Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly, new music playlist.
Week 310: YouTube | Spotify
Mere Hero Hai Woh – Haiwaan (Pritam) – Hindi: It is so good to hear Shaan again and he seems like a perfect fit for Saif Ali Khan! The tune has a dreamy appeal, particularly with the waltz’ish backdrop and chorus. Vanika Nayak’s singing too adds to the song’s appeal.
Vaaroon Forever – Mirzapur The Movie (Anand Bhaskar) – Hindi: Anand recreates his famous song from the TV series with limited variations and it continues to sound as good as the original. But the big addition is Shreya Ghoshal’s voice (along with Romy) and what a difference she adds!
Oru Poomugam, Andhi Nilavu, Kanne Kanne, Saki – Once More (Hesham Abdul Wahab) – Tamil: After two years of writing about every single from this soundtrack, I’m pleasantly surprised there’s still more songs in the full soundtrack that released recently owing the film’s release next week A-T L-A-S-T! The shorter songs are actually very good, recalling the way Rahman used relatively shorter melodies in longer soundtracks back in the 1990s and 2000s. Of course, Aditi’s diction in ‘KaNNe KaNNe’ (as ‘kanne kanne’) is an irritant even though the melody is gorgeous. Saki, a longer song, is a solid addition to the already melodious soundtrack, with its march-past’ish propulsive energy and Ananthu’s excellent singing.
Ala Bolelo – Jailer 2 (Anirudh) – Tamil (and Malayalam’ish… not sure!): Just when I thought I had made minor efforts to understand what ‘Alaakaa Loova’ meant (from ‘Om’, with music by Sai Abhyankkar), here comes Ala Bolelo! I can tell you right off that such efforts by Tamilians would increasingly alienate Malayalees away from Tamil and Tamilians, particularly since it is happening too often these days (I’m looking at you, ‘Manasilayo’). While Anirudh’s singing seemed random, it is the backing female chorus/vocals (Niranjana Raman, Aparna Harikumar and Deepthi Suresh) that made me sit up.
Manjal Aavaro – Ram In Leela (Ankit Menon) – Tamil: While I do expect a lot from Ankit’s music usually, this soundtrack didn’t work for me as much as the first single did (Yaar Yaarival). The only other song from the full soundtrack that stood out was Manjal Aavaro with Armaan Malik’s fantastic vocals (with backing vocals by Ankit hilsemf and rap performed by Semv.iii, who also wrote the lyrics which include a odd Hindi/Tamil combo line like, ‘Dil se oNNum oNNum serndhu ippo rendu aaguthey’!).
Kalyana Virundhu – Dorothy (Ilaiyaraaja) – Tamil: I presume Karthik Subbaraj’s reference to Raaja for this song may be ‘Maama Un PoNNa kudu’ from Rajathi Raja. Raaja keeps the feel intact, from a very different period (1980s) but I did miss SPB’s (and Malaysia Vasudevan, though his son Yugendran, does sing this with Anthony Daasan) voice. At least SP Charan could have sung the song as a reminder to the veteran who has sung so many such wedding songs for Raaja. For context, listen to SP Charan sounding exactly like SPB in his prime, in this new Telugu song from EPIC First Semester!
Kotha Feeling – Sing Geetham (Devi Sri Prasad) – Telugu: With a lovely Latin twang, this lowkey, short song from Sing Geetham is perhaps the best in the soundtrack! Both Hari Priya and DSP do a terrific job with the whispery vocals, and the backing chorus do a fantastic job too, particularly in the anupallavi.
Phir Se – Zeeshan Khan, ft. Tanishka Bahl (Indipop/Hindi): Zeeshan’s composition and even a bit of the singing style took me back to the days when I first heard ‘Piya Basanti Re’ (composed by Sandesh Shandilya, sung by Ustad Sultan Khan and Chithra). It’s a simple and easily likeable melody with a gentle lilt and the sitar phrases to keep it consistently engaging.
Valli Kanavan – Maalavika Sundar (Indipop/Tamil): Maalavika takes the famous Kaavadichindu song, ‘VaLLi KaNavan Perai’ set to Senjurutti raaga, and creates a lively, modern pop song out of it! Her singing is excellent and the adornments in the beginning (prelude) work very well too. The musical band does a fabulous job, particularly the violin and the drums.
Seri – I-POPSTAR Episode 13 (Rockzane) – Indipop/Tamil: While the overall song seemed less interesting, the music and the delivery of the ‘Ha… hmm… seri’ was especially noteworthy! Rockzane builds her song around this line with the actual (core) melody not being very different from any new Tamil film song.
Kaadhal – The Front Row (Shaan Rahman) – Indipop/Tamil/Malayalam: A soft, lilting melody that shines mainly because of the choice of singers – Chinmayi and Hanan Shah (who sing in Tamil and Malayalam, respectively). Sheen keeps the tune simple and Chinmayi’s singing at the lowest end of her range makes for a lovely listen. There’s also something that happens for about 3 seconds that completely took me by surprise!
