Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly, new music playlist.
Week 269: YouTube | Spotify
Back after another week’s break. Only one song is not available in the Spotify playlist – Ilayaraja’s ‘Sittukoru Kattupadu Othuvaruma’.
Tera Kya Karoon? – Nadaaniyan (Sachin-Jigar) – Hindi: Despite the fact that most people are now only hate-watching (Netflix be like, ‘As long as they are watching’) this much-reviled movie has at least one more excellent song (besides ‘Ishq Mein’). ‘Tera Kya Karoon’ is something I’d expect from Vishal-Shekhar or Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy ‘back in those days’. So, it’s a great relief to hear Sachin-Jigar bringing ‘those days’ back with a breezy pop melody here, brilliantly sung by Maahi. I also found it interesting that the composers completely cease all sound/music in the antara (Try karti hai poora…) to great effect!
Nafarmaniyan – Pintu Ki Pappi (DR. NITZ, Sonal Pradhan) – Hindi: The ambient sound of the song took me back to Sandeep Chowta’s Prema Katha (1999) song ‘Devudu Karunisthadani’ (which he reused as ‘Mujhko Khuda Ne De Diya’ in Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya in 2001). The background music is sparse and the tune is made to do the heavy lifting, and it does quite well, with good support by the singers, Shreya Ghoshal and Javed Ali.
Aaathi Adi Aaathi – Veera Dheera Sooran (GV Prakash Kumar) – Tamil: A charming melody from GVP that seems to traverse the path of Ilayaraja’s iconic ‘Nethu Oruthara Oruthara’ (Puthu Paattu, 1990) – very similar starting and the high for the hook (KaNNu padum raasaathi…). Good singing by both GV Prakash Kumar and Sadhika K R.
Sittukoru Kattupadu Othuvaruma – School (Ilayaraja) – Tamil: Raja revists his legendary Johnny number from 1980, ‘Aasaya Kaathula’ with Sittukoru’s rhythm!! The second the song starts, your mind would go back to that older song instantly. While the singing by Shweta Mohan, Srisha Vijayasekar, and Priya Mali is excellent, the second interlude and most of the lyrics seem outdated.
Andhamaa Andhamaa – 8 Vasantalu (Hesham Abdul Wahab) – Telugu: The kind of song that you can easily make out that it is by Hesham 🙂 The strings by Cochin Strings seems like a newer addition and works effortlessly within the easily likeable tune.
Pablo Neruda – JACK (Achu Rajamani) – Telugu: The song reminded me of Tamil film music from the early-2000s, usually meant for the hero introduction. This is something that Vidyasagar would have been churning out consistently in that period. But Achu does a solid job with the sound overall – it has a catchy and persistent rhythm, and excellent singing by Benny Dayal.
Love song – Kannappa (Stephen Devassy) – Telugu: When I noticed Stephen Devassy’s name as composer, I was really glad that he was actually getting a pan-Indian film to showcase his talent (he is very good!). But the first song ‘Shiva Shiva Shankara’ felt functional to me, at best. Thankfully, Stephen scores really well with this oddly titled song ‘Love. It’s a pleasant melody that hits all the right notes and has brilliant singing by both LV Revanth and Sahithi Chaganti.
Hey Penne – Haal (Nandhagopan V) – Malayalam: Who is this Nandhagopan V?! That was my first thought when I heard the cool and catchy ‘Hey Penne’! He not only does not adhere to the usual pallavi-anupallavi structure for the melody, but also doesn’t depend on ‘Hey Penne’ being a repetitive hook. The interludes are absolutely brilliant, with superb flute by Josy Alappuzha. Adithya R K completely owns the song with his phenomenal vocals.
Madanaari – Vidyapati (DOSSMODE) – Kannada: The song has an obvious whiff of trying to imitate/spoof the music from Kannada films of yore (mid-1960s type), but unlike what Gurukiran did with ‘Pyarge Agbitite’ (Govindaya Namaha, 2012), Dheerendra Doss aka. DOSSMODE doesn’t go all the way ‘retro’. He keeps the music crisp and modern but induces the retro flavor only in the rhythm and the tune. It works wonderfully well, with a sparkling hook (Oh Madanaari’), sung well by Vasuki Vaibhav and Supriyaa Ram.
Naguvina Nesara – Agnyathavasi (Charan Raj; co-composer Narayan Sharma) – Kannada: If the film is produced by Hemanth M Rao and has music by Charan Raj, my expectations go up significantly. Naguvina Nesara delivers adequately. The vocals by Sunidhi Ganesh is exquisite. Charan Raj’s melody is haunting, and the clap-like rhythm adds to the song’s appeal. I noticed a co-composer credited too, so I guess it must be a joint effort of sorts.
Dabbu Dabbu – Sahi Siva (Tamil/Indipop): Foot-tapping stuff from Sahi Siva. Very good music, very good singing (Sahi Siva and Haripriya). I cannot wait to see what Sahi Siva does with his Tamil film music debut in Nelson Venkatesan’s ‘DNA’.
Run It Up – Hanumankind (English/Indipop): Hanumankind’s new single is absolutely brilliant! The Indian folk music background is electric, differentiating it from a standard-issue rap song. The change of pace that starts at 1:30 and pace shift at 1:42, in particular, is fantastic! Scintillating music video to go with it too!
