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Enter masala territory - with Pritam aping Vishal Shekar’s Dus! Its catchy, pulsating and eminently listenable. Halka captivates with a simple, frothy tune. KK hits the dance floor with a vengeance in Zahreeli Raatein. Kunal Ganjawala does the same even better in Panaahon Mein. Jhuki Jhuki wastes Kailash Kher with a routine arabic flip. Sunidhi shines in the dancy Mummy and Reshamiya’ish Bheega. Khalish with Kunal and Suzan is the most mature with rockish guitar riffs and an assortment of human sounds! Halka’s remix and the theme pass muster. Pritam pulls it off rather impressively in this desi Usual Suspects!

The mandatory hero intro song Thotta Power drags and reminds one of dozen other HJ songs. The pedestrian Achu Vella Karumbe has a strong Kovil/ Arul hangover. Yaaridamum saves the album from the Silambarasan-crassness, though Ramesh Vinayagam just cannot match Srinivas’ original rendition of Gharshana’s Ye Chilipi. With just one heroine (Gopika), the two female voices in the very pleasant Uyire En Uyire, surprises! Jaari Singaari will ensure that HJ is inundated with Umma Ummamma accusations. The theme is typical HJ – choir’ish and gothic in sound. Silambarasan is lucky to have two great melodies and deserves the three other non-starters.

The question is not, Is this a period score?. It is rather, What is a period score?. Main vari vari obviously impresses, though Reena sounds better, younger. Javed Akhtar excels in the pulsating Takey Takey’s lyrics. The Holi song uses jaded rhythm loops but is better than most recent holi songs. And Aamir only utters. Kailash Kher in the 3 versions of Mangal Mangal is Nusrat’ish while the track is just situational. Raunchy Rasiya may make sense when watched. Same for Al Maddath Maula. MP is definitely notches below Lagaan and most of other better Rahman’s albums. Blame Ketan Mehta?

Rahman exhausts his repertoire of period scores in Hindi and is back in Tamil with Ah Aah! Heavy on orchestration and with surprisingly good lyrics by Valee, the album showcases SJ Surya’s sensibilities more than Rahman’s. Mayiliragae and its remix (with different lyrics and mood – novel attempt!) Marankothiye are charming. The choice of singers is good, except the annoying, uncredited male voice in the Persian-sounding Thigu Thigu. Thazhuvudhu loses everything including the tune midway. Varugiraai is an interesting variation for the otherwise somber pathos genre! And finally, Aararai Kodi with Rahman’s vocals, announces Rahman’s comeback in Tamil – with a bang.