Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist.
Week 91: On | On
28 songs this week, since there was no Weeklies last week 🙂 The YouTube playlist has all the songs, while JioSaavn has only 23 songs.
Loka Samasta – Aruna Sairam and the Thayir Sadam Project (Indipop): The Thayir Sadam Project has been producing some really good music and this new song too, featuring Aruna Sairam, is exceptionally well done! It thematically mixes Kannada and Tamil lyrics, wonderfully sung with complete authority by Aruna Sairam, and John Lennon’s Imagine, sung by Bindu Subramaniam. It also has a brilliant backing music, featuring Ambi Subramaniam on violin and Mahesh Raghavan on the iPad!
Pink Gulaabi Sky, Nadaaniyaan, Zindagi & Dil Hi Toh Hai (Reprise) – The Sky Is Pink (Pritam) – Hindi: After Dil Hi Toh Hai, Pritam scores again, but in a dramatically different genre compared to that one. Loaded with an addictive and catchy swing sound, the song works on the exuberant singing by Shashwat Singh and Jonita Gandhi. Nadaaniyaan’s uptempo tune and sound is highly infectious! And the singing by Arjun Kanungo (and Lisa Mishra) effortlessly enhances that feeling. Pritam has a prominent and repetitive musical hook that stays with you long after the song is over. Zindagi, on the other hand, sounds almost like a retro song, with its involving melody that seemed almost like it was composed by Jaidev, to me! But Pritam does add a far more modern layer of music on top to distinguish the feel. Arijit is is great form accentuating the song’s feel, as usual anyway. The reprise of Dil Hi Toh Hai is a joyous affair that makes me wonder why Sreerama Chandra Mynampati doesn’t sing more often in Hindi! He is stellar with his singing, adding a new perspective to the song that is already a winner! Overall, The Sky Is Pink is a superbly enjoyable and articulate soundtrack by Pritam!
Makhna – Drive (Tanishk Bagchi) – Hindi: Tanishk sneaks in generous dollops of Duma Dum Mast Kalandar (Oh Laal Mere…) and produces a breezy and surprisingly enjoyable dance track! Asees Kaur’s lead vocals is the song’s strength, with adequate support by Tanishk himself and Yasser Desai.
Sanedo & Odhani – Made in China (Sachin-Jigar) – Hindi: Sachin-Jigar’s latest songs dip into their Gujarati roots, but the duo converts the Gujarati base to a biazarre concoction to broadly appeal to more people. Sanedo could have been far better with a Gujarati singer, like Darshan Rawal carrying Odhani. Mika Singh sings it like any of his other Punjabi-laced songs, though the song in itself is foot-tapping. Odhani is a more pulsating dance track that goes techno-Garba with a vengeance.
Udta Teetar & Womaniya – Saand Ki Aankh (Vishal Misra) – Hindi: Vishal uses a stylistically fusion sound for this otherwise ‘village’ theme and it works perfectly. Kalyan Baruah’s scintillating guitar and the brass additions make this song thoroughly enjoyable. In Womaniya (a word coined by Varun Grover for Gangs of Wasseypur, that was also used in a song in that film), Vishal tries his hand at a Pritam-style South Indian kuthu and fares pretty well too!
Malarudhu Pudhu Naale – Petromax (Ghibran) – Tamil: Whoa, that was a surprisingly Harris Jayaraj’ish tune and sound by Ghibran! Of course, Ghibran adds his layered orchestration to make it sound far better than Harris’s current form, but the base was amazingly similar when I heard it first, particularly early-Harris when he was in a stupendous form. I could easily imagine this song to be part of Majnu or 12B!
Aagayam – Aruvam (Thaman S) – Tamil: Thaman S goes by the name SS Thaman in Tamil, though it is not as complex as Keeravani vs. Maragadhamani 🙂 The tune makes it seem very, very much like an Ilayaraja song sung by Bhavatharini! The structure and the serene backgrounds are very similar to the Meastro’s style. To be fair to Thaman, the backgrounds are enchanting, almost more interesting than Roshini’s singing at times! The interludes, in particular, are very good too!
Andam Ankitam – Syeraa Narasimha Reddy (Amit Trivedi) – Telugu: For a multilingual mounted on a massive scale, Amit Trivedi seems to be taken a leaf out of M.M.Keeravani’s sound in Baahubali, given this is a Telugu-first film. The sound is expansive, geared more towards the large screen than specifically appealing on a music-only basis. The one song that escapes that description is Andam Ankitam! Amit’s dulcet melody and the main rhythm that almost sounds like terrifically slowed down Garba rhythm, is handled beautifully by Shashaa Tirupati and Vijay Prakash.
