Originally published in The Hindu.
Tippa – Rangoon (Hindi – Vishal Bhardwaj)
Back in the 90s, Doordarshan aired an NFDC-dubbed version of Alice In Wonderland’s Japanese anime version (originally called ‘Fushigi no Kuni no Alice’). That series has a popular title song, ‘Tap tap topi topi’, composed by Vishal and written by Gulzar. In Tippa, Vishal and Gulzar recreate that song set to the sound of trains and rain, and convert it into an almost-conversational song! Sunidhi Chauhan leads the vocals giving it the emotional high, with fantastic support from Rekha Bhardwaj, Sukhwinder Singh and the out-of-the-blue OS Arun!
Yaaro ucchikilai meley – Taramani (Tamil – Yuvan Shankar Raja)
Yaaro ucchikilai meley is vintage Yuvan Shankar Raja! The rhythm is lilting and simple, much like the composer’s earlier form. The melody is easy-on-the-ears, sing-along’ish. He layers it with those catchy ‘thare nanne nanne’ hooks. Yuvan, knowing his limitations as a singer, cleverly processes his voice to smoothen the rough edges and manages to sound pretty good. It’s only those corny chipmunks-style intrusion that mars an otherwise foot-tapping song.
Devare – Hebbuli (Kannada – Arjun Janya)
Arjun has an impressive track record with Sudeep films, having worked on his earlier films like Kempe Gowda, Vardhanayaka and Maanikya. Hebbuli is a good mix too – very commercial and listenable. The pick of the soundtrack is the gentle and melodious Devare. The melody is highly tuneful and Arjun smartly keeps the backgrounds in check to let the tune surface. The highlight is, of course, Armaan Mallik’s vocals; after Mungaru Male 2, Arjun offers a great song to Armaan.
Ekimeeda – Gautamiputra Satakarni (Telugu – Chirantan Bhatt)
Director Krish opted for Bollywood composer Chirantan Bhatt for his last project too – the World War 2 film, Kanche. Having worked with composers like M.M.Keeravani and Mani Sharma, it was surprising he was depending on a Bollywood composer for a historical film like Gautamiputra Satakarni. Understandably, Chirantan’s music is generic, without setting any period-based context. Still, an earthy song like Ekimeeda is a great listen. There’s a generous dollop of Rahman’s style, and singers like Udit Narayan and Shreya Ghoshal lift the song significantly.
Kannadi poovukku – Enakku Vaaitha Adimaigal (Tamil – Santhosh Dayanidhi)
The other Santhosh of Tamil film music, Santhosh Dayanidhi, erstwhile Rahman assistant is surely onto something. There is a quite confidence in his music that comes out particularly in the gorgeous Kannadi poovukku! Haricharan and Jonita Gandhi are in splendid form, as always, while Santhosh’s tune moves beautifully from the opening melody to the persistent instrumental hook, only to have a chorus on those lines towards the end of the anupallavi – excellent strings in the background all along!