Milliblog Weeklies, Week 131 – Oct.25, 2020

Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist.
Week 131: On | On
16 songs, this week. YouTube and JioSaavn playlists have all 16 songs.

Roshni Si & Re Bawree (both versions) – Taish (Prashant Pillai, Govind Vasantha) – Hindi: It’s so good to see a full soundtrack actually release at one go before the film’s release – an increasingly rare event these days. True to Bejoy Nambiar’s style, this too is a multi-composer album where he picks talents from multiple places and puts them all in his thematic vision for the musical expression of the film. The most exciting songs here are by Prashant, and Govind Vasantha, who makes his Hindi debut, I presume.

Prashant’s Roshni Si is every but what you expect from him – beautifully layered, soaring vocals by Ashwin Gopakumar and Preeti Pillai and a superb techno sound pulsating throughout.

Govind’s Re Bawree could easily be mistaken for a Thaikkudam Bridge tune! The semi-classical sound in the melody is hauntingly beautiful, accentuated by Prarthna Indrajith and Govind’s vocals and the tune shifts in the antara! That ‘Pal pal gin ke’ line in particular is a delightful turn! The song’s other version, Re Bawree (Jahaan Lost In Love), by Sona Mohapatra is another level, with her majestic voice bringing in immense gravitas to the same tune.

Aabaad Barbaad – Ludo (Pritam) – Hindi: Anurag Basu’s new film, so that means new goodness from Pritam! And the first single doesn’t disappoint at all, with its addictive tune. When Ghulam Ali’s sarangi peeks in, in the beginning of the song, I had assumed it may be a more desi song with a tinge of retro, but when the actual song starts, Pritam unleashes an energetic electronic sound that amps up the song almost to a breezy dance number. Arijit is, as usual, extremely competent, though his repetitive ‘kardo’ seems a bit grating by the time the song ends.

Ban Ja Wo Diya, Sehen Kar Liya, Aisi Hi Zindagi, Meraki, Ruhana, Yaad and Nisarga – Aayam (Shrinidhi Ghatate) – Hindi/Marathi/Indipop: I was very, very pleasantly surprised by the sheer range of gorgeous tunes in Shrinidhi’s new album, Aayam. The whole album makes for a great listen, and the album’s uniformly Indipop’ish sound, that too from a different period, was particularly alluring. Songs like Aisi Hi Zindagi, Meraki, Ruhana and Ban Ja Wo Diya exemplified that style more explicitly. Sehen Kar Liya was very Amit Trivedi’ish, while the mildly semi-classical Yaad and the Marathi pop song Nisarga too showcase her composing skills as well as singing proficiency really well.

Naach Meri Rani – Tanishk Bagchi (Ft. Guru Randhawa and Nikhita Gandhi) – Hindi/Indipop: Tanishk is back, after the broad pounding he got for the Masakali 2.0 remix that saw even the otherwise affably let-me-stay-out-of-controversy A.R.Rahman fluttering his wings. He doesn’t remix anything this time, but his material here is a pulse-pounding dance track that Guru and Nikhita deliver very well. It’s a simple, catchy one-hook song, something Tanishk handles very easily, to good effect.

Care Ni Karda – Chhalaang (Yo Yo Honey Singh) – Punjabi/Indipop: For a song where the lead singer Sweetaj Brar is outstandingly good, it is a pity that her name is not part of the video title, nor is it mentioned anywhere in the descriptions first 2-3 paragraphs!

What T-series sells is Yo Yo Honey Singh’s name, who has composed the song (very well, at that) and raps along with Sweetaj. The song has a wonderfully earthy charm, amped up by the repetitive ‘ni karda’ refrain that Sweetaj delivers with a beautiful Punjabi charm that includes pronouncing ‘spare’ as ‘sa pair”.

Kadai Kannaaley – Bhoomi (D.Imman) – Tamil: Imman’s second single from the film sees him coming back all guns blazing… or, all sitars blazing! The most prominent and repetitive musical hook possibly starts off without the sitar (electronic sound?) but it seems to be blending and made by the sitar eventually, even as the instrument (played by Kishore) plays a much larger part. And when Imman ropes in Shreya Ghoshal, it usually results in something very good – here too, he hands her a really lush, layered melody that she relishes singing. The melody, that already sounds interesting because of the long pallavi and a single anupallavi/charanam, has gorgeous twists like that ‘Vizhiyai imayai virithen’ line in the anupallavi/charanam.

Aagasam – Soorarai Pottru (Thaikudam Bridge & G.V.Prakash Kumar) – Tamil: This is how a song recreation is done! G.V.Prakash Kumar uses the main vocal refrain from Thaikudam Bridge’s Urumbu and builds on it with his own main melody/tune that gels perfectly in a new set-up with searing lyrics from Arunraja Kamaraj! And he gets the singer of the original Christin Jos (along with Govind Vasantha) to sing his version – the recreation is given adequate respect and credit everywhere, both literally and figuratively, as it should be, normalizing the, “Here’s a recreation – do listen to both the songs and pick what you like!” sentiment confidently. Extremely well-played.

The Bombay Doors – Tejas (Indipop): The second single from Tejas’ upcoming album Outlast (the first single, Lead, dropped in June). An ode to Mumbai with a very vibrant synth-based sound. The backgrounds remains consistently intriguing, springing a surprise every now and then, even as the vocal layer compliments that surprise equally well!

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