Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist.
Week 227: YouTube | Spotify
The 2 songs from Friday Night Plan are not available on Spotify. The YouTube playlist has all 10 songs of the week.
Bahaane, Mazey Mein – Friday Night Plan (Dhruv Visvanath, When Chai Met Toast) – Hindi: Has Dhruv composed a Hindi song previously? As a huge fan of his musical style (one of the few English songs that I still list in my Weeklies, after having stopped adding Western music in general), I loved Bahaane too – change the lyrics to English, I’m sure they could work as smoothly. Rahul Pais’s singing is on point, handling the groovy hook perfectly. Mazey Mein is a very, very typical When Chai Met Toast number. The gentle melody, the chorus, the singing… everything is familiar and very comfortable!
Taiy Nahi Kiya Abhi, Chanda Se Chhup Ke – Goldfish (Tapas Relia) – Hindi: The entire 5-song album of Goldfish is a dramatically different experience compared to the usual Hindi film soundtrack, with its ghazals and classical approach. The 2 songs that I liked the most include the ghazal, Taiy Nahi Kiya Abhi, featuring outstanding vocals by Papon. Even beyond the singing, Tapas mixes piano and Purbayan Chatterjee’s sitar beautifully in the background. The other song, Chanda Se Chhup Ke, is a wonderful showcase of Rashid Khan’s vocals, and even in this song, Tapas fuses the piano as a key layer in what is otherwise a semi-classical melody.
Thottu Thazhuvum Thendrale, Yedhudhaan Inga Sandhosam – Lucky Man (Sean Roldan) – Tamil: Thottu Thazhuvum Thendrale is an instant charmer!! Sean’s melody is immensely pleasing, bringing to my mind, at times, Nadeem Shravan’s Deewana number Sochenge Tumhe Pyaar. But tonally, both are completely different, with Sean’s tabla and harmonium-laced orchestration, and Savitha Sai’s fantastic singing significantly elevating its appeal. Yedhudhaan Inga Sandhosam was a pleasant surprise! Given the song’s tune and style, I would have expected Sean himself to sing this (and mildly crib about it too, as I usually do). Instead, Sean ropes Sanjay Subrahmanyan to sing this song, and Sanjay sings it almost like how Sean would sing it, but with a considerably better voice, of course! The lively tune felt like a folk, earthy pivot from Rahman’s Senthamizh Naatu Tamizhachiye (Vandicholai Chinraasu) at least as far as the rhythm goes.
Mutta Cutie – Adiyae (Justin Prabhakaran) – Tamil: Maathevan’s lyrics are clearly the highlight in this song where the pallavi appealed to me even as I found the anupallavi a bit tedious to endure.
Ee Ulakin – King of Kotha (Shaan Rahman) – Malayalam: The very Hindi trend of more than one music director sharing song composing duties for a film seems to be gradually catching up in Malayalam too. Jakes Bejoy and Shaan Rahman compose 3 songs each in this film! Of the 3 songs by Shaan, the only song that worked for me was Ee Ulakin, with its jaunty lines dotting a pleasant melody sung aptly by Sreejish Subramanian. Shaan adorns the interludes with tasteful sounds too, making it a great listen.
Oru Vaarthai – CM Naveen, ft. Sam Vishal – Tamil/Indipop: Naveen’s music reminded me like it was a combination of Dharan Kumar and Vivek-Mervin! It’s bouncy, with a very likeable lilt, particularly in the interludes, and the layered vocals! Sam’s singing is appealing, with his work in the anupallavi being even better, with the falsetto.
Angnaa – Rishabh Shah, ft. Ronkini Gupta and Yatharth – Indipop/Hindi: Much of Angnaa reminded me of Govind Vasantha’s 96 chartbuster Kaathalae Kaathalae; possibly owing to a similar raaga, I’m assuming. The feel is very similar – a dreamy, lush melody, beautifully and tastefully articulated, with a fantastic layer featuring Yatharth’s vocals. Ronkini is absolutely in control of this gorgeous number, with her stellar vocals.