Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist.
Week 116: On | On
14 songs this week. JioSaavn has 10, while YouTube has all of them!
Fursat Hai Aaj Bhi – Arjun Kanungo (Indipop/Hindi): A song that seemed like it jumped straight out one of the many Magnasound Everlasting Love Songs cassettes, considering the shades of Phil Collins’ Another Day In Paradise and Elton John’s Sacrifice. It’s a lovely ballad, with Mayur Puri’s love-soaked verse and Arjun’s sweet vocals.
Kahaniyan – Sunny M.R. (Indipop/Hindi): Sunny is the second composer to go independent this week. He already has a mighty impressive Telugu body of work and still prefers being Pritam’s assistant in Hindi! His new single sits perfectly within his Telugu repertoire with its sedate electronic sound. This is short, experimental track, no doubt, but a captivating one at that.
Adiye, What are you talking lady? & Kaatukkatha – Vairii (Anthony Daasan) – Tamil: Vairii is a surprisingly likeable album composed by Anthony Daasan. Surprisingly, because his composing range moved far beyond his usual style that he adopts even better in his non-film music. Adiye’s rustic sound seems at home with the Vidyasagar-style and VM.Mahalingam’s singing is an absolute winner. What are you talking lady? is a riot! Anthony uses snatches of familiar folk songs and constructs a very nice hybrid that comes alive with a burst of guitar. Kaatukkatha sounds most definitely like an Imman song, and Jithin’s vocals may also have a role in that perception. The jaunty rhythm and interludes even recall Raja’s style the way Imman appropriates them cleverly. The tune is lovely, even as it goes into nostalgic 80s style in the latter half of the anupallavi.
Kadhal Ecstasy – Sean Roldan, Ft. Susha (Indipop/Tamil): Two more film composers have joined the non-film bandwagon this week, besides Amit Trivedi and Ghibran from previous weeks. The first is Sean Roldan. His new single is a nice throwback to the Suresh Peters’ era of funky pop music. Susha gets a fantastic layer in the song, though the repeated use of the word ‘ecstasy’ takes time to sink in given how unique a word it is amidst Tamil lines.
Mayangi Poguthey – 2 Stories (Jeffin Joe Jacob) – Tamil: This is the kind of song that makes one question, “Damn, who is the composer?”. I haven’t heard Jeffin’s music in the past. Mayangi Poguthey, that suffers a bit from the director’s barely functional lyrics, has a thoroughly heartwarming rock melody that singer Karthik totally aces! Jeffin adds some really good vocal effects to Karthik’s singing that makes the song really good.
Marley – Tenma, Ft.Gana Muthu (Indipop/Tamil): Even if they sing ‘Red, Green, Manjaa… Thala Bob Marley Not-tu Ganjaa’, the song’s melody is borderline stoner-style 🙂 The lyrics mount Bob Marley as ‘Thala’, an honorific title made popular by Ajith and as ‘Jamaica’s Gandhi’! Cool song with an addictive, hummable tune.
Vedi Pakodi – Love Life And Pakodi (Pavan) – Telugu: A frenetically orchestrated track that seems to riff on Vivek Sagar’s style. The predominant guitar layer and Anurag Kulkarni’s energetic singing add to the charm.
Vathikkalu Vellaripravu – Sufiyum Sujatayum (M Jayachandran) – Malayalam: What a gobsmackingly beautiful song!! Right from Nithya Mammen’s astonishingly good lead vocals, the sheer exotic assortment of background sounds and the overall sufi sound Jayachandran places the whole package in… this is outstanding music!
Choolamadichu – Sanah Moidutty & Prasanna Suresh (Vidyasagar) – Malayalam: Sanah and Prasanna interpret Vidyasagar’s late 90s song in an interesting new version. Much of the 90s sound has been evened out to make the melody shine better. The original song is from Summer in Bethlehem, that was partly remade in Tamil as Lesa Lesa. Harris Jayaraj’s equivalent of this Malayalam song was Ennai Polave, incidentally.
Chal Bhatakuya – Avadhoot Gupte (Indipop/Marathi): An almost Marathi-equivalent of Dil Chahta Hai-style! Very sing-along’ish melody and darn well sung by both Swapnil Bandodkar and Avadhoot Gupte. Gorgeous video too, which works really well like a video brochure for Ford Endeavour!
Aami Banglar – Sayantika Ghosh (Indipop/Bangla): A charming melody, made better by Sayantika’s excellent vocals. The Baul vocals by Shekhar Das and the background music (featuring kanjira, djembe among others) offer fantastic backing. The video is a lovely watch too!
Birds and the Bees – Shakthisree Gopalan & Alfie (Indipop/English): Salwin Alfred aka Alfie scores a melody that seems to be beautifully mounted to showcase Shakthisree’s fantastic vocals! At the 2-and-a-half minute, after what sounds like an extended prelude where she holds fort mighty impressively, Michael Dias’ guitars kick in to take the song to the next plane. Great listen!
