Maanaadu (transl. Conference) is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language science fiction action thriller film written and directed by Venkat Prabhu and produced by Suresh Kamatchi. The film stars Silambarasan, S. J. Suryah and Kalyani Priyadarshan alongside S. A. Chandrasekhar, Y. G. Mahendran, Karunakaran and Premgi Amaren in supporting roles. The film's music and score is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, with cinematography handled by Richard M. Nathan and editing done by Praveen K. L. It revolves around a common man and a police officer, who is trapped in a time loop, at the day of a public conference of the chief minister and forced to live the same day over and over again.
The project was announced on 9 July 2018, thereby becoming Venkat Prabhu's first collaboration with Silambarasan. Despite, the extensive pre-production work which went for over a year, the producer ousted Silambarasan from the project in August 2019, citing his unprofessional behaviour, and planned to choose another actor for his role instead.[1][2] With few controversies, the issue was resolved in November 2019, after Silambarasan agreed to allot his dates for the film.[3]

Filming began on 19 February 2020 at Chennai, following a preliminary announcement about the cast and crew.[4] Despite shooting being affected twice due to the restrictions followed during the first and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the makers wrapped the shooting of the film within July 2021, taking only 68 working days for shooting. It was filmed extensively in Chennai, with sporadic schedules taking place in Pondicherry, Yercaud and Hosur.[5]

The film was earlier scheduled for release on Diwali (4 November 2021), but was postponed to 25 November 2021, to get the benefits of a wide and extended release worldwide. It will also be dubbed and released in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi languages, with the dubbed versions being titled The Loop. The film received highly positive reviews from critics praising the storyline, music, screenplay, direction and performances of Silambarasan and S. J. Suryah

The film's soundtrack is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, after regularly collaborating with Venkat Prabhu and Silambarasan. Madhan Karky was brought in to pen lyrics for all the songs in the soundtrack album. Producer Suresh Kamatchi initially announced that the first single of the film would be released on 14 May 2021, during the occasion of Eid.[93] But due to the COVID-19 lockdown as well as the death of Venkat Prabhu's mother, the release had been postponed indefinitely,[94] and Suresh Kamatchi assured fans to co-operate and planned to release the single post-lockdown.[95] On 9 June 2021, Yuvan Shankar Raja tweeted that he bought the film's audio rights under his own label U1 Records and also announced that the single would be released on the occasion of World Music Day (21 June 2021).[96]

Two days before the single release the makers revealed the title of the song as "Meherezylaa" and featured vocals by Yuvan, Bhavatharini and Rizwan.[97] Yuvan revealed that the song would be "a perfect celebration song" since it place at a wedding ceremony.[98] The song was launched at the Twitter Spaces with the film's cast and crew being present.[99] the album received positive responses from critics M. Suganth of The Times of India called the song "peppy" and "catchy", praising Yuvan for the arrangements of the song influenced with Western and Arabic music styles, adding that "The tune is typical Yuvan, with catchy beats ensuring that you instantly get hooked to the number [...] It is hard to capture the impact and nuances of a song based on just a single listen, but on the whole, Meherezylaa is something that is new for Yuvan".[100]

On the film's promotional event, held on 3 November 2021 (prior to Diwali),[101][102] the makers released the full audio album along with the lyrical song "Voice of Unity", crooned by Silambarasan and Arivu, the latter also wrote lyrics for the track.[103]

All music is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja.