Balabharathy who made a splashy debut with director Selva’s 90s films like Thalaivaasal and Amaravathy makes one more pitch in Selva’s Naanga. His raga-approach (raga mentioned against each song) is an impressive effort even though the tunes seem to depend more on the raga’s inherent beauty than any nuances from the composer, like how Ilayaraja mines it. So, the ‘Kalyani’ Devadhaya, ‘Thilang’ Muthamizhe and ‘Sudha Dhanyasi’ Enadhu Nenjilay work in varying degrees. The song that impresses the most is the ‘Hamsanadham’ Idhazhil; it does not scale Raja’s ‘Thendral vandhu’, but makes a valiant effort nevertheless. The rest is strictly middling.
Keywords: Balabharathy, Bala Bharathy, Selva, Naanga