Mersal is the soundtrack of the 2017 Indian vigilante action film of the same name directed by Atlee, which stars Vijay in a triple role with Nithya Menen, Kajal Aggarwal and Samantha as the female leads.

Since Atlee's norm collaborator G. V. Prakash Kumar, who worked with him on Raja Rani and Theri, became busy with his acting commitments, the director had plans to rope a different composer for this film, with S. Thaman being speculated for the project.

[15] Hindustan Times wrote "In typical AR Rahman style, it moves from a beats-intensive tempo to soft-lilting melodious moments in a seamless fashion".

[18][19] Other songs in the tracklist are: "Maacho" sung by Sid Sriram and Shweta Mohan, and "Mersal Arasan" which was recorded by G. V. Prakash Kumar, Naresh Iyer, Sharanya Srinivas, T. G. Vishwaprasad.

[20] The soundtrack album was highly anticipated by film buffs as it marked the decade-long collaboration between Vijay and Rahman as well as their first release in their silver-jubilee years.

[33] The audio event was streamed live on the official YouTube channel of the music label, and also via Facebook and Twitter through the accounts of the production house.

V. Lakshmi from The Times of India rated three-and-a-half out of five stars, stating that "Rahman has been on an experimental mode in his last few albums, and he continues experimenting in 'Mersal' as well, especially with tunes and indigenous instruments.

She further added that "whether it comes to highly energetic tracks such as 'Aalaporaan Thamizhan' or 'Mersal Arasan', Rahman accentuates the effusive lyrics by beating the drums heavily at the turn of each phrase".

[39] Writing for BollywoodLife.com, Karthika Raveendran stated that "with an album like this, the music maestro (AR Rahman) hasn't lost his sheen, magic or his ability to surprise even after 25 years".

All tracks are written by VivekThe success of the soundtrack prompted its contributor Vivek, to become a leading lyricist in a short span of time after his debut work in 36 Vayadhinile.