An edited version of this list was originally published in .
Nacchite ye panaina
Dohchay (Telugu)
Music: Sunny M.R.
Sunny M.R. happens to be Hindi composer Pritam’s ex-sound engineer and has been producing some really good music in… err, not in Hindi, but in Telugu (he is 3 films old in AP)! His 4th, Dohchay, is his biggest, in terms of hero-value (Naga Chaitanya!). Nacchite ye panaina is truly representative of the sound Sunny has ushered in Telugu music – a curiously interesting disco-techno mix and breathlessly sung by the reigning prince of Bollywood playback, Arijit Singh. It’s that kind of a song that would have you wondering, ‘Hey, this sounds new!’.
Rasathi
36 Vayadhinile (Tamil)
Music: Santhosh Narayanan
Santhosh is arguably the most exciting composer in Tamil film industry right now. For the Tamil remake of the Malayalam hit, How Old Are You, Santhosh ropes in fellow-singer and composer Pradeep Kumar’s mother, Lalitha Vijaykumar to sing Rasathi, with a mighty endearing guitar-tabla background that he conjures. She does a phenomenal job, even admonishing the trumpet player with a gently amused callout!
Bannado
Coke Studio@MTV Season 4
Music: Sachin-Jigar
After a middling single song and its music video by Amit Trivedi, Sachin-Jigar whip up things at Coke Studio’s 4th season with a wonderful 3-song set. The song to hear is Bannado, spearheaded by Tochi Raina’s excellent vocals and beautifully supported by a host of folks, including Bhungarkhan Manganiar & Group, Kalyan Baruah on the guitar and the backing vocals comprising of Ronkini and Priya Saraiya (who incidentally has written the song too, in Hindi and Marwari!). In fact, you’d be humming their ‘Beera beera’ interlude long after the song is over!
Ammanae Ammanae
Ayirathil Iruvar (Tamil)
Music: Bharadwaj
Director Saran and composer Bharadwaj are back. And their combo, as always, produces something unique. The most interesting song is Ammanae that fuses typical Amman (not Jordan’s capital; just our friendly neighborhood Kulasai Mutharamman!) song lyrics over 80s synth pop! Yes, it is incredibly funky and sung with the right fervour, by Haritha, Nivas, Priyaavishwa and Vijaylakshmi. The dramatic contrast between the lyrics and the sound is a mindbending experiment by Bharadwaj!
Raja Rani
Raate (Kannada)
Music: V.Harikrishna
Tamil composer Deva was once called Poor Man’s Ilayaraja and many other composers across the 4 Southern states have tried to emulate the quintessential Ilayaraja sound for years. With the younger, newer composers, Thaman did a phenomenal job in Ayyanar’s Paniye where he blends his own musical sensibilities on top of a sound that screams ‘Raja’! Kannada composer Harikrishna too does something similar in Raja Rani – the tune and sound (the rhythm, in particular) could easily be mistaken for any late 80s Ilayaraja song provided you are a 70s born person who likes soaking in Raja nostalgia!
