Milliblog Weeklies, Week 82 – JUL21.2019

Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist.
Week 82: On | On
19 songs this week. All 19 present on the YouTube playlist, but the JioSaavn playlist is missing 3 songs – Manmadhudu 2’s Hey Menina, Pattabhiraman’s Unni Ganapathiye and the Gujarati song by Sachin-Jigar, Dariyo.

Para Para, Judgementall Hai Kya & Kis Raste Hai Jana – Judgementall Hai Kya (Rachita Arora and Arjunaa Harjai) – Hindi: After Tanishk Bagchi’s remake single, the film produces a fairly interesting mix across its 5 songs. Rachita Arora continues to live up to her promise with eclectic songs! Para Para is an intriguing take on Pancham’s music, with Arun Dev Yadav taking on Pancham-style singing and pulling it off well too! MuzikFactory (OmDixant) is credited with the ‘Music’, oddly enough, consisting of Dixant Shaurya and Om Sharma, though ‘Music composer’ continues to be Rachita Arora. The title song is a pulsating rap built on the title hook that leads itself to a neat EDM drop. Arjunaa Harjai’s Kis Raste Hai Jana is a complete contrast to Rachita’s songs and is a pleasant and heartwarming melody that is serene and lilting, with voices by Surabhi Dashputra and Arjunaa himself.

Hawa Banke – Darshan Rawal (Nirmaan) – Hindi/Punjabi: Darshan’s latest is a nice reworking of Hadiqa Kiani’s iconic Punjabi song Boohey Barain. Nirmaan’s recreation builds on the original with new lyrics and uses the original’s hook with reverence and the soul intact.

Dhoonde Akhiyaan – Jabariya Jodi (Tanishk Bagchi) – Hindi: Jabariya Jodi has 8 songs – that’s a lot of songs by current standards! I was underwhelmed by the overall soundtrack and when I see Sid and Parineeti together, I still go back to Zehnaseeb. The only song that held my attention was Tanishk’s Dheende Akhiyaan, with its predictably comforting filmy sound that somehow took my mind to Pardes’ climax!

Thozhane – Kaal Nootraandu Kaadhal (Ashwin Vinayagamoorthy) – Tamil: The song is from a short film and it is fantastic to see Yuvan Shankar Raja showcase and support other composers under his U1 Records label. The song, by Ashwin, is a brilliantly energetic and inspiring number with a powerful chorus hook. The sound is classic rock and even though Tipu sings it, it was somewhat amusing to see Ashwin lip-sync to it in the video 🙂

Maalai Nera – A1 (Santhosh Narayanan) – Tamil: At last! At last Santhosh decided to import his hugely entertaining early song from Telugu Billa Ranga (Melam Moge) to Tamil! Possibly because I was so used to the Telugu original, I wasn’t that impressed with the Tamil lyrics (also the singer going ‘MaLLippoo MaLLippoo for some reason) sitting perfectly on this tune, but the tune continues to remain great fun 🙂

Adhuva Adhuva – Naadodigal 2 (Justin Prabhakaran) – Tamil: Justin for Nadodigal 2 is a pleasant surprise, after Sundar C Babu’s bombastic music going perfectly with the bombastic earlier film that was intentionally loud and blaring, albeit well-intentioned and riveting. Justin’s first song is a pleasant experience, far removed from the tone of the original film – is this a sign that this film will also be different from the first one? The conversational tone of the song, between Sooraj Santhosh and Shweta Mohan, and the assorted atmospheric sounds that Justin adds, make the experience all the more enjoyable!

Raksha Raksha Jaganmatha – Aadai (K.Veeramani and Pradeep Kumar) – Tamil: This is one scintillating remix by Pradeep. When the first interlude, a very familiar tune during Tamil Nadu mornings and in schools across the state, started playing preceded and succeeded by pulsating guitar, I burst out laughing at the mix and ingenuity 🙂 I also notice that
Saregama has usurped the song from Think Music which is the original record label for the film, by nature of being the copyright owner of the original. Result? Whenever you encounter a jukebox or ‘album’ of Aadai, it’d be without this song – the listener is the loser, in the end.

Ra Ra: Roar of the Revengers – Gang Leader (Anirudh) – Telugu: Anirudh continues his fantastic Telugu form in the first single from Gang Leader too! The song has a racy, stylish sound that works instantly. Prudhvi Chandra and Bashermax roar through the already searing electric guitars.

Bujji Bangaram – Guna 369 (Chaitan Bharadwaj) – Telugu: I thought the first single from the film (Tholi Parichayama Idhi) was pretty average and riffed on way-too-familiar Telugu song templates. But Chaitan delivers better in Bujji Bangaram, with its joyous sound and lively tune, handled very well by Nakash Aziz and Deepthi Parthasarathy.

Kannu Kotti – Ranarangam (Karthik Rodriguez) – Telugu: I have known Karthik Rodriguez as a singer, and this composing turn (I believe he has done it earlier too), that too in a soundtrack that I thought belonged to Prashant Pillai, is a surprise! His tune, that he also sings (no surprise!), is quirky with a steady lilt and a wonderfully melodic turn in the anupallavi.

Hey Menina – Manmadhudu 2 (Chaitan Bharadwaj) – Telugu: Breezy Latino mix by Chaitan that’s a complete departure from his existing (limited) repertoire! This man is really going places, even singing it in style and confidence!

Shokilala – Chandan Shetty (Kannada): Among the few people who are attempting hip-hop in the South (like HipHop Tamizha in Tamil), Chandan Shetty has been fairly consistent with good quality output. Shokilala sounds like something Bruno Mars would have composed if he was based out of Shivajinagar. It sounds fantastic!

Neelambarampol – Unnikrishnan KB (Malayalam): Sung by Ganesh Sundaram, Unnikrishnan’s melody is a lovely semi-classical’ish song that reminded me of Sahana raaga. It’s possible that is why I like the song too 🙂 Unnikrishnan seems completely at ease handling the tune and sound, particularly the tabla, by Dharmatheerthan.

Unni Ganapathiye – Pattabhiraman (M.Jayachandran) – Malayalam: The song sounded to me like Mayamalavagowlai raaga, and like the earlier mention on Sahana raaga, could be the very reason why I took it immediately. M G Sreekumar’s pitch-perfect singing and Jayachandran’s rich background score make the song so much better.

Aajo Cholechi – Papon & Shalmali Kholgade (Oriplast Originals Season 1) – Himachali/Bengali: As Shalmali starts singing the familiar and well-loved Himachali folk song Maini Meriye, I started wondering if I got the song title right. It turns out to a fusion, a very good one at that, with music by Subhadeep Mitra who blends the Himachali folk with a new tune, sung first by Papon and then Shalmali too, in Bengali. This is a promising start to Oriplast Originals Season 1 – I look forward to more in this series.

Dariyo – Sachin-Jigar (Gujarati): Even as the composing duo’s latest, Arjun Patiala is a strangely middling piece of work, this independent single comes as a refreshing surprise. It is sparse and highly melodious, running on Jigar’s soulful singing and some wonderful background music. The excessive digital intervention in the vocals is annoying as usual, but the overall package is a great listen.

China – Anuel Aa, Karol G, Daddy Yankee ft. J Balvin, Ozuna: So many stars in one song? And the song, to my Indian ears, sounded like Punjabi, at places 🙂 The package is usual Daddy Yankee/Balvin Latino reggaeton catchiness – irresistible as always.

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