Hindi
Title song, Hatt mullah and Dugg duggi dugg – Jugni (Clinton Cerejo)
Title song, Jhalli pataka, Dil ye ladaku and Dhuaan – Saala Khadoos (Santhosh Narayanan)
Title song – Sanam Re (Mithoon)
Tera chehra – Sanam Teri Kasam (Himesh Reshammiya)
The full album – Fitoor (Amit Trivedi)
Mar jaayen – Loveshhuda (Mithoon)
This is the standard-issue Mithoon song where the lead singer (usually Mithoon himself or Atif Aslam; in this case, it is the latter) is moping around in melancholy. Checks every box and manages to sound tuneful.
Tamil
Poda poda, Vaa machaney, Ei sandakkaaraa and Usuru narambula nee – Irudhi Sutru (Santhosh Narayanan)
Kuchi mittai – Aranmanai 2 (Hiphop Tamizha)
MunnaaL kaadhali and Mirutha mirutha – Miruthan (D.Imman)
Hey mama – Sethupathi (Nivas K.Prasanna)
Vaanmazhai – Moondraam Ulaga Por (Ved Shanker)
Naan maatti konden – Bangalore Naatkal (Gopi Sundar)
Thendral varum – Oyee (Ilayaraja)
Yappa chappa, Maiyal maiyal and I viralgal – Kanithan (Sivamani)
Maane maane and Kaantha – Uriyadi (Masala Coffee and Anthony Daasan)
Original Maane Maane:
Original Kaantha, in Malayalam:
Pothi vacha – Kodai Mazhai (Tamil – Sambasivam)
There are two Ilayaraja connections with this song from Kodai Mazhai. One is the obvious – the 1986 film, which had music by Ilayaraja. The second is even more obvious – the other ‘Pothi vacha’ song from Manvaasanai. Composer Sambasivam’s tune too seems like Hindolam, the raaga used by Ilayaraja in the Manvaasanai number! Sambasivam adorns his tune with lovely violins that almost seem to be cooing alongside Karthik and Parvathi’s excellent vocals, even as Vairamuthu uses a series of wishes to build the song.
Shoot the kuruvi, Domer-u lord-u, Red road-u and Casanova – Jil Jung Juk (Vishal Chandrasekhar)
Title song – Sadhuram 2 (Girishh Gopalakrishnan)
Anish Krishnan’s baritone kind of sounds like a younger Kamal Haasan and he handles Girishh’s pulsating tune very well. The sound Girishh assembles is mighty impressive.
Telugu
Dikka dikka dum dum, Nee navve and Addhira banna – Soggade Chinni Nayana (Anup Rubens)
The full album: Seethamma Andalu Ramayya Sitralu (Gopi Sundar)
Rara ravera, Nuvvante and Ulikipadaku – Krishnagadi Veera Prema Gaadha (Vishal Chandrasekhar)
Nuvvila nuvvila and Itu rava – Padesave (Anup Rubens)
Varnam varnam and Kalalanni pandy – Kathanam (Sabu Varghese)
Varnam is simple and lilting, and rides on Anajana Sowmya’s sweet rendition. Kalalanni pandy is the more interesting song in the soundtrack. The tune, that starts with Revanth’s fantastic singing—with a casual edge—goes on to add some of the upper notes in Sivaranjani raaga to add an intriguing layer! The kids chorus too is an interesting touch.
Listen to the songs on .
Malayalam
Mangoes and Rosie – Monsoon Mangoes (Jakes Bejoy)
Neeyen sayahna swapnathil – Ma Chu Ka (Gopi Sundar)
Idukki – Maheshinte Prathikaaram (Bijibal)
Raavumaayave – Vettah (Shaan Rahman)
Of the 2 song soundtrack of Vettah, this is clearly the pick! The sound is very Aye hairathe from Guru – similar quasi-sufi, quasi-ghazal sound that Shaan tunes to perfection. Rinu Razak sings is darn well.
Kannada
Sa ri ga ma – Mareyalaare (Arjun Janya)
It’s a bit disconcerting to see Arjun falling into a rut. His recent soundtracks are generally very, very average, including this one. The one reasonably listenable song is Sa ri ga ma, but even this, I’d assume is Harikrishna territory.
Maathella marathe hoithu and Munjaane suriva manjali – Viraat (V.Harikrishna)
An almost Arjun Janya’ish melody, in an Harikrishna soundtrack. Generic template, to be fair, but sounds very, very pleasant and sung well by Karthik and Anuradha. Munjaane is conceived as a seduction-song, I can see that, but Hari does something very unique with the tune, and lets it flow in unusual ways… not too much, but the right amount of waywardness to evoke a lot of interest!
Heartige kanna and Nalle enutha – Bhujanga (Poornachandra Tejaswi)
Vijay Prakash carries Heartige like only he can. The tune is simple enough and Poornachandra cleverly underplays the sound to a minimal level to bring Vijay’s singing rule over everything else. Nalle enutha is the other song in the album where the composer does the opposite – layers it with fantastic music—starting with strings—to prop the tune to a new level. Sonu Nigam seldom goes wrong in Kannada and along with Sridevi Kulenur, he does really well.
Non-film
Ababeel – Muhammad: The Messenger of God (OST – A R Rahman)
Ababeel is sort of the signature melody A R Rahman conjures for the epic film, Muhammad: The Messenger of God. It is an easily goosebumps inducing, grand melody that goes so well with the scale, ambition and scope of a film like this, and, understandably, was made a prominent part of the film’s promos. Rahman articulates the melody again in a slower, poignant form in And He Was Named Mohammad, and it is beautiful all over again. Both the songs end on a splendid, orchestral high!
