June ponal – Unnale Unnale (Harris Jeyaraj, Tamil)
Despite the uncanny similarity to Blue’s All Rise (only in terms of the tune pattern, and not necessarily the tune per se!), this is one thoroughly enjoyable track. Harris churns out a neat pop ditty thats very addictive.
Aasmani chatri – Blue Umbrella (Vishal Bharadwaj, Hindi)
Man, what is this guy made of? On one hand he makes movies critics rave about and on the other he composes music that always manages to raise the bar on movie soundtracks. In this song, Vishal plays out a fantastic range of sounds to create a charming song.
Anbey anbedhaan – Kannum Kannum (Dhina, Tamil)
Despite being tagged as a 2nd rung composer, Dhina gets a clear winner here. The orchestration, interludes, vocals….everything is simply of very high quality.
Pogadhey – Deepavali (Yuvan Shankar Raja, Tamil)
Sounding more like Rahman, with a casual tone bordering on the off-track, Yuvan creates a fabulous ballad with small, interesting innovations like a varying pallavi (antara) and that pleasing, extended 2nd interlude.
Perundhil nee enakku – Pori (Dhina, Tamil)
The 2nd Dhina track in this list…this must be his lucky month! This one is as cherished as Dhil’s ‘Un samayal arayil’ for the lyrical quality. Extraordinarily imaginative sentences from Yugabharathi is the highlight of this track.
Baat pakki – Just Married (Pritam, Hindi)
Gulzar! Need I add anything more? Pritam blends the master’s words into a very easy-on-the-ear, nursery rhyme like tune. The result is one helluva catchy track that would have you go ga-ga!
Mangamma Mangamma – Maharadhi (Gurukiran, Telugu)
This is something that caught my ears while surfing the telly. Yes, it did have a plump, wigged Balakrishna, clearly far removed from his heydays when he used to be, well, plump and wigged. And worse, he was romancing a very young and pretty Meera Jasmine. But that tune! Kannada composer Gurukiran seems to be Director P Vasu’s new-found loyalist after what the composer offered to the director’s Kannada super-hit ‘Aptamitra’. This one’s a foot-tapping track that has a mild carnatic flavor and is sung with a lot of fervor by the composer himself and Chetana Acharya. Neat!