Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly, new music playlist.
Week 262: YouTube | Spotify
Dhinam Dhinamum – Viduthalai 2 (Ilayaraja) – Tamil: A deeply affecting melody that is, thankfully, removed of Raja’s modern sounds and works purely at the strength of the tune itself. The interludes are vintage Raja magic.
Yennai Izhukkuthadi – Kadhalikka Neramillai (A R Rahman) – Tamil: An entirely unusually constructed song from Rahman! When he makes his appearance with the hook, it was equally surprising. Dhee does very well in the latter portions of the song. Very catchy and easily likeable song with a curiously interesting set of discordant background notes towards the end! The vocal manipulations, though, put me off a bit.
En Vaanam – Bottle Radha (Sean Roldan) – Tamil: Sean Roldan has a knack of producing such deeply melodic tunes with a definite undercurrent of pathos (accentuated by Uma Devi’s lyrics here) and throw in a flow in the tune that starts one way, moves seamlessly in sync, goes off and then comes back to the flow even as you barely noticed all that. Here, it’s the ‘En Vaanam Nee’ that is the anchor that the meandering beautifully comes back to, impeccably supported by Ashwin Suresh’s guitar.
Megham Pol Aagi – Nirangal Moondru (Jakes Bejoy) – Tamil: What a lovely song by Jakes Bejoy! The song starts with what seems like the fag end of the pallavi, before Kapil Kapilan launches into what feels like the actual beginning of the pallavi – ‘Netru en paadhayil’!
Ade Nenu Asalu Lenu – Bachhala Malli (Vishal Chandrashekar) – Telugu: I’m assuming that the song is based on Kalyani raaga (or is it Hamir Kalyani?) since it took me back to many older Ilayaraja songs. SP Charan sounds so much like his iconic dad (in a good way) that I wish he gets to sing a lot more songs in Tamil too. If anything, I found Ramya Behara’s singing to be a bit out of place, particularly in the higher notes.
Bujji Thalli – Thandel (Devi Sri Prasad) – Telugu: Listening to this jaunty, gorgeous melody, I couldn’t help but wonder what it is that Telugu directors get out of Devi that Tamil directors are unable to. Kanguva—a Tamil Nadu-based pan Indian film, for instance. In Telugu, DSP scores so effortlessly! Javed Ali’s singing is an asset to the melody.
Etho Yamangalil – Anand Sreebala (Ranjin Raj) – Malayalam: Did I listen to snatches of Kharaharapriya raaga in Ranjin’s melody? It’s a wonderful listen, and the reasonably fresh voices of Evugin Emmanuel and Suchetha Sathish makes it all the more better.
Hudukutha Hode – Aaram Araavindaswamy (Arjun Janya) – Kannada: Of the 3 songs I heard from the freshly released Kannada film, this is the one that worked for me, despite Arjun Janya being the composer. The mellow tune and the buildup reminded me of Pritam’s composing style. The song’s main charm is the singer, Jaskaran Singh, who does an outstanding job!
Vandan Ho – Sangeet Manapmaan (Shankar Mahadevan) – Marathi: Shankar Mahadevan, Rahul Deshpande, and Mahesh Kale in the same song, composed by Shankar! That’s quite something! Shankar’s Marathi film compositions are a class apart already, far removed from the Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy sensbilities and a lot more rooted in Indian music, and this prayer is no different. Beautifully resonant tune, wonderfully sung.
Paayal – Yo Yo Honey Singh (Indipop/Hindi): A surprisingly melodious and interesting song by Yo Yo Honey Singh! I found the lyrics to be a bit cringey (goes with the flow in terms of the rap, though), but the energetic, tabla-backed melody was a pleasant surprise!
Chameli – Chinmayi Tripathi, ft. Swanand Kirkire, Joell, and Chinmayi Tripathi (Indipop/Hindi): Much like ‘Vandan Ho’ above, Chameli too is a 3-voice song! Chinmayi’s melody, and Swanand’s singing (particularly the ‘Aye sakhi’ break out) took me to the kind of melody Sandesh Shandilya composed for ‘Piya Basanti Re’ (featuring Ustad Sultan Khan and K. S. Chithra’s voices). The song has a gentle, almost-lullaby’ish feel, and the 3 singers handle it excellently.
Kaadhal Alaipayuthey – Amrit Ramnath (Indipop/Tamil): A sweet song that felt like I was listening to a Sean Roldan song. The video had a Mani Ratnam-Anjali feel to it, including a twisty device of using the younger versions of the 2 leads as the one delivering something to the older versions 🙂
Born Superstar – NEXA Music (Karan Pandav, ft. Raja Kumari) – English/Telugu: It’s good to see NEXA Music including music in Indian regional languages in the third season. And getting Raja Kumari to sing in Telugu is a great start, considering she is, originally, Svetha Yallapragada Rao. Karan’s tune is catchy, with a consistently punchy rhythm.
