Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly, new music playlist.
Week 313: YouTube | Spotify
Re Bawri – Don’t Be Shy (Ram Sampath) – Hindi: Terrific uptempo tune by Ram Sampath and Sona Mohapatra’s unique singing lifts the already likeable song.
Purane Din – Pehla Pyaar Doosri Baar (Rochak Kohli) – Arijit Singh is the song’s soul, expectedly. His ‘Un dinon ki kuchch toh baat thi’ is going to be a oft-repeated phrase in many gatherings by friends, school/college alumni reunions 🙂
Onna Thottu – Dorothy (Ilaiyaraja) – Tamil: Once again, it looks almost like Karthik Subbaraj’s brief to Raja was ‘Eeyam poosina maariyum irukanum poosatha maariyum irukanum’ (in the memorable words of Goundamani) 🙂 The tune and music should evoke nostalgic memories of incredibly famous Raja songs from those days but it should also sound new! So, the rhythm took me back to Muthal Vasantham’s iconic ‘Aarum Adhu Aazham Illa’ while the tune seems to hark back to MappiLLai’s ‘Maanin Iru Kangal’ even though one can argue that it could be the broad Mayamalavagowla raaga at work. The singing, by the trio, Priya Jerson , Deepthi Suresh and Srisha Vijayasekar, is punchy. The entire song transports me to some distant 80s past and that’s probably entirely intentional 🙂
Mozhiye, Ooroda Oththa Don – Baththa (Sai Abhyankkar) Tamil: Sai does an encore to Magale here with another lush melody, this time handled beautifully by Sid Sriram. That ‘Mana dhavan mugam paakkavum’ line is a truly brilliant detour even though I was confused as to what it means (in Karthik Netha’s writing). I presume it is ‘MaNanthavan Mugam Paakkavum’ with a hard N and not ‘Mananthavan’. Not sure how both Sai and Sid missed this. In Ooroda Oththa Don, even though it is a frenetic gana song tuned well by Sai, the composer’s signature is all over, particularly in the way it seems like 2-3 smaller songs joined by Fevikwik.
Breakfree En Minmini – Love (Sean Roldan) – Tamil: There are 6 songs in the soundtrack but not everything works as I usually expect from Sean Roldan. I tried liking Oru Kadhaley, but it just doesn’t click and sounds jaded. Breakfree En Minmini is the only song that worked. Even though it seemed like the umpteenth variant of Roy’s Sooraj Dooba Hain, Sean brings his own signature to the tune and music, and Adithya RK’s singing works wonders for the song.
Title song – Emo Emo Idi (Hesham Abdul Wahab) – Telugu: Hesham weaves his usual (and adequately predictable melody) magic in the tune, though it sounds a bit like Mickey J Meyer’s music too! Karthik’s singing lifts the song considerably and the female chorus (Aavni Malhar, Anila Rajeev, Lipsika) has wonderful part to play in the song’s charm too (Ee maaya emito).
Anjaana Anjaani – The Paradise (Anirudh) – Telugu: A gorgeous melody from Anirudh with excellent singing by Sublashini! Everything just clicks so well in the song… Ananthakrrishnan’s violin solo interlude, that Vidhvamsham Naa Dhata/Vispotanam Nenata line, Anirudh’s ‘Hey rerere’ call-out, the jadhi-style background… everything!
Endhayya Saami – Ranabaali (Ajay-Atul) – Telugu: I loved the short version of the song released back in February this year, but wanted to wait for the full song before I could add it to Weeklies. The full song is really good! I hear so much of Ilaiyaraja’s music in Ajay-Atul! In specific, the flute bits just after ‘Vichegaliki…’ and ‘Attaraddindevvaro…’ had me pause the song and repeat those phrases endlessly trying to parse them to the Ilaiyaraja song I know but couldn’t identify. Shweta Mohan is an inspired choice for this song, something I thought would have been Shreya Ghoshal’s domain. Much of The Sunshine Orchestra’s strings too brought Raja’s music to my mind.
Ondhe Ondu – Brindavihari (Hesham Abdul Wahab) – Kannada: A broadly likeable tune with a jaunty rhythm by Hesham. I was very surprised by the choice of K.S Chithra for the song, though she, as usual, does a wonderful job, along with Jaskaran Singh.
Phir Se – Sanjeeta Bhattacharya & Raag Sethi (Hindi/Indipop): A delightful song that brought memories of Sandeep Chowta’s jazz-infused music to my mind! The melody, with a simple, repetitive structure, is enticing. The music, led by Raag’s guitar, and Sanjeeta’s fantastic singing accentuate the song considerably.
Main Baavri – Sahil Vishwakarma, ft. Monali Thakur (Hindi/Indipop): Sahil’s tune is from a different period of Indipop, and thankfully so! The ‘Aah hui Main Baavri’ hook seems tailor-made for Monali who just aces that along with the whole song. It all has the essence of a late-90s/early-2000s pop feel and that seems so welcome in present times.
Beqadra – Hyder Dar & Najiullah, ft. Shanya Kashyap and Faheem Abdullah (Hindi/Indipop): Faheem’s really impressive vocals get a solid melody here, even though the surprise element is Shanya Kashyap! The tune sounds like something Mithoon may have composed if he was in an ebullient mode, removed from his usually morose outlook that seems more prominent in his music. The irony is that Faheem is singing of a searing heartbreak, but without the Mithoon-style gloominess.
Annakiliye – Smith Asher (Tamil/Indipop): The second Sai Abhyankkar clone after Rudh Prakash, and this one is on Anirudh’s music label. If I hadn’t known the composer’s name (not the singer, though – Smith sounds quite different from Sai), I’d instantly guess it as Sai Abhyankkar! It does sound good in a general sense, with a melody that took me some time to follow and identify clearly. The usual rules of pallavi and anupallavi seem to be broken in the tune in interesting ways and the twist in the tune at 2:50 is quite a lovely touch. Dheekshitha does a very good job with the singing (besides writing the song too).
Padhumai – Varun Vijay, ft. Sai Vignesh (Tamil/Indipop): What composer Varun Vijay has, going in the song’s favor is Reethigowla raaga! But even with that familiarity, the composer has enough inventive phrases. That ‘Un un un azhagiya kaN kaN kaN’ really takes the cake! Robin Sebastian’s guitar and Sai Vignesh’s singing do the rest effortlessly.
