Hitman – August 15, 2015

Originally published in .

Thumba poove sundari – Kunjiramayanam (Malayalam – Justin Prabhakaran)
Vineeth Srinivasan is usually associated with Shaan Rahman as a composer for most of his films. But Kunjiramayanam sees Tamil composer Justin Prabhakaran make his Malayalam debut (after just 2 Tamil films – Pannaiyarum Padminiyum and Orange Mittai). Thumba poove sundari is a high-energy song that Justin aptly hands over to Shankar Mahadevan. The tune and sound is spoofy and Justin layers it perfectly with an assortment of sounds that are mighty diverse, but somehow play harmoniously together!

Parapara – Yatchan (Tamil – Yuvan Shankar Raja)
Yuvan’s last release – Masss – was a disappointing piece of work, but his tuning and track record with director Vishnuvardhan is far better… and it shows in his output in Yatchan’s soundtrack. That the song is sung by 2 male singers indicates that this is the double-hero intro song. The vocal interplay between Vijay Yesudas and Ranjith is fantastic, but the real star is Yuvan’s funky tune that is a cornucopia of interesting sounds including a quirky shenai (or nadhaswaram!) layer.

Kya pataa – Drishyam (Hindi – Vishal Bhardwaj)
This is the kind of song that Vishal used to rope in Suresh Wadkar to sing. Then, he started singing these whispery tunes himself, to middling results. Now, in Drishyam, he offers such a tune to the ruling favorite Arijit Singh and the results are pretty impressive. There is haunting jazz and there’s also an Ilayaraja’ish quality to the sound Vishal conjures. Gulzar’s lyrics, as always, continue to engage and intrigue.

Ninnale – Rudrasimhasanam (Malayalam – Viswajith)
Viswajith is one of those composers in Malayalam who seems to be enormously talented but always ends up with films that are either poorly promoted, never released or completely ignored. It last happened with a wonderful song like ‘Ee mazhayithalilente’ from a film called Teens. And now, his 2 lovely songs from Rudrasimhasanam are heading for the same fate. Ninnale, in particular, deserves a listen given how beautifully Chithra has sung the Mohanam Mishra Durga (please see Kartick Vijayakumar’s comment below) raaga layered song with Viswajith’s ghatam, flute and strings backgrounds in perfect sync.

Marudakkaari – Paayum Puli (Tamil – D.Imman)
In Marudakkaari, Imman employs a very Shankar Mahadevan’ish Diwakar, of Super Singer fame! Diwakar sings with the right swagger, for a really captivating tune that most probably straddles raagas like Valaji and Malayamarudham (both are related, in any case, rather closely). Imman, in his quintessential style, has many surprises up his sleeves for the orchestration that goes from pulsating electric guitar to ektara like strings, all set to a foot-tapping rhythm! This is Imman at his best, channeling his inner Ilayaraja.

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