Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly, new music playlist.
Week 295: YouTube | Spotify
(Spotify’s playlist is missing one song – Love Insurance Kompany’s version of Enakena, so I have added the original from Aakko)
Title song – Do Deewane Seher Mein (Shreyas Puranik) – Hindi: It’s not easy to compose over the title of an already iconic song, and in this case, the odds are fully against composer Shreyas Puranik, given that the original is the Gharaonda classic composed by Jaidev and written by Gulzar (and sung by Bhupinder Singh and Runa Laila). Incidentally, recreated version of the original features in this soundtrack, with mild tinkering by Jackie Vanjari. But Shreyas veers completely off the original in every way and produces a crackling, energetic number with stellar singing by both Sonu Nigam and Aishwarya Bhandari! The tune riffs more about the RD Burman style of music and this becomes even more evident with the interludes and the flashy antara.
O’ Romeo, Jalwa, Vaada Hai – O’ Romeo (Vishal Bhardwaj) – Hindi: The title song is almost an Ilayaraja 1980s song with its guitar’y swagger and mildly retro rhythm. Arijit Singh is brilliant, as usual, but it is Vishal who impresses more with a really cool tune. Jalwa is quite a surprise, sounding like it was out of Maachis and not O’ Romeo! Soba Singh Sitara’s full-throated singing makes it a great listen. Ananya Wadkar’s Vaada Hai is yet another surprise! Gulzar’s lovely lines and that sparse, obviously-retro music work wonderfully for this melody. O’ Romeo is a great comeback for Vishal the composer – this is a well-rounded, very listenable soundtrack overall.
Mann Hawa – Assi (Rochak Kohli) – Hindi: Mohit Chauhan breezes through a warm, easily likeable melody with a pleasant ‘Mann Hawa’ hook making a mark rooting the song beautifully.
Vaan Vaan – Idhayam Murali (Thaman S) – Tamil: The second Mohit Chauhan song this week after Assi, but in Tamil! When Mohit goes, ‘Vaan Vaan Vaan Vaanam Enakena Siru Mazhai Thoovadha’, I was taken back to A R Rahman’s Jeans number, Anbe Anbe – ‘Aiyo Punnagayil Idhayathai Vedikkathey’ 🙂 But I really liked what Thaman has concocted here, particularly the first (only) interlude and the entire anupallavi! The melody goes beautifully perpendicular to the pallavi, and Thaman skillfully brings it back to the ‘Vaan Vaan’ hook.
Seelay Seelay – 29 (Sean Roldan) – Tamil: I would have mildly preferred another singer for this otherwise-gorgeous song, particularly when Sean goes, ‘Nenjam Polambudhey’, I was more worried that he was hurting inside and wanted to console him. But I’m fairly attuned to his voice’s idiosyncracies beyond complaining occasionally about it now. In any case, Chinmayi joins in the anupallvi and as a duet the melody is quite striking.
Enakena – Love Insurance Kompany (Anirudh) – Tamil: Anirudh brings back his own sleeper hit from 2015 (from the film, Aakko). Considering it was Vignesh Shivan who wrote the song even back in 2015, and Sony that released the original too, it feels like a calculated effort to bring the song back in a new movie. And now it has a ready, prepared audience! It sounds as it should – like one of Anirudh’s earlier-phase’s music and probably makes you miss that phase’s Anirudh given the man’s reasonably more monotonous output these days.
Pathu Kadal – My Lord (Sean Roldan) – Tamil: This is the kind of song that Sean truly excels in, with its rich melody and the occasional twist in the tune that makes me sit up! While Sean sings it well, it is Srilakshmi Belmannu’s portions that hold the twist – her vocal humming holds that twist—a note that sounds outside the structure of the song—and it is quite fascinating!
O Nesthamai, Naa Praanam, Naato Raa Ila, Varaale Panche, Naa Kallalo, Baundhi Baandham – Couple Friendly (Aditya Ravindran) – Telugu: When I placed this film’s ‘Naalo Nenu’ at No. 11 of my top 20 Telugu songs of 2025, I had no idea that the rest of the soundtrack was going to be this good! O Nesthamai is almost Santhosh Narayanan in its approach, with a serene, guitar-backed whispery melody and a gorgeously sweeping hook (“O Nesthamai”). Aditya is outstanding withe vocals. Kapil Kapilan gets two songs—Naa Praanam and Naato Raa Ila—and both are lively, with energetic sounds and thoroughly engaging tunes. Varaale Panche is absolutely fascinating! Pradeep Kumar sinks into the ebbs and tides of Aditya’s grand melody so well. In particular, the way Aditya layers the drums for the ‘Varale Panche’ phrase is lovely. Surprisingly, the soundtrack of 8 songs has only female-led songs. Shakthishree Gopalan’s Naa Kallalo has better melodic content than Sublahshini’s Baundhi Baandham and is easier to fall for. But the latter has the edge with its kuthu rhythms and more swagger in the music. It’s just February and this is already my top Telugu soundtrack of 2026 (till another soundtrack overtakes it in the rest of the 10 months). I really, really look forward to what Aditya Ravindran is going to compose next!
