Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly, new music playlist.
Week 257: YouTube | Spotify
Tenu Sang Rakhna – Jigra (Achint Thakkar) – Hindi/Punjabi: While I didn’t take to the first song from the film (Chal Kudiye, composed by Manpreet Singh) despite the star voices (Diljit Dosanjh and Alia Bhatt) because it felt too labored to me, Tenu Sang Rakhna worked instantly! The melody is heartfelt and the singing, as a duet, featuring Anumita Nadesan and Achint himself, is truly wonderful.
Kon Disa Mein 2.0 – Ravindra Jain, Guru Dhanoa, ft. Varsha Singh Dhanoa – Hindi: Guru Dhanoa does a lovely job of keeping his music sparse enough to let the original song’s feel stay. Varsha’s vocals add to the charm of the recreation (sung originally by Hemlata and Jaspal Singh)
Hey Minnale – Amaran (GV Prakash) – Tamil: GVP channels his own charmer from Aadukalam, ‘Ayyayo’, and produces a delightful new song! The song’s start itself seems like something from the anupallavi or charanam, and that adds to the appeal. Karthik Netha’s lyrics too work wonders – did he write the staccato Malayalam words too? His use of a fairly (now) archaic Tamil word ‘SolloNaa’ (the older version of ‘Solla Mudiyaadha’, meaning ‘unspeakable’) made me sit up! And of course, stupendous singing by Haricharan and Shweta Mohan.
Revisiting Rameshwaram – Rocket Driver (Kaushik Krish) – Tamil: Composer Kaushik Krish’s use of Patnam Subrahmanya Ayyar’s famous Swarajathi, RaraveNu Gopabala (set to Bilahari raaga) is both obvious and adept. He uses it in quite a few interesting ways. When the chorus starts, ‘Hey sutrum bhoomi’ to the tune of ‘Palumaa runugaa ravamuna nin’, I burst out laughing, while also admiring what Kaushik had done 🙂 Singer Sabari VV sounds like a version of Sean Roldan after his throat has been evened out using sandpaper.
Alli Billi – Kalinga (Vishnu Sekhara) – Telugu: What a surprise! The prelude of the song (using Madhurashtakam) took me straight to Devendran’s iconic Vedham Pudhidhu number ‘KaNNukkul Nooru Nilava’! Shanmukapriya raaga connection, I presume. Composer Vishnu Sekhara keeps the main tune simple and elegant, with a minimal, captivating rhythm. Dhanunjay Seepana’s singing is apt.
Neelo Naalo – Swag (Vivek Sagar) – Telugu: More Ilayaraja ‘feel’, but this time it seems very, very deliberate and orchestrated 🙂 But this is by Vivek, and he infuses a lot of his own inventiveness over the brief of making it sound ‘like a Raja song’. Rajesh Krishnan’s singing too seems to be making things very obvious. The second interlude, in particular, is so deeply soaked in the ‘Raja feel’ – just listen to it!
Pilaga Pilaga – Pailam Pilaga (Yashwanth Nag) – Telugu: For some reason, the song’s sound reminded me of Ilayaraja’s musical sense from the 1990s 🙂 I tried finding the reason but couldn’t. If you get that feeling too, let me know if you found the reason.
Vastanu Vastanule – Viswam (Chaitan Bharadwaj) – Telugu: An absolutely dreamy composition (for the aptly outdated ‘foreign location duet’ situation in our films that the Telugu cinema world still holds on to, surprisingly) by Chaitan. Fantastic singing by Kapil Kapilan, particularly the ‘Naa Yedhe Ilaa Ilaaga’ line!
Sthuthi, Maravikale – Bougainvillea (Sushin Shyam) – Malayalam: It’s no surprise that director Amal Neerad goes with Sushin Shyam again, after his last two films, Varathan and Bheeshma Parvam. And Sushin delivers a whopper in Sthuthi. Sushin lands the hypnotic rhythm after the 20-odd second serene prelude and from then on, it’s a relentless music that completely envelopes you. Mary Ann Alexander’s singing is brilliantly on point. Maravikale is the complete opposite, with its haunting Latin guitar-based sound and Madhuvanthi Narayan’s soulful singing of Sushin’s slow and sedate melody.
Marannadu Pulle – Pani (Vishnu Vijay) – Malayalam: I have a feeling this song will replace Sushin Shyam’s Malluminati in colleges and apartment events soon 🙂 This is Vishnu Vijay ‘erangi adichufying’, as they say in Tamil.
Title song – Majha Yek Number (Ajay-Atul) – Marathi: A tantalizing melody, with a superb rhythm, delivered brilliantly by Jonita Gandhi! Has all the musical potential to become a pan-Indian hit.
Kaalame – Kadha Innuvare (Ashwin Aryan) – Malayalam: There’s an old-worldly charm in the melody concocted by Ashwin Aryan (he sings it too, along with Nithya Mammen) that drew me into the song. The anupallavi is considerably more new’ish sounding, but flows well with what the pallavi set up.
Tang Tang – Royal (Charanraj MR) – Kannada: This is not up to the lofty standards set by Charanraj, but it does pass off as a catchy enough masala song with good singing by Anurag Kulkarni.
Ghanan – Bawari (Shreya Jain, ft. Sanah Moidutty) – Hindi/Malayalam/Indipop: The first obvious surprise here is the seamless blending of Malayalam and Hindi lines (written by Shreya Jain and Vignesh Ramakrishna, respectively). The second surprise is that the tunes for the Hindi and Malayalam lines do not repeat! That is, Sanah doesn’t sing the same tune Shreya sings in Hindi, in Malayalam. The tune for the Hindi verse is unique and the Malayalam lines’ tune flows differently, but in tune! The singing is excellent, and Shreya’s composition is very imaginative, particularly in the antara/Anupallavi!
