Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly, new music playlist.
Week 249: YouTube | Spotify
These days I’m just glad that there are two Weeklies in two weeks, back-to-back 🙂
Tuu – Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha (M.M.Kreem) – Hindi: I don’t know if its the music or the setting (Holi, and Krishna Janmashtami), I was reminded of Atrangi Re’s Tere Rang when I heard the song for the first time. But both songs are completely different, including this being the male point of view, while Tere Rang had the female perspective too. But I really liked how the composer brought forth two different perspectives to mirror the two time periods of the protagonist (Ajay Devgn, and his younger self, played by Shantanu Maheshwari), featuring the voices of Sukhwinder Singh and Javed Ali. The latter’s portion is Kreem’s signature style at least in Hindi, though the interplay between the two kinds of music was pretty interesting.
Raja Paya Onnu – Maharaja (B. Ajaneesh Loknath) – Tamil: It’s good to see director Nithilan Swaminathan sticking to Ajaneesh who also scored music for his debut (Kurangu Bommai, which had an excellent Paathum Paakkaama). While I thought ‘Thaaye Thaaye’ was run-of-the-mill background’ish, Ajaneesh doesn’t disappoint in Raja Paya ONNu where he unleashes his brand of lush melody, backed by Jithin Raj and Harshika Devanath’s vocals. There’s a lilting rhythm in the background that adds to the song’s charm, and even the anupallavi has a captivating melody.
Srimathi Garu – Lucky Baskhar (GV Prakash Kumar) – Telugu: GV Prakash Kumar’s impressive Telugu form continues after last year’s Aadikeshava and Tiger Nageswara Rao! The tune is basic (though well handled by Vishal Mishra and Shweta Mohan, by the composer does wonders with the orchestral effort, with splendid strings lifting the song significantly.
Neeli Meghamanthata – Neeli Megha Shyama (Shravan Bharadwaj) – Telugu: My favorite under-rated Telugu composer is back 🙂 The melody is captivating and singer Karthik handles it wonderfully, given this is his solo outing. Even the lyrics (Krishna Kanth) made me smile: “Gautam Menon filmu lona AR paatalaaga kikke ekkinde”, it seems, completely overlooking the massively impressive body of work by Harris Jayaraj for the director. Shravan’s music has a lot of nuance. For instance, observe the background score when ‘Tira kallu terichi chusthe O kalane’ appears in the beginning, and when it appears towards the end of the song. In the latter, there is a sense of the strings in the background doing some oddly interesting notes!
Maya Sundari – Dhoom Dhaam (Gopi Sundar) – Telugu: A simple, catchy song built on the punchy ‘Maya Sundari’ hook.
Akaleyayi – Paradise (K) – Malayalam: K builds a beautiful, unhurried melody, layer by layer that singer Pavithra Chari breathes life into. Stellar work by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra in the background score.
Innolam Thonna Kauthukam – Partners (Prakash Alex) – Malayalam: There is so much of Vidyasagar’s iconic song from Indraprastham, ‘Thankathinkal’ in this song. Vidyasagar’s song was based on Saaranga raaga, I’m not sure what raaga this one is based on, but there seems to be some musical similarity. It’s a gorgeous melody, with spritely music and brilliant singing, as always, by KS Harisankar.
Dube Achi – Babli (Indraadip Dasgupta) – Bangla: Even though the song instantly took me to Pritam’s Barfi number, ‘Main Kya Karoon’, I’d set it aside as the musical genre – Bossa Nova (there’s Khwabon Ke Parindey too, from Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, for context). More than the Bossa Nova music (which is very good) backdrop, I really liked Minar Rahman’s singing, who makes it almost like having a conversation with the music!
Gulzar – Natania, ft. Subhi (Punjabi/Indipop): What starts off like a standard-issue Western pop with an annoyingly child-like vocalizing (by Natania Lalwani) suddenly bursts into that ‘Dil vich raula pa ke’ Punjabi chorus and the song truly takes off!
Kalyana Kacheri – Coke Studio Tamil (Justin Prabhakaran, ft. Kapil Kapilan and Sithara Krishnakumar) – Tamil/Indipop: A high-energy wedding song with two fantastic singers leading the show – Kapil Kapilan and Sithara Krishnakumar. Kapil’s singing, particularly the starting ‘Aye ye’ took me back to Shahul Hameed’s singing in Uzhavan’s Maari Mazha!
Just Us – Aashir Wajahat (Pakistani pop): If I had heard the song without seeing the credits, I would have guessed it as Mithoon… early Mithoon (at the time of The Train, 2007), to be precise. But that’s perhaps just me. Aashir scores another excellent song after the recent Sadqay, though both songs are poles apart, genre-wise.
