Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist.
Week 185: On Spotify | On
11 songs this week! All the songs are available on YouTube and Spotify.
Makhmali & Hadd Kar De – Prithviraj (Shankar Ehsaan Loy), Hindi: A song that sounds rather non-period’ish and could have featured in any of the trio’s more modern films. That folk’ish rhythm that plays on the back of the ‘Makhmali’ hook could have been placed for that period effect, but the overall package sounds so very new. Keeping that aside, it’s a gorgeous song, with brilliant singing by Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal. Hadd Kar De has what we instinctively (and in a filmy way) identify as shades of a period-score – that means, we may not imagine this song in a modern backdrop. The melody is engaging, the rhythm is jaunty, Neeti Mohan’s singing is outstanding and the backgrounds are excellent too, giving the song a wonderful lilt.
Vikram title song – Vikram (Anirudh) – Tamil: After the banger of a title song from Beast, Anirudh delivers yet again in style for the Vikram title song that deftly makes use of the original Vikram title song. This is one electric title song! The other songs, including the 2 English songs (Wasted, Once Upon a Time), and Porkanda Singam, though they sound cool enough, didn’t appeal to me as much – perhaps they are better seen than heard.
Cheranaadu – Paper Rocket (Simon K King) – Tamil: I was just starting to wonder what happened to Simon after showing much promise. What a lovely Tamil-Malayalam mix in terms of sound and language (written by Ku.Karthick and Joe Paul)! Ramya Nambessan’s singing is fantastic, and Simon’s background mix using the guitar and chendai to produce an incredibly rhythmic sound works darn well. Couldn’t help but notice that the reference to Siruvani (from Coimbatore) was enveloped in Malayalam lyrics 🙂
Kaathu Vaakula Rendu – Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal (Anirudh) – Tamil: The film’s soundtrack is already loaded with great songs and the thoroughly catchy title song easily joins that list! This one has excellent lyrics by Vignesh ShivN too that syncs so well with the melody!
Oh Isha – Major (Sricharan Pakala) – Telugu: While I was underwhelmed by Sricharan’s first song from the film (Hrudayama) that I felt was rather generic, he hits out of the park with Oh Isha! He has terrific support from his singers – Armaan Malik and Chinmayi Sripada. The melody is something within the range of what modern-day Hindi film composers like Sachet-Parampara produce, but Sricharan brings his Telugu film music sensibility too to it and makes it his own.
Padamule Levu Pilla – Premadesam (Mani Sharma) – Telugu: Right from the start, Mani’s tune and sound is from a different period, at least 10-15 years before today when he was ruling the roost. But that sound works for the song’s advantage. That ‘Naa chitti gunde chuttu vunna’ phrase, backed by the tabla is a lovely touch. And the contrast between Armaan Malik’s vocal range and Harika Narayan’s works wonders for the song.
Aambale Neelambale – Thrayam (Arun Muraleedharan) – Malayalam: Arun lives up to his recent form (Anugraheethan Antony) with a breezy melody that KS Harisankar handles incredibly well. The extended prelude that lands the Aambale hook is particularly gorgeous!
Oru Naalithaa – John Luther (Shaan Rahman) – Malayalam: I hear Shaan’s signature melody all over the song – as soon as Najeem Arshad starts extending the ‘Oru naalithaaaaaa’, I see Shaan’s name in my head! Very pleasant tune!
Jr. Monalisa – Harikathe Alla Girikathe (Vasuki Vaibhav) – Kannada: If I hadn’t seen the composer’s name, I’d have guessed Arjun Janya. The comic vocal embellishments had become Arjun’s trademark given how often he employs them 🙂 But Vasuki’s tune and almost-nasal vocals have the requisite levity to carry the fun song’s feel impressively.
Ki Mayay – Belashuru (Anupam Roy) – Bengali: To be honest, I have gone past Anupam’s musical style and they have started sounding less interesting over time to me. So when I stumbled upon Ki Mayay, I was pleasantly surprised and very, very happy! This is a classical Bengali melody (could be a Hindi film melody too) that gains tremendously from Shreya Ghoshal’s incredible singing. The tune took me back to Madan Mohan’s style of music-making.
