The entire soundtrack – Ramanujan (Tamil, Ramesh Vinayagam)
Along-side Amara Kaaviyam, the other fantastic soundtrack from Tamil in recent times. Another soundtrack that I played a lot last month without skipping even a single song.
Come to my party – Black Joe Lewis
One hell of a cool disco funk mix! The kind of song that has me moving my feet immediately.
Onnuna rendu varun & En anbe – Aindhaam Thalaimurai Sidha Vaidhiya Sigamani (Tamil, Simon)
Simon demonstrated some promise in his debut soundtrack, 555 (Ainthu Ainthu Ainthu) and he continues to do so, in his next, another Bharat starrer! He gets Vijay Antony to croon Onnuna rendu varum, along with Sunidhi Chauhan and he clearly has a winner here. It’s one of the catchiest songs I have heard this year in Tamil and is a song fit for an A-lister like Vijay who can scorch the dance floor with this! Even En anbe has a nice melody punctuated beautifully by Simon’s choice of orchestration – I’m not what instrument he uses for that prominent phrase that appears all through the song (he seems to be overusing it too, by the way!), but it’s damn catchy!
Aethu kari raavilum – Bangalore Days (Malayalam, Gopi Sundar)
My personal favorite from the very listenable soundtrack of this Anjali Menon directed hit. The ghazal’ish sound is really enticing and Haricharan’s impactful vocals go beautifully with the melancholic tune.
Samjhawan – Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya (Hindi, Jawad Ahmed and Sharib-Toshi)
The only track that works in the weakest Dharma soundtrack in recent times is not even an original song. Kudos to Jawad Ahmed’s original tune. The other interesting part is Alia Bhatt’s unplugged version of the song – man, can she sing this well! Wow!
Guttuga nindene & Sony sony – Saheba Subramanyam (Telugu, Shaan Rahman)
The 2 new songs Shaan adds in the Telugu remake of Thattathin Marayathu aren’t something he has already composed in Malayalam yet and add the very-Telugu spunk to the otherwise soaked-in-melody soundtrack (that I found mighty alluring for its uncompromising vision of not including any track that moves off the melody focus). The additions in Telugu are good, within that context, given the needs of a standard Telugu film. Guttuga nindene starts off like some Yuvan Shankar Raja song, but moves into the techno mode pretty well. Shaan handles the other pop’ish song, Sony sony, excellently too, singing the foot-tapping it himself.
Jeev bhulala, Nava tarana & Mauli mauli – Lai Bhaari (Marathi, Ajay-Atul)
Good (expected!) stuff from the Marathi duo. Mass’y stuff (the trailer seems like Maharashtrian cinema has just discovered the slow-mo bone cruncing crap from South Indian films, long after Prabhu Deva exported it to Bollywood), but in their own unique style.
Neeli neeli – Alludu Seenu (Telugu, Devi Sri Prasad)
Another producer’s son (Bellamkonda Suresh’s son, Srinivas) makes his debut. The moneybags producer can pay and get an A-lister like Samantha to star opposite his son, but Devi’s tunes largely fail the son’s debut given how templatized they are. Neeli neeli is the only song that stood out from the banal set.
Hariye thikana & Anka banka – Buno Haansh (Bengali, Shantanu Moitra)
Shantanu Moitra is clearly gaining in strength. From being the composer of 3 Idiots (with minimal impact), he has been composing for movies that seem smaller in scale, but musically, he delivers quite well. This includes Madras Cafe and Bobby Jasoos, in recent times. And here comes his next Bengali film, Buno Haansh where he is wonderfully inventive in his choice of sounds and tunes! Loved Hariye thikana’s fusion, in particular!
Ab main & Waakeyi – Amit Sahni Ki List (Hindi, Raghu Dixit)
A largely weak mix salvaged by Raghu Dixit’s spirited compositions. Ab main is very, very Raghu, while Waakeyi is the better of the two with lovely singing by Nikhil Dsouza and Shruti Pathak!
The entire soundtrack – Amara Kaaviyam (Tamil, Ghibran)
This is one of the best recent soundtracks in Tamil with the kind of musical flourish that was evident in early day Rahman’s music. One of those soundtracks that I played a lot without skipping a song!
Madras, Aagaayam theepidicha & Naan nee – Madras (Tamil, Santhosh Narayanan)
The title song and Aagaayam are good Santhosh-style material, but it is Naan nee that stuns with its unique structure and choice of instruments! Shakthishree’s singing is, as always, top notch!
