Mathangi excels in the Ilayaraja’ish Kadale. Those exotic interludes, in particular, reek of vintage Raja style, even as the mellifluous tune is expertly arranged with clear focus on thoughtful lyrics and interesting sounds of typewriter for a prelude! One of the composer duo, Sabesh tries his hand in crooning the male version of Kadale and very surprisingly, does a pretty neat job of it, barring that very obvious and annoying ‘la’ mispronunciation! Silir silir is equally appealing with an enjoyable Hindustani base and that entirely coincidental tinge of Rahman’s Roja from Kaadhalar Dinam! Srilekha’s teasing vocals help generously in this sitar loaded track. Despite my relative lack of knowledge on raagas, I think I can bet that the fantastically conceived Thoranam aayiram is based on raag Maayaamaalava Gowlai. I was able to connect with this awesome track almost instantly – most probably perhaps of the raga familiarity! Equally captivating is Unnai saranadaindhen, which I believe is based on Gowri manohari. Ammuvaagaiya Naan may well be Sabesh-Murali’s best ever. Frankly, I did not expect anything out of this soundtrack – but every single song surprised the hell out of me with very refined and mature tunes, lyrics and packaging. Just one word – wow!
Keywords: Parthiban, Ammuvagiya naan, ammuvaakiya naan
Note: I think this soundtrack by relative upstarts Sabesh-Murali deserves the 200 words I’ve just jotted. Even if a few people become aware of this soundtrack’s existence through this review, I’d consider this blog post worth the effort!