Originally published in The Hindu.
Oru makara nilavaay – Rani Padmini (Malayalam – Bijibal)
The melody seems simple enough, but Bijibal ropes in Chithra Arun to provide the song’s beautiful vocals and pays off wonderfully. Her evocative singing, combined with fantastic use of sitar and saarangi at two different places, and the overall light and dreamy sound, adds tremendous value to the song. Bijibal is really onto something in Malayalam, this year, while also being incredibly prolific.
Khulne lagi zindagi – The Perfect Girl (Hindi – Soumil, Siddharth)
When singer Raman Mahadevan goes ‘Zindagi ajnabee-eee-eee’ early into the song, you know the song has something to do with Shankar Ehsaan Loy. It has – Soumil and Siddharth are Shankar Mahadevan’s nephew and son, respectively. And Raman Mahadevan—not related to Shankar—is a regular with the trio too. Soumil and Siddharth have already composed in Marathi, but this is their Hindi debut, and the duo do a great job here, living up to the pedigree!
Kaattumel anjaru – Salt Mango Tree (Malayalam – Hesham Abdul Wahab)
Debutant composer Hesham Abdul Wahab is already popular in Kerala thanks to his 2007 stint in Asianet’s Idea Star Singer. The singer, who debuts as composer in Salt Mango Tree (the title, obviously, inspired by that iconic comedy scene featuring Mohanlal and Sreenivasan in Doore Oru Koodu Koottaam), does a phenomenal job in both departments in the song Kaattumel anjaru, a delightful tune that seems to be a mix of Neelambari and Shankarabharanam raagas. Hesham also employs mridangam and nadaswaram to great effect, to add native Kerala’ness to the song.
Annapoorne – Anil Srinivasan (Album: Touch)
Back in 2007, when Mandolin U.Rajesh released the album Into The Light, his collaborator in the fusion effort was pianist Anil Srinivasan. That album had a stellar fusion version of Muthuswamy Dikshithar’s Sama raaga based Annapoorne that had the mandolin as the more pronounced instrument. It looks like Anil and Rajesh really love this composition, given that they have chosen to redo the tune in Anil Srinivasan’s solo debut album Touch. Here, Anil offers a minute-long piano prelude before Rajesh joins. The mandolin is slower and more meditative in this version and Anil’s piano is even more prominent—understandably—and imaginative in its exposition of the beautiful raaga.
Listen to Annapoorne on .
Tummeda jummani pinchaku raa – Columbus (Telugu – 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 much better than his Tamil repertoire. Sashaa Tirupati’s voice is the highlight of the pleasant and sing-along’ish tune of Tummeda, where Jithin keeps the proceedings frothy and easily likeable.
