Originally published in The Hindu.
Keh bhi de – Traffic (Hindi – Mithoon)
Back when Mithoon made his debut with Bas Ek Pal and Anwar in 2006, he was exceptionally promising, with a unique brand of soulful music that has a definite and confident sound. Eventually, he fell into an odd rut of soporific music, but seems to be coming out of that in recent times, with lovely songs like Bhaag Johnny’s Kinna sona and Ki & Ka’s Ji huzoori. He does an encore in Traffic, with Keh bhi de easily taking one back to his early form. There’s no Shilpa Rao this time, but Palak Muchhal is an excellent replacement, along with Benny Dayal, for this ethereal and ambient melody.
Vachindi kada avakasam – Brahmotsavam (Telugu – Mickey J Meyer)
Yes, Vachindi kada avakasam sounds a lot like AVICII’s Wake Me Up, but one could jot that as the genre’s similarity. It doesn’t help that Mickey uses a similar genre—electronic—to define not just this song, but the entire Brahmotsavam soundtrack! Still, Abhay Jodhpurkar handles the lively and breezy electronic-layered dance tune of Vachindi really well. Mickey pauses the vocals with punchy interludes and easy-on-the-ears catchy sounds.
Myma – Enakku Innoru Per Irukku (Tamil – G.V.Prakash Kumar)
Enakku Innoru Per Irukku is G.V.Prakash Kumar’s full and outright attempt at creating a kuthu soundtrack and he delivers at least as far the sound good, even though not all tunes work in tandem. The soundtrack’s highlight is Myma, a bastard’ized Chandrababu song template that GVP layers superbly with foot-tapping kuthu. What works particularly in its favor is his stylish singing – he sounds different from his usual songs and this effort lifts the song easily to a new level.
Yegiraney yegiraney – Okka Ammayi Thappa (Telugu – Mickey J Meyer)
Mickey has been hyperactive as far as releases go, with 3 of his soundtracks releasing in the last fortnight! Okka Ammayi Thappa’s Yeginraney is trademark Mickey, incidentally. The tune is an instant earworm with its easy and lovely melody that also extremely catchy. It gains phenomenally from Abhay Jodhpurkar’s fantastic singing, supported by Ramya Behara. The rhythm is simple and the flow is something that one expects from Mickey, making maximum use of repetitive hooks.
Halli sreehalli – Mudhugauv (Malayalam – Rahul Raj)
Barring Mera Naam from Brothers, composers seem to be slotting Chinmayi’s vocals for safe and conventionally pleasant melodies. But Rahul Raj hands over a fairly sensuous and outside-the-ordinary (as far as her repertoire goes) tune in Halli sreehalli. It’s a jolly good tune and Rahul supports her mighty well, particularly for the hook, complete with a funky nadaswaram layer, Chinmayi’s own vocalizations and Harris Jayaraj’ish Oh-ooh-oh interludes!
