Milliblog Weeklies – JUN24.2018

Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist. Week 29:
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A wonderfully vibrant song mix this week, with 20 songs, covering English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali and Odiya! That’s 9 languages in one playlist! YouTube has 19 songs (one song from Pantham is missing). Saavn has 17 – Shweta Mohan’s song, Ahe Nila Saila by Sona Mohapatra and the song from Aatagadharaa Siva are missing. Apple Music, missing the same 3 songs as the Saavn playlist + My Story’s Mizhi Mizhi.

A note on the songs in the playlist.


Ruby Ruby (Sanju, Hindi): This is vintage Rahman, playing with an unconventional, non-format tune, with a tinge of 80s, and taking it in multiple strands much to our discomfort and joy! Shashwat Singh and Poorvi Koutish sound fresh and are excellent choices for the vocals.

Jonjo (Priscilla Renea): A new album from Priscilla after 9 years. Her debut, Juekbox, was more pop’ish but with a clear country edge; the new album Coloured has a more pronounced slant. My favorite is Jonjo that touches swing, country and blues, with tongue-twisting lyrics!

Ishq Di Baajiyaan (Soorma, Hindi): Diljit Dosanjh brings his own earthy Punjabi’ness to the vocals. The tune gets incredibly immersive with the antara, and the small touches like the reverberating “Na ja aankhon aankhon mein hi rehna” phrase and the delightful outburst of a chorus (Kabhi usey noor noor kehta hoon, Kabhi main hoor hoor kehta hoon) add to the charm.

Collegee Agelona (Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi, Telugu): Vivek Sagar scores again, with the 2nd song from the film. The song is a delightful pastiche led by a frenetic Electro Swing sound, and adding many other things in the mix. It’s a heady sound that works instantly.

Title Song (Dhadak, Hindi): While not going one up on Sairat’s title song (Sairat Zaala Ji), is still a beautifully expansive melody to sink into. The bridge to the (Tu ghata hai phuhaar ki, Main ghadi intezaar ki, Apna milna likha issi baras hai na) main hook (Jo meri manzilon ko jaati hai) is vintage Dharma Productions stamp! Interestingly, the sweeping strings all through the song take it closer to Sairat’s Yad Lagla!

Mulla Poovithalo (Abrahaminte Santhathikal, Malayalam): The first single from the film was by Gopi Sundar and it is surprising to see another composer doing this one! Sering Francis’s music is quite similar to Gopi’s, and the pleasant tune rides on Haricharan’s superb singing.

Mizhi Mizhi (My Story, Malayalam): Composed by Shaan Rahman, the song’s main melody is entrancing, with that ‘Uyiril Neeye’ hook. Shaan places Shreya’s and Haricharan’s respective ‘Uyiril Neeye’ to start as one is ending… and creates a beautiful effect.

Deshamante, Right Now and First Time (Pantham, Telugu): A significantly better Telugu soundtrack by Gopi Sundar after patchy soundtracks. Deshamante’s Kerala folk rhythm and the tune that riffs off Pallivalu Bhadravattakam gets a spirited articulation from Ranjith’s singing. Sithara Krishnakumar holds fort in the highly rhythmic Right Now in total style, while First Time has Gopi cleverly optimizing and reusing his own Innale Innale from Diwanjimoola Grand Prix.

Nankanakara (Ala, Telugu): The 4th song from Srinivasa Sarma Rani’s debut. While Vijay Yesudas sung Ala Loni is standard-issue pathos, this one works with its heady Telugu folk rhythm and Srikanth Lanka’s earthy vocals reminiscent of M.M.Keeravani’s.

Enn uyrie and Alathi anbai (Asuravadham, Tamil): A short (only 3 songs) soundtrack with 2 songs sung by Ananthu. Probably because of the singer, the songs do sound a lot like composer Santhosh Narayanan’s, particularly Alathi Anbai. The other song, Enn Uyire goes off more in Govind’s style with a poignant melody and beautifully realized interludes. Like Sanjay ‘Leela’ Bhansali, Govind calls himself Govind Vasantha (replacing Menon with his mother’s maiden name!).