Samajavaragamana – Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo (Thaman S) – Telugu: Thaman is back at a big Telugu film after last year’s Aravindha Sametha. With Sid Sriram in tow, he produces a cracker of a song that has a lot fo what you’d expect from his style, but goes more! Sid seems perfect to handle the energetic melody. The backgrounds, in particular are superb, including Subhani’s electric mandolin, though the sound is shown to be coming out of a keyboard (if I’m not mistaken) in the music video!
Chaalu Chaalu – Meeku Maathrame Cheptha (Sivakumar) – Telugu: Is Sivakumar a debutant? I see soe promise, though not in the La La La song where the slightly annoying vocals tone down the interest. Chaalu Chaalu fares much better with a layer of retro’ish sound and a cornucopia of sounds that somehow work in cohesion, energetically.
Jaabille Jaarindhi – Adi Oka Idi Le (Muralidhar Ragi) – Telugu: Much of the song sounds amateurish, but the composer (debutant) gets at least one thing right – the raaga. I seem to hear Reetigowlai raaga predominantly in the pallavi and that keeps the song easily likeable.
Aalum Kolum – Ganagandharvan (Deepak Dev) – Malayalam: Deepak Dev’s simple, lilting melody is a wonderfully pleasant throwback to yesteryears’ sense of melody. The interludes and the singing (Jeenu Nazeer and Harishankar K.S) too hark back to that period.
Hey Song – Valiyaperunnal (Saju Sreenivas) – Malayalam: For a film advertised as ‘A Rex Vijayan Musical), the first song composed by Saju Sreenivas is a surprise! The song is punchy and pulsating, though, with a throbbing rhythm and a fantastic vocal humming that keeps is consistently engaging. Excellent singing by Suchith Suresan and Saju Sreenivas.
Chillayile – Vikruthi (Bijibal) – Malayalam: The second song from Vikruthi after Kaanumbol and Bijibal has it wrapped up beautifully, in Harishankar’s voice. There’s an unusually brisk rhythm that punctuates the otherwise lovely melody, but I’m willing to overlook that for the overall song.
Munnotithaa, Thaaro & Akale – Manoharam (Sanjeev T) – Malayalam: Sanjeev Thomas has winner with his entire Manoharam soundtrack! Kinavo was already a fantastic song and he has 3 more! Munnotithaa’s superb funk sound moves in so many interesting directions that it requires a few listens to grasp the song’s structure and high-points. The song also has a ‘Tharoo’ hook that made me think they named the song wrongly (the song is called ‘Thaaro’!). There’s a brilliant nadaswaram layer in the song that I couldn’t get out of my mind. Thaaro is Vineeth’s show, with its lively sound and a wonderfully pleasant tune. The soundtrack’s surprise is Akale, sung by Sid Sriram. Sanjeev conjures a magnificently expansive sound to let Sid’s powerful singing flow.
Ithuvareyum – Jumba Lahari (Subramanian K V) – Malayalam: Singer Ashok T Ponnappan almost whispers in this song that I had to listen to it more than once to register his vocals! The tune by Subramanian has an ethereal feel and sounds like a classic Simon and Garfunkel number!
Ee Vazhi – Jack Daniel (Shaan Rahman) – Malayalam: It is perhaps both awkward and ironic that both Dileep and Arjun star in a movie, given the allegations with regard to harassment of women only recently. Beyond that, the song is very nice. Shaan’s melody is easily likeable, with a neat electronic hook that props it up.
Nagabeda Ande Naanu – Lungi (Prasad K Shetty) – Kannada: I liked this song over Waste Body, from the same soundtrack. That one tries to do a Vivek Sagar, but with not-so-convincing results, despite Sanjith Hegde singing. Nagabeda Ande Naanu gets the melody right, though, with excellent singing by Armaan Malik and Shwetha Mohan. And the mid-way musical take-off is a nice touch.
Dugga Elo – Guddu, ft. Monali Thakur (Bangla): Guddu produces a crackling and pulsating song that encapsulates the spirit and joy of Durga Pujo, in Monali Thakur’s super enthusiastic rendition! Monali seems to be thoroughly enjoying her role and it shows in the music video!
Trippy Lage – Password (Savvy) – Bangla: True to its name, the tune is trippy, with a mesmerising edge, made more pronounced by the peculiarly serpentine electronic music.
Maravairi Ramani – GrooViDa (Indipop): Thyagaraja’s Nasika Bhushani raaga-based original gets a really groovy new take in Haricharan and his band’s hands. Haricharan, of course, is the absolute star of this version, with an incredible hold on the vocals. Raghavasimhan’s electric violin and, in particular, Ravi G on the keyboard and Sumesh Narayan on the mridangam and konnakol, offer fantastic support. A large part of the song’s attraction is no doubt the original’s hugely immersive raaga-base and melody, but kudos to the band in offering the same in a thoroughly enjoyable new-age expression.
