Originally published in .
Mayako – Asurakulam (Tamil – C.Sathya)
C.Sathya has proven himself to be a pretty nifty and functional composer so far, though a ‘big’ film still seems to be eluding him. Yet another not-so-big film that he’s part of is Asurakulam, and he produces a crackling acid jazz’ish Mayako (Mayakkam, actually), delivered fabulously by Alphonse.
Nenape nithya mallige – Kendasampige (Kannada – V.Harikrishna)
After Vidyasagar (primarily in Malayalam) and D.Imman (in Tamil), Kannada composer V.Harikrishna is the other current-day composer who seems to have truly imbibed the ‘Ilayaraja-sound’, in that while he adds something on his own, the soul seems to be that of the quintessential Raja melody. Nenape nithya mallige is a fantastic example of this. When the second interlude plays, you’d automatically go, ‘Is this by Ilayaraja?’. And yes, Karthik does a brilliant job of handling the soulful tune.
Saturday night gave me a Sunday morning – Burning Bridges (Jon Bon Jovi)
This is supposedly a ‘fan’ album – as if every other album is not meant for fans! Much has been said about Bon Jovi’s split from their music label Mercury (Burning Bridges, the title, is symbolic of that, it is believed!) and the fact that this is the first album without guitarist Richie Sambora! Oddly enough, Richie is credited with co-writing the best song of the album, Saturday Night Gave Me A Sunday Morning, a neat companion piece of sorts with one of Bon Jovi’s biggest hits, Someday I’ll Be A Saturday Night (1994).
Sur niraagas ho – Katyar Kaljat Ghusali (Marathi – Shankar Ehsaan Loy)
Shankar Ehsaan Loy produce a wonderfully nuanced and enthralling bhajan of sorts that gains incredibly from two things – Shankar Mahadevan’s spell-binding vocals (he also plays a role in the film, looking completely in-sync with the proceedings, complete with a Maharashtrian Pheta!) and visuals that bring back memories of a more pious, simpler times. The background music treats the bhajan with the right dose of austerity, but takes some liberties in making it broadly enjoyable too – the ‘Morya Morya’ break-out, in particular, is a goosebumps-inducing moment, as is the brief moment when the little girl sings Shankar’s ‘Adhipati Sukhapati…’ line almost instinctively.
Stolen Car – Sting, featuring Mylene Farmer
Stolen Car was part of Sting’s 2003 album, Sacred Love. The song, which started its life as a Radio Version (was called ‘Stolen Car – Take Me Dancing’), a pop-Middle Eastern mix, later had a Studio (original) version too, that spruced up and got the Middle Eastern exotica right, by also heavily referring to Sting’s own Fragile, in an unusual set-up. The new version featuring French superstar Mylene Farmer (the song will reportedly be featured on the Farmer’s upcoming album Nébuleuses), amps up the world music’ness of the song significantly, adding French to the mix, and sounds better than ever.
Listen to the song online.
