Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist.
Week 63: On JioSaavn | On YouTube
16 songs this week. JioSaavn has 14, and is missing Chenthamara Poovin from Neermathalam Pootha Kaalam and Ashram’s Swans of the East… both of which are available on YouTube and hence the YouTube playlist has all 16 songs!
A note on the songs in the playlist:
Bajaa Bajaa Dhol Bajaa – Mere Pyare Prime Minister (Shankar Ehsaan Loy) – Hindi: What an outstanding remix! The trio show how beautifully a remix can be created, layering Gulzar’s tipsy, danc’y lyrics over C.Ramchandra’s Navrag classic, Ja Re Hat Natkhat. The result, in Shankar Mahadevan, Divya Kumar, Asha Bhosle, Rekha Bhardwaj, Shrinidhi Ghatate, Neela Mulhekar’s singing, is an eclectic and delightful mix!
Din Dahade – Milan Talkies (Rana Mazumder) – Hindi: The film’s soundtrack has 5 songs by Rana and one by Akriti. Because of Tigmanshu Dhulia (the director), I so wanted to like this soundtrack, but it simply refused to stick despite my trying pretty hard. The one song that worked for me is this one with a lovely whiff of the retro. For some reason, it reminded of Rakesh Roshan and Rishi Kapoor dancing together in their college 🙂
Vaa Vaa Penne – Uriyadi 2 (Govind Vasantha) – Tamil: The song clearly harks back to the days when he was Govind Menon… and specifically to his Malayalam soundtrack 100 Days of Love. No, not that soundtrack’s best song, Arike Pozhiyum, but to the film’s theme and the 2 other songs, Manjiloode and Hridayathin. The melody is fresh of Govind’s Vasantha days that he is in an extended, inspired run. It’s beautiful, and Sid Sriram’s enchanting singing makes it even more so.
All 5 songs – July Kaatril (Joshua Sridhar) – Tamil: Milliblog music review.
Aalankuruvigalaa – Bakrid (D.Imman) – Tamil: Sid Sriram seems to be everywhere! His new song for Imman is a great combination of the Sid Sriram style song and the Imman style of music. Imman’s music, with those jaunty rhythms and lush melody is intact and Sid’s singing takes it a notch higher!
Spirit Of Jersey – Jersey (Anirudh) – Telugu: A superbly rousing track with booming backgrounds and brilliant singing by Kaala Bhairava. The chorus too adds to that effect. Anirudh’s Telugu original output continues to be very good (after Agnyaathavaasi, though I understand this one’s a bi-lingual).
Tholi Tholi Paluke – Jessie (Sricharan Pakala) – Telugu: Besides singer Vidhya’s vocals, Sricharan does mighty well for himself in the backgrounds using a wonderfully atmospheric orchestration and contrasting sounds at times for great effect.
Chenthamara Poovin – Neermathalam Pootha Kaalam (Nahoom Abraham) – Malayalam: This Satyam record label is so bad that they name the same film differently in 2 music videos (besides not making their new music available on JioSaavn)! I had listed composer Sangeeth Vijayan’s Anivaga Poothoren 2 weeks ago on Weeklies and here’s another song that easily makes the cut! A different composer, Nahoom Abraham, but the song is lovely, with an almost Raja’esque melody (that ‘Orey kanavu thedi naan’ line, in particular, is haunting!). Haricharan is outstanding in the affecting melody.
Nigooda Nigooda – Kavaludaari (Charan Raj M.R) – Kannada: Charan’s first in 2019! And it is every bit the lush, indulgent melody that one expects from the composer. It takes some fantastic stylish turns that take time to absorb, but are immensely satisfying once you do! Sanjith Hegde, the other singer who seems to be everywhere (like Sid Sriram), is stupendous with this vocals.
Kalabeda Kolabeda – Paddehuli (Ajaneesh Loknath) – Kannada: Basavanna’s vachana gets a mindbogglingly zingy and modern adaptation, while also retaining the soul. The package is a brilliant way to introduce the vachana to a younger audience who may start singing this without even realizing the iconic lyrics that they are memorizing in the process! Ajaneesh’s work in the rhythm is particularly note-worthy, while Narayan Sharma’s voice booms beautifully all through, with a lot of feeling!
Kushiyo Kushiyu – Badri VS Madhumathi (Ellwyn Joshua) – Kannada: Armaan Malik’s continued influence in Kannada music! He gets yet another breezy number that harks back to early-Rahman style music, complete with a serene ghatam-based background. Very listenable melody that somehow also took me back to Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s Armaan song, Meri Zindagi Mein Aaye Ho.
Swans of the East – Ashram: Ashram is Arko Mukhaerjee and Kanishka Sarkar, German-based Indian musicians. The Indian part comes across beautifully in the song, given its raaga Hamsadhwani backdrop. That, and the electronic music make for a fascinating mix.