Bodhayil paadhai – Sarabham (Tamil, Britto Michael)
This one starts off like any other Santhosh Narayanan-Gana Bala song, but for the change in terms of Britto as the composer and Anthony Dasan filling in for Gana Bala. That, plus the absolutely funky interludes this one traverses!
Title song – Alaye Alaye (Tamil, Dhanvi)
Imman’s assistant Dhanvi makes a reasonably decent debut here, but the highlight is clearly the Harris Jayaraj’esque (early HJ, not current HJ!) title song! Great listen!
Listen to the song on Raaga.
Bujjimma, Rajadhi rajanappa, Vadhantune & Shanti Om Shanti – Run Raja Run (Telugu, Ghibran)
This one’s Ghibran having a lot of fun – the tunes are very commercial, but with the Ghibran’ish coating of fantastic layers and unique sounds. Excellent debut by the most exciting Tamil composer at this moment.
Jashn & Tu – Bobby Jasoos (Hindi, Shantanu Moitra)
Shantanu Moitra is in effervescent form in this soundtrack, offering a lovely mix. If Tu is a lovely ghazal, then Jashn is bordering Amit Trivedi territory of bubbly, catchy fun!
The entire soundtrack – Lekar Hum Deewana Dil (Hindi, A R Rahman)
The 3rd soundtrack I played heavily last month without skipping any track. The film seems like a washout and that’s a shame, given how young and vibrant Rahman’s music was!
Title song & Onam Onam – Ra Ra Krishnayya (Telugu, Achu)
The title song, with its whiff of Pareshan, from Ishaqzaade, is my pick of the soundtrack. Breezy and addictive! Onam onam is the 2nd pick – expectedly lovely singing by Chinmayi and a groovy multi-state sound mix by Achu.
Rhim jhim – Back 2 Love (Indipop, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan)
Rahat’s next album after 2007’s Charkha is a massive disappointment, despite the collaborations. The tunes composed by Sahir Ali Bagga and Javed Ali Khan (besides Rahat himself, on 2 songs) is the culprit, in my opinion. The only song that works, at least for me, is Rhim Jhim where Rahat sings along with Shreya Ghoshal and the tune, composed by Sahir Ali Bagga keeps it simple, in modern ghazal territory.
Na labzon ka fasana – AB (Indipop, Abhijeet Bhattacharya)
There is no doubt about Abhijeet’s vocal prowess – the man is perhaps the mot apt singer for Shah Rukh Khan and along with Jatin-Lalit, he had a superb run at one point. The new album from him, AB, seems like a last-ditch effort to revive that period, but with strictly mixed results – the singing is intact, but the tunes are far from interesting. The one song that comes close to getting that mearlier magic right is Na labzon ka fasana! If only the man had got a better composer to make the tunes, this album could have been something else!
Listen to the song on Gaana.
Alcaline – Alizee (French Pop)
French pop diva Alizee is back with another album after the rather dismal 2013 album ‘5’. This one’s no different, loaded with random dance-pop numbers… there’s even a song called ‘Tweet’. The one song that reminds me of older (younger?) Alizee is Alcaline… almost like a Mylene Farmer song! There’s even a song named after Mylene in the album, by the way!
Ondu haadu – Aryan (Kannada, Jassie Gift)
I have given up on Jassie Gift long ago. He still seems to be finding backers in Kannada (and not in Malayalam, where he does even lesser work!). It’s only because of the vague, occasional goodness from him that we still remember him. Oh, and this soundtrack also has a stupid lift of Queen’s We Will Rock You… can’t imagine Shivrajkumar dancing to it… double whammy!
Channo, Soudha laun nu & Rangrut – Punjab 1984 (Punjabi, Nick Dhammu, Jatinder Shah and Gurmeet Singh)
I was curious to listen to the music of the Punjabi film that recently boatsed of the highest ever opening collection! The music duties have been split between Nick Dhammu (2 songs), Jatinder Shah (1 song), Gurmeet Singh (4 songs) and Gurmoh (1 song), but the first 3 composers mentioned get at least one song wonderfully right. Channo, with its reggae-style Punjabi music works great for singer Diljit Dosanjh, the film’s hero, who also sings most of the songs. Soudha laun nu starts with a blood-curling shriek and is an impactful tune coated with a mild hip-hop base. Rangrut too is in a similar mode, but with a stronger melody. I couldn’t quite connect with the rest of the soundtrack, but that’s more my failing given my limited exposure to modern-day Punjabi music.
Ennamo pannura – Vaaliba Raja (Tamil, Radhan)
Fangled pronunciation aside, this is a catchy song, particularly the kuthu rhythm it latches on to soon enough!
