Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist.
Week 236: YouTube | Spotify
Laal Peeli Akhiyaan – Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya (Tanishk Bagchi) – Hindi: Tanishk uses (and the music video credits the hook) the famous Rajasthani folk song, ‘Jad Dekhu Banna Ri Lal Pili Akhiyan’ as his base for a hugely energetic remix of sorts. Romy’s singing and the punchy music keep the song consistently entertaining.
Raat Akeli Thi – Merry Christmas (Pritam) – Hindi: The way the song opens, it felt like Agent Vinod’s ‘Raabta’ took the road not taken (sorry, Robert Frost), but Pritam turns the melody in highly interesting and unusual turns. Splendid singing by Arijit Singh and Antara Mitra, though that is totally expected.
Chella Rangi – Ayalaan (A R Rahman) – Tamil: Ayalaan is perhaps the most dismaying soundtrack from Rahman in recent times. The 4 songs officially released so far felt totally like Rahman outsourced the composing duties to someone else. Ironically, the only song they haven’t officially released so far, Chella Rangi, the fifth song, is the one that bears Rahman’s standard and hallmark! With its dreamy jazz base, and almost sounding like a companion listen to Iruvar’s Hello Mr. Ethirkatchi, the melody comes alive beautifully in the spirited singing by Sanjith Hegde and Shashaa Tirupati, even if the former unnecessarily oversings his part a bit.
Kombari Vettapuli – Captain Miller (G. V. Prakash Kumar) – Tamil: While none of the other songs from Captain Miller worked for me, this one stood out. It was mainly because of Dhee’s rendition and the jaunty rhythm (specifically credited to Aswin Sathya) that the composer layers into the song. It’s a nice, catchy listen, orchestrated and sung well.
Thaensudare – Lover (Sean Roldan) – Tamil: I so wanted to like the first song from this film, Velagaadha, but I didn’t think it was quite up to Sean’s standards. I felt a bit too standard, templatized within Sean’s usual soundscape. But, thankfully, the man produces a considerably better song in Thaensudare! The way he lands the ‘Thaensudare’ hook (in his own voice)… fantastic! He also underscores this part of the melody in the interludes, for added effect.
Sita Ram – Love Mouli (Govind Vasantha) – Telugu: The film has 10 songs (the full soundtrack was released recently even as a couple of singles came out last year, I believe). And usually, I love Govind Vasantha’s music, particularly in Malayalam and Tamil. But this one was oddly disappointing all through. The lone spark was this semi-classical’ish, bhajan’ish song sung by Chinmayi. This is one of the very few songs by Chinmayi that truly uses her splendid singing skills well. I thought I heard Ilayaraja’s ‘Chithira Sevvanam’ (Kaatrinile Varum Geetham, 1978) in the melody. That song was based on Thilang raaga, incidentally.
Madabhara Mizhiyoram – Malaikottai Vaaliban (Prashant Pillai) – Malayalam: After the 2 earlier songs from this film that I thought were underwhelming, the composer, along with Preeti Pillai, produces a gorgeous tune in Madabhara Mizhiyoram. The music is almost non-existent, depending solely on Preeti’s hypnotic singing to hold the melody completely.
Dava Dava – Anshu (K C Balasarangan) – Kannada: This is a pleasant surprise! What starts to sound like Rahman’s Rhythm classic, ‘Nadhiye Nadhiye’, suddenly pulls the rug under the floor when singer Aishwarya Rangarajan, wonderfully in control of the melody, goes with the Nannadayaavega’ line. But nothing could prepare you for the actual ‘Dava Dava’ hook of the song!! I look forward to the other songs from this film!
Love Like That – Ariza, ft. Jonita and Ali Sethi – English/Punjabi/Indipop: Ariza’s composition brings together Jonita and Ali Sethi in a very Coke Studio Pakistan’ish framework that envelopes the qawwali whiff of the tune into a captivating pop base! The singing is top-notch, as you’d expect from singers like Jonita and Ali, and the production is enchanting!
