Yesudas’ Manjil melle has an old-world Malayali filmy feel, but the grand orchestration takes it ahead, while Then thennale, with Srinivas and Sunitha Menon adopts the ghazal’ish sound beautifully with Malayalam lyrics. Ramesh Narayanan also extracts Sunitha Menon’s part from Then thennale into a full-fledged Hindustani track, Mosobathiya banaao nahi, with lovely vocals by Manjari and gorgeously appropriate orchestration. In a quirky coincidence, Ramesh opts for Harihran to croon Aah ko chaahiye, a resplendent ghazal that sounds partly similar to Hariharan’s own 1983 ghazal, ‘Haath mein leke mera haath’ (album: Sukoon). Its Malayalam version that Sujatha sings within this song and also as a separate song, Kaanuvan vaiki, gains immensely from the language’s inherent sweetness. The composer reserves Mele mele for himself, along with Anuradha Sreeram, and another song, Salambhamjike. The former is the only filmy and gimmicky song in the soundtrack though it has a passable tune; the latter is a much more tuneful composition and his majestic vocals alone holds the song. Given Ramesh Narayanan’s rich Hindustani background, Makaramanju was anyway expected to have that as a base, but where he really scores is in blending it with fitting modern elements to produce a rich and delightful soundtrack!
Keywords: Santhosh Sivan, Karthika, Lenin Rajendran, Ramesh Narayanan, Makaramanju
