Hindi
Woh toh yahin hai lekin & Ya rabba – Main Aur Charles (Vipin Patwa and Bally Grunge, Saugat Upadhaya & Subhradeep Das, respectively)
Jonita Gandhi lights up the sweeping melody of Woh toh, that’s straight out of Pritam’s material for early Mohit Suri. Ya rabba is interesting – 3 composers—Bally Grunge, Saugat Upadhaya, Subhradeep Das—get togethe to produce a Pakipop style ditty that’s competently sung by Saugat Upadhaya. Decent enough music that deserved better.
Wajah tum ho – Hate Story 3 (Baman)
Predictable tune, on expected lines from any Mohit Suri’ish film (like the one above!), but Armaan Malik’s vocals make a reasonable enough difference. Baman keeps the tune and sound simple and neat.
Khulne lagi zindagi – The Perfect Girl (Soumil, Siddharth)
The composing duo is Shankar Mahadevan’s nephew and song, respectively. They have already debuted in Marathi, and the pedigree doesn’t show in this film’s other song (Dheeme se), but this one’s very Shankar Ehsaan Loy’ish. Raman Mahadevan (not related to Shankar Mahadevan!), another SEL regular, delivers the song in his usual panache!
Jalte diye – Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (Himesh Reshammiya)
Matargasthi, Tum saath ho, Safarnama & Wat wat wat – Tamasha (A R Rahman)
Tamil
The full soundtrack: Adiye azhagae, Maangalyamae, Paatta podunga ji, Yaeli yaeli & Eppo varuvaaro – Oru Naal Koothu (Justin Prabhakaran)
Vellai kanavu, Lola, Parakkiren naan & Mazhaikkulle – Mellisai (Sam C.S.)
Kalakkattu kannaala – Kathukutty (Aruldev)
Beyond the simple lilt Aruldev loads in the song, and even beside the Raja’ish flute he employs, the song works for one very simple reason – Hamir Kalyani raaga (or Kedar, in Hindustani)! As a result, invoking everything from Hum ko mann ki shakti dena, to Viswanathan-Ramamurthy’s Karnan classic, En uyir thozhi, to MSV’s Chandradhayam oru pennaanadho… to Rahman’s Malargale malargale, the raaga comes alive yet again, in another package. That’s also the function of the raaga anyway, to be used again and again in newer variants. And Aruldev, first by selection of the raaga and eventually by packaging it in a simple and elegant way, has a clear winner here.
Tham tham, Kaattukulla & Pookkalai killi vandhu – Pasanga 2 (Arrol Corelli)
Aaluma doluma, Veera Vinayaka & Uyir nadhi – Vedalam (Anirudh)
Kannaalam – Inji Iduppazhagi (M.M.Keeravani)
Poove pooviname & Aagaa – 144 (Sean Roldan)
Aala saachuputta, Kurum padame & Neeyum adi naanum – Vil Ambu (Navin)
Telugu
Crazy & Maskesko – Lacchimdeviki O Lekkundi (M.M.Keeravani)
Meghaalu lekunna – Kumari 21F (Devi Sri Prasad)
Tummeda jummanipinchaku raa & Manchu keratam – Columbus (Jithin Roshan)
Jithin Roshan, after trying his luck in Tamil, in films like Theekkulikkum Pachaimaram and Thiruttu VCD (without much success), debuts in Telugu, with Columbus and he seems to have done far better than his Tamil repertoire. Sashaa Tirupati’s voice is the highlight of the pleasant and sing-along’ish tune of Tummeda, while Haricharan rocks Manchu keratam, a soaring tune with Middle Eastern shades, orchestrated really well by Jithin.
Thoorupey – Sankarabharanam (Praveen Lakkaraju)
Lovely, lilting melody by Praveen, roping in Karthik and Ramya Behara. Very unhurried and indulgent tune!
Malayalam
Ee thanutha, Sahibaa & Vaanam – Anarkali (Vidyasagar)
Oru makaranilavay – Rani Padmini (Bijibal)
The best of an otherwise average album, by the super busy and prolific Bijibal. Chithra Arun handles the gorgeous melody beautifully, and Bijibal’s nuanced sound, including excellent use of sitar, adds generous value too.
Kayamboo niramayi – Su Su Sudhi Vathmeekam (Bijibal)
Swetha Mohan delivers this absoutely wonderful Abhogi raaga based melody effortlessly. The raaga’s signature is mighty obvious and Bijibal’s use of flute to establish the raaga is a bit too conventional and familiar.
Kaattummel – Salt Mango Tree (Hesham Abdul Wahab)
Debutant composer Hesham Abdul Wahab’s own voice is a terrific choice for the fantastic tune. He employs the vocally created (most probably) sound in place of an instrument and that sounds pretty unique. The song, possibly based on Neelambari raaga, has a lovely lilt.
Kannada
Neenu banda mele – Ramleela (Anup Rubens)
If it’s Kannada, it has to be Sonu Nigam… at least for one song that the composer cherishes. So, for this Darbari Kaanada’ish song, Anup gets Sonu, along with Shravani. Predictably nice melody!
The full soundtrack: Dheem dheem, Thunta thatakiye, Tagar putti & Ee gulaalu – Boxer (V.Harikrishna)
Marathi
Sur niragas ho, Sur se saji, Man mandira, Dil ki tapish, Ghei chand (Rahul Deshpande version) & Surat piya ki – Katyar Kaljat Ghusli (Shankar Ehsaan Loy)
Indipop
Title song, Shiva, One, Urumbu & Khwaab – Navarasam (Thaikkudam Bridge)
Listen to the songs online, on .
English/Western
Suns have gone – Album: Electronica 1 – Time Machine (Jean-Michel Jarre, featuring Moby)
Much like Giorgio Moroder’s recent comeback, featuring contemporary stars as collaborators, French electronic music pioneer from the 70s, Jean-Michel Jarre gets back into the scene after 8 years with some high-profile collaborators like Tangerine Dream, Armin van Buuren, Pete Townshend, Moby, Massive Attack, Air, Vince Clarke and John Carpenter. The sound is easily accessible, almost as if re-introducing Jarre to a new, younger audience. Suns Have Gone, featuring Moby is the pick of the album, with its bouncy sound recalling the No More Brothers Mix of Freddie Mercury’s Living on my own.