Chandamama – Funky (Bheems Ceciroleo) – Telugu: Eswar Dathu’s earthy, slightly unusual vocals adds a specific charm to the otherwise familiar tune by Bheems.
Kallonu Neeve – Hey Bhagawan (Vivek Sagar) – Telugu: Not the best from Vivek Sagar in recent times, but he does have a captivating hook in ‘Kallonu Neeve’ and the entire pallavi seems to be crafted to accomodate this hook. And the song’s anupallavi is a lot more interesting, free of trying to fit the hook. Anurag Kulkarni (and Ramya Behra) can hardly go wrong with a tune like this.
Majako Mallika – Kattalan (B. Ajaneesh Loknath) – Malayalam: There’s something connected to Anirudh’s Coolie chartbuster, Monica, in this song, though I am unable to explain what it is exactly 🙂 But Ajaneesh does a terrific job with the racy tune and the catchy backgrounds, handled very well by both Anand Sreeraj and Bhadra Rajin. Just like Monica, there’s a Mallika leading the lyrics and the tune is equally language-agnostic!
Kaattuchembakam – Pallichattambi (Jakes Bejoy) – Malayalam: Considering Jakes composes quite a bit in Telugu too (among other languages), the song ends up sounding like it could have been a Telugu or a Tamil song too, particularly the catchy ‘Kaattuchembakam’ hook. That’s not a complaint, but an observation that even Malayalam film music, that manages to retain (to a large extent) its own musical idioms, is perhaps evolving. Another case in point – Kannada composer Ajaneesh’s new song from Kattalan that also seems language-agnostic (see below). What is also particularly interesting is Vishal Mishra’s Malayalam debut (along with Aavani Malhar) and he does a very good job! On a related note, Kayadu Lohar seems to be everywhere these days – this is the third new song in this playlist featuring her, besides Funky’s (Telugu) Chandamama and Idhayam Murali’s (Tamil) Vaan Vaan!
Kaathirunnu – Sukhamano Sukhamann (Nipin Besent) – Malayalam: Without knowing who the composer was, I would have guessed Shaan Rahman’s name! I don’t think I have heard Nipin’s music earlier, but while the other 3 songs from this film didn’t work all that much for me, this one easily works. It’s easy on the ear, has Vineet Srinivasan’ish vocals by Devanand SP (and Maria Martin) and a likeable hook too.
Jalpari – Faheem Abdullah, Huzaif Nazar, Rather Hashim (Hindi/Indipop): Sounding a bit like early-days Mithoon (who hardly sounds like that anymore these days), the composition, credited to all three (Faheem Abdullah, Huzaif Nazar, and Rather Hashim) feels like it could have been inside Saiyaara’s soundtrack. It’s a propulsive tune with excellent singing by the three singers, with Amandeep Singh Soni’s guitars keeping the proceedings compellingly interesting.
Shabnam – Aayu (Hindi/Indipop): I have heard a couple of earlier songs by Aayu and didn’t think much about his oeuvre so far. But in Shabnam, he seems to be trying something different – there’s a hypnotic melody at the center (sounded like Punnagavarali raaga, the one behind Aigiri Nandhini) that he cleverly blends across the song with different shades including the rap portions.
Paagalpan, Sitara, Muskurata Jaun, Shambo – Paagalpan (Vishal Mishra) – Hindi/Indipop: Vishal Mishra’s independent album has 16 songs! While most of them are quite listenable (I had written about Kya Bataun Tujhe two weeks ago), there is also a sense of sameness to many of the songs. Where Vishal breaks the monotony, the tunes and his singing shine. The title song builds the mellow, moody melody progressively and takes on a vibrant background when Reet Talwar joins Vishal. The song crescendoes with an unusual and surprising twist! Both Sitara and Muskurata Jaun gain from their anthemic, Coldplay’ish sounds. Shambo is my pick of the album! Where I was expecting a conventional devotional song, Vishal surprises with a superb hardcore rock outing, but with perfectly devotional lyrics!
