Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist. Week 13:
On | On | On
14 songs in total, this week. The YouTube playlist is missing the 3 songs from Daas Dev since they are part of a jukebox (jukebox embedded below, in the post), Redemption from the Black Panther OST, and Carbon’s Kaattin Sarangi that’s available only on Facebook (embedded below), not on Apple Music, Saavn of YouTube!
A note on each song in the playlist.
—
Redemption (Black Panther OST): Zacari, who swooped into Kendrick Lamar’s Love with his superb falsetto last year joins South African gqom (South African house music) Babes Wodumo and her upbeat call-and-response in Redemption, my favorite from the soundtrack.
Happy Happy (Blackmail, Hindi): The DJ Waley Babu duo is back!! Badshah and Aastha Gill produce another song that seems simplistic and monotonous, but ends up being an annoyingly interesting earworm, with a repetitive hook and sound that would put Devi Sri Prasad to shame!
High End (Con.Fi.Den.Tial, Punjabi): Diljit Dosanjh, on a Bollywood high, retains an interest in his roots. The first single from his upcoming album Con.Fi.Den.Tial, where he starts—swag-style—singing as soon as he gets off his private jet is heady Punjabi stuff.
Aashiyana (Love Per Square Foot, Hindi): Sohail Sen’s tune has an addictive and almost-religiously fervent hook by Altamas Faridi. Lyricist Abhiruchi Chand weaves a thematically new-age Do Deewane (Gharaonda, 1977) and even invokes Gulzar, through Tarannum Mallik!
Khol De Par (Hichki, Hindi): Jasleen Royal, interestingly invokes Amit Trivedi almost directly in the song! When Arijit starts the antara, ‘Rati Ratayi Sari’, the Amit sound surfaces, but becomes massively obvious during, ‘Sabko Mananeki’, as if straight from Udaan!
Raasleela (3 Storeys, Hindi): If there was a need for a redux of Suneeta Rao’s Lesle Lewis-composed Paree hoon main, it is this! Amjad Nadeem does a fantastic dandiya-inspired reinterpretation, aided superbly by Sumedha Karmahe’s ebullient vocals.
Nit Khair Manga (Raid, Hindi/Punjabi): One way to look at this song is, ‘Blasphemy!’. But if I move beyond that reaction, Tanishk Bagchi’s recreation is not bad at all. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan handles the source tune might well and the song flows on the strength of the original.
Challa Chaap Chunariya (Daas Dev, Hindi): Daas Dev’s surprisingly good soundtrack belongs to Sandesh Shandilya! In Challa chaap chunariya, he ropes in Rekha Bhardwaj for a lilting psychedelic electro-pop that sounds absolutely lovely with the occasional sarangi thrown in!
Raat Din Yunhi (Daas Dev, Hindi): The other song by Sandesh Shandilya. The song’s sprawling sound is a fantastic listen, with Papon and Shradha Mishra adding to the exhilarating expanse of the song’s soundscape, complete with a superb sax base.
Tain To Uttey (Daas Dev, Hindi): Vipin Patwa’s song featuring Bulle Shah’s verse, Tain to uttey has Pakistani singer Javed Bashir, who is very good with the song’s pulsating rock hook otherwise set to a lively folk sound, straight out of a Coke Studio Pakistan episode.
Ga Gha Megha (Chal Mohan Ranga, Telugu): Thaman’s resurgent form is going pretty good. After recent works like Gayatri and Tholi Prema, looks like he has another promising soundtrack coming up, going by this breezy, highly listenable, Rahul Nambiar-sung song.
O…Kala (Juvva, Telugu): I’m glad M.M.Keeravani has canceled his retirement plans! His first post-Baahubali soundtrack is Juvva, with decent-enough music. O…kala is the pick of the album, with his favorite, Kaala Bhairava joining Damini Bhatla for the pleasant melody.
Poomathe Ponnamma (Udalaazham, Malayalam): Composers Sithara Krishnakumar & Mithun Jayaraj concoct a hypnotic melody that has traditional Kerala rhythms coexisting with a more modern sound. And the singing by Pushpavathy & Jyotsna Radhakrishnan add to the effect.
Kaattin Sarangi (Carbon, Malayalam): It’s a shocker that this film’s makers released the best song, composed by Vishal Bhardwaj, only on Facebook! The song is a good old Vishal-style lush melody, the kind he used to offer to Suresh Wadkar and then started singing himself.