Dadda Song (Sarkari Hi. Pra. Shaale, Kasaragodu, Kannada): Rama Rama Re-fame Vasuki Vaibhav’s new Kannada song! Typically Vasuki – whimsical, with a wonderfully corny edge to depict the travails of Praveen, a schoolboy who is deemed a dud by almost everyone!

Vay Youngraad Zhalay (Youngraad, Marathi): Hriday Gattani composes and sings this one. The mandolin base and EDM parts lend it a nice, universal appeal, while the sound of Marathi is always interesting and alluring to me.

Aaya na tu (Arjun Kanungo & Momina Mustehsan, Indipop): Considering this is from Mohit Suri’s VYRL Originals, the song sounds like something from the director’s film too! Nice mid-tempo melody, with excellent singing and nice electronic backdrop.

Kuashaa (Shaan, Bengali): Composed and sung by Shaan himself, the guitar-laden melody is simple and appealing. Reminded me of the famous Sajid-Wajid composed Sonu Nigam-sung pop song from Deewana, Is Kadar Pyar Hai Tumse.

Ahe Nila Saila (Sona Mohapatra, Odiya): The Odiya bhajan that’s in the center of a pronunciation-led controversy! Regardless of that, as a non-Odiya who has no clue about the pronunciation, I love the lilting song and glad that an Odiya song is being heard by a lot of people!

On the allegation of wrong pronunciation, here’s what I feel (as I had mentioned this over Twitter and the Facebook Page): I’m trying to put myself in that person’s shoes to see how I’d react if I heard a Tamil song being sung on a national/international stage with poor pronunciation. I already consistently criticize Yuvan Shankar Raja for his poor Tamil diction (while absolutely adoring his music sense), for instance.

As a reasonably Tamil-aware person, I cannot not hear the mispronunciation but I assume it is also like ‘Indian English’ – once you know that there is a legitimate/’correct’ way to use English, hearing other variants seem awkward. But largely, I’ve made peace with the fact that newer generations will evolve with newer ways of pronunciation and may not hold on to the original, classical ways with which a language was intended. This, for example, is very pronounced (pun unintended) in Tamil rappers based out of places like Malaysia. They have been trained in that pronunciation and that’s their belief, of how the language sounds.

I guess we can see the language as an umbrella, and it encompassing many variants, dialects that some of the purists may find cringe-worthy because they are used to/raised in one form that sounds different. Larger point is that the beauty and richness of Indian regional languages are getting eroded slowly and steadily in the onslaught of globalization and with each generation.

I’m sure we Indians across all states will keep the fight on, to maintain languages and its literature for the next century or so, but we’re a tiny subsegment in the overall globe. Each language, even more tinier! At least by sheer numbers, English and Mandarin (with 960 million speakers, across multiple varieties and dialects) may be the surviving languages, I suppose. Meanwhile, our small efforts in propagating Indian regional languages like taking one state’s language national, through music, like Sona’s version of Ahe Nila Saila (when was the last time you heard an Oriya song on a music fest stage?) is welcome.

This reminded of my 5+ years growing up in Bhubaneswar as a child. My favorite song was an Oriya song played by my parents very, very often at home: Akshaya Mohanty’s Jaare Bhasi Bhasi Ja Nauka Mora Bhasija http://bit.ly/2JQhgaC It’s a lovely, lilting song that brings me back memories of my days in Bhubaneswar!

Here’s to the musicians who keep battle to keep regional languages alive beyond films-based music – Raghu Dixit, with his Kannada music, Joi Barua and Papon with their Assamese music, way too many Malayalee, Bengali and Punjabi musicians (to name individually) and the likes.

Idhenaa Nijanga (Aatagadharaa Siva, Telugu): Kannada composer Vasuki Vaibhav’s 2nd song this week, but in Telugu! The film is a remake of Rama Rama Re, so Vasuki’s News Nodi gets this Telugu version. Sounds fantastic yet again!

Yaavum enadhe (Shweta Mohan, Bennet Roland & Madhan Karky, Indipop): Bennet’s music (and the guitar, in particular) has the sound of early Indian rock/pop (like Indus Creed!). It is Shweta’s lively singing, though, that is the song’s clear highlight.

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