Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly, new music playlist.
Week 286: YouTube | Spotify
Tum Mere Na Huye – Thamma (Sachin-Jigar) – Hindi: A very, very obvious attempt at riding on the composing duo’s own ‘Aaj Ki Raat’, which the composing duo had already mined with other singers in the aftermath of that song’s massive success. But this time, they get Madhubanti Bagchi back, and use everything from the earlier song’s success including the techno rhythm and chorus layered on the qawali-styled melody. They get the hook superbly right, once again, and from there, it just flows.
Aaruyire – Diesel (Dhibu Ninan Thomas) – Tamil: A jaunty melody with a lovely chorus in the backdrop doing the heavylifting for Ravi G’s engaging singing! Dhibu has been scoring consistently good stuff, but nothing seems to click in a big way. This one is promising.
Eppadi Vandhaayo – Aaromaley (Siddhu Kumar) – Tamil: A simple, easily and instantly likeable melody by Siddhu Kumar that gains immensely from the choice of singers – Chinmayi and Anand Aravindakshan. While Chinmayi is scintillating in elevating the pleasant tune to a new high, Anand’s intervention, mid-way, with ‘Patthaama poyache’ was lovely!
Singari – Dude (Sai Abhyankkar) – Tamil: Even though the credits point to Pradeep (Rangathan, not Kumar) singing, it sounds like the ‘additional vocal’ Sai Abhyankkar is leading the singing, mostly. Tune-wise, it has a lazy, catchy, local rhythm that keeps it enjoyable. If I had not known the composer’s name, my guess would have been Santhosh Narayanan!
Thennaadu – Bison Kaalamaadan (Nivas K Prasanna) – Tamil: Nivas nails the anthemic rhythm of the song, and on that base, Sathyan’s singing flows through impeccably. The lyrics by Mari Selvaraj himself is evocative and adds to the song’s depth.
Vinnum Mannum – Por Paravai (Midhun Narayanan) – Tamil: A rather simple and predictable tune that has an ace in the name of Charukesi raaga! The raaga’s haunting flow offers the song its haunting effect, and Chinmayi’s hugely involved singing adds to that.
America Nundi Vacchaanu – Bad Boy Karthik (Harris Jayaraj) – Telugu: Where is this Harris Jayaraj in Tamil? The man cooks a scintillating masala song using Chandana Bala Kalyan’s semi-classical style singing and it works so well!
Bhootha Ganam – Nellikkampoyil Night Riders (Yakzan Gary Pereira & Neha S Nair) – Malayalam: A punchy, frenetic song that makes terrific use of Vedan’s searing vocals along with the heady Kerala-specific percussion featuring Chenda, Udukku and Elathalam. The rap and the heady music blend into a hypnotic sound, with Karthika BS’s voice too adding to the effect.
Adhoora – Prasad S, ft. Shilpa Rao (Hindi/Indipop): A melody that made me sit up, even beyond Shilpa’s voice that I already adore. Prasad’s tune is breezy and light, and has a superb stretch that lands the ‘Adhoora’ hook beautifully in a totally unexpected way! I started to wonder who this Prasad is, realized that his full name is Prasad Sashte and figured that I had the exact same reaction when I heard his ‘Kasturi’ from last year’s Amar Prem Ki Prem Kahani 🙂 Fantastic song, really well sung. Also, do I hear some South Indian percussion in the first interlude? Pleasantly surprised by that.
Harjaai – Jatin Pandit, ft. Kumar Sanu (Hindi/Indipop): A song that feels like time travel!! The tune and sound is almost straight out of Jatin-Lalit’s Mr. Aashiq (Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan) soundtrack. But for the nostalgia, I doubt if I would have liked it all that much 🙂 And yes, Jatin should have let only Kumar Sanu sing instead of insisting on singing, and making it a bit worse.
Thoothukudi Chinnaponnu – NEXA Music Season 3 (A. R. Rahman) – Tamil/Indipop: A new song from Rahman that took me back to the beginning of his career, with the use of ghatam+flute mix that he was fond of at that early period (for instance, Gentleman’s Usalampatti Penkutti, among others)! Samuel Nicholas’s voice is nice enough, even though my mind waltzed back to imagine the late Shahul Hameed singing it.
