Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist.
Week 211: On Spotify | On YouTube
All the songs are available on both YouTube and Spotify. And yes, I did hear both the new Coke Studio Bharat songs and found them to be, sadly so, very middling.
Show Me The Thumka – Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar (Pritam) – Hindi: If I had any reservations over Pyaar Hota Kayi Baar Hai not landing adequately enough despite being listenable, Pritam gets Show Me The Thumka superbly right! This is in the same vein as Balam Pichkari, flowing incredibly smoothly and landing as an insanely catchy dance number that is bound to be the toast of every wedding up North in India. The way Pritam constructs his tune is brilliant. After the long’ish opening lines, ‘Pehan Ke Joda Laal Colour Ka…’, he cuts the next 4 lines into shorter lines ‘Chal Dikha Zara…’ and this contrast perfectly segues into ‘Sohniye Dil Pe Giri’ bridge leading to the hook. This is almost a text-book example of Pritam’s signature style.
Paadatha Pattellam – Rudhran (Viswanathan – Ramamoorthy, Dharan Kumar) – Tamil: I was definitely apprehensive about this remix/recreation, but surprisingly, this one grew on me over a week 🙂 Dharan does add several layers to the original, all intended to spruce the sound significantly. But his choice of incorporating (or retaining) some of the original’s background sounds in the anupallavi helps retain an unusual charm to the new version. The singers do a terrific job with Sathyaprakash totally owning the rendition, with able support by Nithyashree Venkataramanan.
Oro Shwasavum & Maali Pattu – Christy (Govind Vasantha) – Malayalam: Govind’s work in the short soundtrack of Christy (with just 4 songs) is truly outstanding! After the first 2 songs (Paalmanam, Poovar), he produces 2 more phenomenal melodies! Oro Shwasavum comes alive beautifully in Govind’s own soulful singing, Sachin Balu’s Veena (first and second) interlude, and Govind’s violin solo in the 2nd interlude. This is a Raja’ish deep melody but with a Rahman’ish backdrop that is clearly apparent in the way the first interlude opens. Maali Pattu, on the other hand, is Kapil Kapilan’s show, as he traverses through a soaring, Hindustani classical-style melody.
Koodey Nin Koodey – Ntikkakkakkoru Premandaarnnu (Nishant Ramtek) – Malayalam: While the other songs in this film (one composed by Nishant Ramtek, and another composed by Joker Blues) did not work for me, this one felt different. There’s a serenity in the melody as it starts with Harisankar singing. When Sithara Krishnakumar starts singing towards the latter half of the song, her portion also adds an unusually (for this song’s melodic style as demonstrated early on) heavy rhythm (at the 3-minute mark), which I found to be really interesting.
Ithale – Mindiyum Paranjum (Sooraj S. Kurup) – Malayalam: After Neeye Nenjil, the other 2 songs released from this film recently, and while I haven’t warmed up to Manalu Parunnori despite Shahabaz Aman’s wonderful singing, Ithale did work for me effortlessly. Sung by Aparna Balamurali herself, the deeply affecting tune, is lovely.
Kaathal Marangal Pookkane – Pranaya Vilasam (Shaan Rahman) – Malayalam: Shaan’s music, of late, hasn’t worked all that for me. The last one was Enth Paangh, from Padachone Ingalu Katholi in November 2022, and before that, it was Ullasam’s Maarivil, in July 2022, despite his largely steady output. This one, though, is quite a charmer, with the entire song built towards delivering the ‘Kaathal Marangal Pookkane’ hook, but it appears just once in the entirety of the song! Even in the end, the lines lead to the hook, but Shaan resists the temptation of bringing it again!
Kaanaa Chillamel – Eravu (Arun Raj) – Malayalam: This is entirely unusual, to me personally, that is 🙂 I started listening to this rather pensive song and thought it was, at best, functional. But something dramatically started shifting at the 2-minute mark! Abhijith’s flute was seemingly moving the song to a slightly different plane, and between 2:15-2:17, the sound seemed intensely Ilayaraja’ish to me!! The tune does go back to the earlier pathos smoothly, but that small detour was quite lovely!
Gun Gun – Ghar Banduk Biryani (AV Prafullachandra) – Marathi: AV Prafullachandra is easily the best thing to happen to Marathi film music after Ajay-Atul started looking towards Hindi films. This song is a great example – it has the hallmark of Ajay-Atul’s song construction style but goes several steps beyond that duo’s now-largely-predictable and familiar patterns. The song also changes tracks at least 3 times, throwing multiple genres – the opening melody is haunting, the interlude ups the ante gently, while the Marathi folk part that follows that interlude is super lively! But it all fits so beautifully within the song.
