Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist.
Week 101: On | On
16 songs this week. Back on JioSaavn since they helped sort the problem, unlike Apple Music who didn’t even bother to respond when I did have a huge problem of vanishing playlists. Saavn has all 16 songs, while YouTube is missing only the title song of Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo.
Panga (title song) – Panga (Shankar Ehsaan Loy) – Hindi: If the trio reinterpret Pritam’s reinterpretation of South Indian kuthu music, this is what you may get! (Phew!) That ‘Le le Panga’ call out is such a heady South kuthu touch, but with a uniqueness that the trio always bring to their music. The lyrics too, by Javed Akhtar, are blisteringly good, as is the singing, featuring Harshdeep Kaur, Divya Kumar & Siddharth Mahadevan.
Dua Karo – Street Dancer 3D (Sachin-Jigar) – Hindi: The composing duo use a familiar Pakistani-pop template and amp it up significantly with Kalyan Baruah’s superb guitar work. Lead singer Arijit Singh and the rap by Bohemia work perfectly in tandem. The ‘dua karo’ hook stands out as an addictive phrase.
Kehndi Haan Kehndi Naa (Composed by Sukriti Kakar, Prakriti Kakar, music by Rishabh Kant) – Indipop: Rishab’s music (arranged by him, I presume) and the sisters’ composition are enticingly good. The singing by the sisters too is equally good. Catchy, bubblegum Punjabi pop!
Neenga Mudiyuma – Psycho (Ilayaraja) – Tamil: Oh boy! The Maestro in full flow, unleashing his music in all its glory! That this is already his 3rd song with Sid Sriram says a lot about how much Raja has taken to the singer’s voice! But more than Sid’s splendid singing, its those sprawling violins in the background that take you to a completely different plane! This is goosebumps-inducingly beautiful!
Samajavaragamana – Female, Buttabomma & Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo – Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo (Thaman S) – Telugu: The male version of Samajavaragamana, sung by Sid Sriram, was already the . Here comes a beautiful female version and who better than Shreya Ghoshal to give it a shot! Shreya brings a scintillating feminine touch to the already fantastic tune, even as Thaman’s backgrounds offer a new flavor that enhances this new version significantly. Buttabomma is standard-issue Telugu masala, but there’s no doubt about how catchy and foot-tapping the whole package is. The choice of Armaan Malik works wonders too. The title song is a stunning surprise! I had first noticed the title call-out in the trailer/teaser and thought it sounded fantastic. Thaman goes several steps beyond that call-out and carves a brilliant track that starts with Priya Sisters’ prayer-like prelude. And then he drops Sri Krishna’s part amidst blazing guitar, topped by the superb title call-out!
Veezhumee – Chethi Mandharam Thulasi (Govind Vasantha) – Malayalam: Whoa, Govind, who released Thaikkudam Bridge’s album Namah in December has already released a new pop song after that (that I wrote about in last week’s Weeklies). And here’s his new film song! There’s a nice, energetic sound that kicks in after a full minute of Vipin’s wonderful singing. It’s an interesting song, and even more interestingly, the song running almost 3 minutes is called a ‘teaser’! I wonder who releases that long a teaser in these days when even a full song is that length!
Suri Anna – Salaga (Charan Raj) – Kannada: Charan Raj’s handling of the adequately ‘spirited’ song is on the lines of Sam CS’s Tasakku from Vikram Vedha. Not tune-wise, but in terms of the overall style of using the chorus. Anthony Daasan is perfect for delivering this kind of a song and the older song reference at 2:27 that made me burst out laughing, since that song also has a drunk man dancing atop a well 🙂
Radha & Mon Janona – Asur (Bickram Ghosh) – Bangla: Tabla player/percussionist Bickram Ghosh has been associated with solid music in the recent past. His collaboration with Sonu Nigam for is my favorite. The sound in the 2 songs in this new Bangla film is, expectedly, very creative and vibrant. The tunes are less interesting, in comparison, but are not bad either. They are just a bit familiar/predictable, though the singers, Iman Chakraborty and Shovan Ganguly in Radha, and Ujjaini Mukherjee and Shovan Ganguly in Mon Janona, elevate the song confidently.
Rare, Dance Again, Let Me Get Me, Ring, A Sweeter Place – Rare (Selena Gomez): Selena Gomez’s brand new album is a surprisingly enjoyable affair. The whole album is very well produced and there is enough range of tunes to enjoy!
