Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly, new music playlist.
Week 308: YouTube | Spotify
Tabassum – Batwara 1947 (A R Rahman) – Hindi: After being adequately disappointed with the first single from the movie (Kahaan Chale Gaye Ho Ram), I’m glad that the next single doesn’t fall into the same zone. With Sonu Nigam’s resplendent voice, the melody is heart-warmingly gentle while navigating the tune’s highs brilliantly. When Heer makes her entry in the antara the song becomes a gorgeous conversation of sorts.
The Full Soundtrack – DC (Anirudh) – Tamil(‘ish) – In Raga of Revenge, Faraz’s vocals seem to start almost mid-flight and the grand, almost operatic music is totally enveloping. But then Anirudh drops that catchy, mesmerizing rhythm and the song takes flight in the most unpredictable way. The core melody, though, is as pulsating and racy as the backgrounds. But in Rose, the same melody appears in a somber, less urgent, almost wistful manner! The contrast is wonderful to listen to, back to back, though I preferred listening to Rose first, followed by Raga of Revenge, even though the soundtrack sequence is the opposite.
Ain’t Nobody lives in the same world as Hangova, with the jazz backdrop coming through in both songs, though Hangova has an edge. Both have vocals (Ram Kumar, in Ain’t Nobody, while Anirudh himself—though sounding a lot different—sings Hangova) that are sweeping and loaded with deliberate swagger that amps up the song’s moods considerably.
Namaste can only be described as a mish-mash of pulsating jadhi vocals and rhythms jostling with… of all things, Shiva Namaskara Stotra! It works in a completely unique way. It has a companion piece of sorts in Jaya Jaya Shankara.
Vizhigalile is the most un-DC of all tracks, wearing its pathos too obviously, and Anirudh droning, trying to underline the melancholy too hard. But the background music, yet again, makes it more interesting than what it is.
Don’t Give A Damn is the soundtrack’s most energetic and most surprising track! This is a stupendously catchy Blues Rock track, and oddly enough, both the YouTube version and Spotify do not credit the singer!
Bum Ba Diga Diga and Malayla exist in the same musical space, with a punchy Latino Hip Hop sound connecting both. Vedan’s rap in the former adds to an interesting fusion element, while the latter plays it straight within the genre conventions.
Raga of Madness started in the most Bollywood’ish manner but Anirudh twists it almost immediately, intermittently layering Vishal Misra’s vocals and the frenetic rap to great effect.
Das And Parvathy offers the most complete, well etched melody for any song in the soundtrack. The main melody, as also the prominent interlude that appears mid-way, both took me to Seal’s outstanding ‘Kiss From A Rose’.
Echoes of DC is interesting for the way it riffed on the Spaghetti Western theme elements. Thaalam Trip and Bloody Valentine did sound good though they didn’t appeal to me as much as the others, specifically.
On the whole, DC’s soundtrack takes what Anirudh had been already doing in bits and pieces for Lokesh (in soundtracks like Leo and Vikram), that is, “English” music in mainstream Tamil movies, into a full-fledged effort. There’s no trace of a conventional or even modern Tamil movie ‘song’ anywhere in the soundtrack. The entire idiom is Western/English, borrowing from globally established genres and minimal ‘Indian’ elements fused into it. That all this is attempted for a movie set in Tamil Nadu is the most interesting part. I still recall the days when A R Rahman’s ‘village’ music was dismissed as being too modern (in films like Kizhakku Cheemayile and Karuthamma) initially. Those dismissers may be at a loss of both words and expressions after hearing DC, though I’d chalk this all under evolution. The soundtrack makes for a fantastic listen as a standalone musical album and that, in itself, is a highlight, bringing out a hugely listenable ‘background music’ album and mounting it as a blockbuster musical album.
Rasagulla – Hi (Jen Martin) – Tamil: I had said this in my take on a couple of songs from Oho Enthan Baby too, but I continue to be fairly impressed by composer Jen Martin’s steady rise. He seemed like a ‘Kavin+’ composer and Hi is a Kavin starrer too. But his sound has definitely arrived and has a distinct palette too. Rasagulla even has Anirudh singing it, with his usual panache. It’s a easy-to-like melody and has some nifty touches too, like that use of Aanandha Bhairavi raaga based wedding song, ‘Kannoonjal Aadi IrundaaL’ in the interlude.
