Lankan rapper Aaryan Dinesh Kanagaratnam.^[8][9]

Sony Music India procured the audio rights of the soundtrack.^[10] On 2 November 2012, an unplugged version of the song "Nenjukulle" was performed by Shakthisree Gopalan in the first episode of MTV Unplugged India: Season 2, aired over MTV India channel. In an interview, Rahman stated that the performed unplugged song would differ slightly from the soundtrack version.^[11][12] The song garnered overwhelming response with positive feedback from several viewers over the internet.^[13] The official soundtrack version of the song was released as a single on 21 November 2012.^[14] The track "Elay Keechan" was released as a promotional single on 25 November 2012.^[15] The complete album was initially supposed to be released on 12 November 2012,^[16] although lyricist Karky as well as several media reports confirmed the same,^[17] the officials of Madras Talkies denied such release schedules.^[18] The soundtrack album was scheduled to release on 30 November 2012,^[19] but due to tremendous pre-booking orders, the audio label advanced the release by two days.^[20]