Originally published in The Hindu.
Sairat jhala ji – Sairat (Marathi – Ajay-Atul)
Close your eyes and listen to this song. A familiar Tamil voice will greet you—that is Chinmayi—but you won’t hear Tamil; you’re hearing Marathi. If you are on the wrong side of 30, the first thing you’d shout is, ‘Ilayaraja’! Yes, it sounds a LOT like Raja’s music—the strings, the jaunty rhythm, the symphonic interludes (the 2nd one, led by flute), the folk’ish antara… everything screams Ilayaraja. But this is Ajay-Atul, who have time and again proven with their incredible melodies that they have truly imbibed Raja’s signature sound and have modernized it even better than the Maestro – these Ekalavyas have upped the Guru’s ante!
Aval – Manithan (Tamil – Santhosh Narayanan)
Hindi composer Krsna produced a disappointing soundtrack for Jolly LLB, but, for its Tamil remake, Santhosh Narayanan produces a dependable, likeable package. Aval is the soundtrack’s best. Interestingly, Aval has the same lyrical feel of Jolly LLB’s best song, Ajnabi, of the hero trying to appease his lady love with a sing-song apology. Pradeep Kumar seems incredibly apt for the sweeping melody that shines with Santhosh’s trademark strings and takes off beautifully with the Azhagazhagaa phrase. It gets more gorgeous in the anupallavi, featuring a very assertive sounding Priya Hemesh amidst drums and tabla.
Yedhedho penne – Meendum Oru Kadhal Kathai (Tamil – G.V.Prakash Kumar)
The film’s original in Malayalam—Thattathin Marayathu—had incredible music by Shaan Rahman. Though the Tamil remake is no patch on the original’s soundtrack, G.V.Prakash Kumar’s business-as-usual music too produces some winners. The soundtrack’s best, Yedhedho, sung by Ajesh and Harini is impeccably sweet, layered on an unusual rhythm structure that sounds like dubstep slowed down to a fault!
Raja di Raja – Zoom (Kannada – SS Thaman)
Thaman brings his Telugu bag of tricks in Zoom, after the recent Chakravyuha. He also picks up the most popular one-song-per-film honorary singer of Kannada film industry for Raja di Raja – Puneet Rajkumar. It’s an easy listen – catchy brass-band style sound with a lot of horns and the focus remaining strictly in letting the listeners sing-along the repetitive Zoom hook.
Bawli booch – Laal Rang (Hindi – Mathias Duplessy)
French musician Mathias Duplessy is an anomaly in Indian film industry. He has famously collaborated with Mir Mukhtiyar Ali for films like Peepli Live and Finding Fanny to produce a mix of European-style Indian folk. In Bawli booch he goes a step further – imagine Bob Marley singing in Haryanvi! Add a generous dose of a strings layer that sound very European and an absolutely funky chorus that seems more like chanting after a session of pot and you have a mighty interesting concoction!