Thoduvaanathil – Anbe Diana (Bharath Sankar) – Tamil: The only other (3rd) song from Anbe Diana that worked for me (had written about the other two in earlier Weeklies). A considerable reason for that is Sooraj Santhosh’s winning vocals. The tune is gentle uptempo pop with a neat recurring whistle element and Sooraj going falsetto too, to solid effect. Rithu Vysakh’s violin interlude was quite a highlight too!
Naa Kanti Meedha Kunuke – Ramba Oorvasi Menaka (Chaitan Bharadwaj) – Telugu: Every bit Chaitan’s template all the way… you can identify it from a mile. Dhanunjay Seepana does a great job with the singing, and makes it work, though.
Ukkiri Bikkiri, Vellamaake and Raave Cheliya – Srinivasa Mangapuram (GV Prakash Kumar) – Telugu: GV Prakash Kumar’s soundtrack for Srinivasa Mangapuram is mighty good! Of the 6 songs, except ‘Manga Manga’ all the other 5 songs worked for me effortlessly. Beyond the 2 that I have already written about, Ukkiri Bikkiri has a serene, lush melody that took me to the composer’s Veyil days and a bit of Rahman too, during the flute interlude. In Vellamaake, he delivers a hugely rhythmic number and the tune too goes in directions that I generally did not expect it to, particularly in the anupallavi. Raave Cheliya too, thanks to Kapil Kapilan’s singing, some alive as a slow rock melody. Overall, I thought GV Prakash Kumar has delivered something different from what I might have heard from a Thaman or a DSP for a similar film.
Chitti Chitti Cheema – Aakasamlo Oka Tara (GV Prakash Kumar) – Telugu: To be honest, I was thoroughly confused between the first singles from Aakasamlo Oka Tara and Sri Sri. Both have Dulquer, both are Telugu-first films with multiple other language versions, both have GV Prakash Kumar’s music and both singles released close to each other. Ramya Behara does fabulously in Chitti Chitti Cheema, though, breathing life into the sweet melody concocted by GVP even though the tune itself seems to have remnants of the gentle lilt of his uncle’s ‘Odakkaara Maarimuthu’ from Indira (from a long time ago!).
Bomma Bomma – Sri Sri (GV Prakash Kumar) – Telugu: Bomma Bomma is so very different from Chitti Chitti Cheema and that’s testimony to GVP’s versatility. Starting a bit like an offshoot of Madharapattinam’s Pookkal Pookkum, the melody evolves beautifully, with a lively rhythm to accentuate Kapil Kapilan’s outstanding singing.
Beautiful Girl – Premaku Namaskaram (RR Dhruvan) – Telugu: I have heard almost everything RR Dhruvan has composed so far but I believe this is the first entry for Dhruvan in Milliblog. To be sure, I couldn’t discern anything specific that I can attribute to him or his style of music and it sounded like a combination of Chaitan Bharadwaj and GV Prakash Kumar’s music, but what I did hear… I loved it. Keba’s guitar does it usual magic in the background and Adithya RK’s voice carries the song in great stead.
Asalayavale – Khalifa (Jakes Bejoy) – Malayalam: This is the kind of song that I’d frequently listen from Shaan Rahman a few years ago. Now, it is by Jakes Bejoy. Besides Sid Sriram’s enchanting lead vocals, Mohammed Maqbool Mansoor’s backing vocals too add to the song’s charm.
Erunno – Unmadham (Mujeeb Majeed) – Malayalam: It may be my liking for Job Kurian’s voice but it wasn’t just that 🙂 Mujeeb layers the song with a surprisingly energetic and robust background rhythm that made me sit up immediately. Then, the melody it itself was very, very engaging. Job’s singing was, then, an icing on the cake.
Menada Gombege – Rukmini Radhakrishna (Sunaad Gowtham) – Kannada: I was hit with a delightful blast of nostalgia listening to this song 🙂 Sunaad seems to be using Karaharapriya Raaga for the melody even though a lot of it harks back directly to Maragadhamani’s (MM Keeravani in Tamil) fantastic song from Jaadhi Malli, ‘Kamban Engu Ponaan’. But Sunaad does a terrific job with the interludes and the anupallavi where he differentiates the song to a large extent. And Sanjith Hegde is a superb choice for the song.
Patar Bashori – Coke Studio Bangla, Season 4 (Mukul Mojumder Ishaan, ft. Sunidhi Nayak) – Bangla: Lovely retro-style melody that Sunidhi Nayak handles beautifully till Mukul joins and changes the pitch and twists the tune’s nature in interesting ways.
