Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly, new music playlist.
Week 314: YouTube | Spotify
(Brindavihari’s Kudide Kudide was released last evening but is not yet available on Spotify as of this morning)
Tujh Mein Basi Meri Jaan – Prahaar (Pritam) – Hindi: For a biopic like this (Ujjwal Nikam), the usual belief is that songs matter much less, but I see Pritam delivering a surprisingly beautiful melody and sung by Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal. There’s almost a bhajan-like earnestness in the melody.
Thamarai – Enemy Of The Smuggler (Sam Daniel) – Tamil: With the choice of singer, composer Sam has an instant advantage – Pradeep Kumar! The Vidyasagar’ish start of the melody (one word per line structure) doesn’t fully land well in the ‘Kaadhal endru’ part, I felt. But the composer more than makes up for it with the anupallavi where the pivot in ‘Maan unai thedi alaiyaadha’ line easily stands out.
Karuvizhi – Haiku (Siddhu Kumar) – Tamil: Another Vidyasagar’ish one-word-per-line melody (like Thamarai above), but this one works even better! Siddhu’s faux-classical style melody works wonders and Armaan Malik’s singing is impeccably good! The variations in the ends of phrases (Vizhi VaaLai Veesippora, Vizhundhene Thookkippora… to end in ‘uDainthene Naanum Noora) are so good!
Idhena Idhena – AH (Sricharan Pakala) – Telugu: I wasn’t into the song until the Idhena hook landed. It also felt like the song takes off only then, and even the interlude and anupallavi works considerably better than the opening. Shanmukha Bharadwaj’s singing is an asset to the song.
Yellow Chunni – Itllu Arjuna (Thaman S) – Telugu: With that really long pallavi, I wondered what Thaman was up to, but he does handle it admirably when he lands the ‘Undipo ila na gunde lopala’ hook. Where he surprised was in the anupallavi, when the extra rhythmic punch joins the ‘Aa andhamantha okkasari nee lo chudana’ line. Then you hear the same ‘Undipo ila na gunde lopala’ hook with an extra punch! Listen to both back to back… it’s a lovely touch! Vishal Mishra is delightfully good with the singing.
Aarambha, Sakhiye – Shankarabharanna (Charanraj MR) – Kannada: The first thing that drew me into this song was the choice of Mano! He brings a (beyond the definite nostalgia from listening to his many, many songs over the years) vibrant freshness and energy to the already ebullient song. The chorus (Chethan Naik, Vishak Nagalapura, Sathvik Rao and Bhargav HC) and the rap (Amogh Balaji) do a fantastic job as well. The melody has so much variations and Mano handles them all superbly! Sakhiye is the complete opposite in terms of texture – a soaring melody that gains immensely from Sid Sriram’s affecting vocals. He is ably complemented by the kids chorus and a wonderful strings section.
Ee Jeevana SaRiGaMa, Kudide Kudide – Brindavihari (Hesham Abdul Wahab) – Kannada: Beyond the predictably Hesham’ish opening, the composer differentiates his work with the striking guitar work all through the song (courtesy: Sumesh Parameshwar). But in Kudide Kudide, Hesham has an effortless winner! Not only does Gautam Nair’s singing help enormously, but the song’s lively rhythm is effortlessly catchy too.
