New to Milliblog? If you like what you read here, may I suggest subscribing to Milliblog's RSS feed or e-mail alerts?. Thanks for visiting!

After some ‘hey-this-isn’t-what-we-expected-from-you’ music in Kaal, Salim Sulaiman give us more of the same in NNN. The title song reeks of Hum Tum, again, shortly after influencing the music of Salaam Namaste. Halla re is catchy with a nice groove. Kunal finally sings differently in Akh ladiye and sounds good too! Mixing Hayo rabba with oh-so-cool english words is NOT cool. It stinks in I’m in love. The english song with Clinton and Dominique I just wanna sounds completely out of place. NNN has music that merely follows Uday’s middling career.

Cliched words like Hayo rabba and Soni infest Mar sutiya which incidentally borrows its lyrics from Juggy D’s Dil lutiya. So why is Sameer credited here? Anu’s nasal singing dominates Meri jaan-e-jigar, which simply goes haywire. Two highly noisy tracks in Tu hai and Aisi umar mein. The latter is from the Nadiadwala school of excess, where everything’s in excess! Anu narrates the film’s character sketches in Sutradhar 1 & 2. Anu does! Need I say more? And he also lifts Kevin Lyttle’s 2003 chartbuster Turn me on for Chakle chakle. Originality? Credits? Bah! Shame on you, Anu dude!

What do I remember from Lohitadas’ original Kasthuriman? The overpowering sense of gloom in Priyamvada’s (Meera) life. And, what do I recall from Ilayaraja’s music from its Tamil remake? Déjà vu. An overpowering sense of déjà vu! Nethu varaikkum and Oru porkalam top the list – the sources are obvious! Vaanin kaadhal has that mod sound Raja pioneered in the 80s but sadly, it sounds outdated now. Kekkaliyo is catchy if I avoid getting into déjà vu zone again! Ennai ketkum is no patch on Raakuyil paadi, Ouseppachan’s track in the Malayalam original. Two things. Enough of synth. We deserve better.

Oru muraidhaan is philosophy in synth. Ditto for Aavaarampoove. Ore oru with a Deva-voiced Sabesh aims to be an authentic village track with Jayakumar’s interlude and the ‘back-to-the-roots’ sentiment that Cheran used to the hilt in Autograph. Andha urunda mala starts with an interesting soliloquy to flow into a rustic ditty in which Jayamoorthy impresses. Enna paarkiraai’s lyric pattern, Yugendran and ‘Mirchi’ Suchitra’s vocals and the sweeping interludes grabs you. But Sabesh-Murali truly arrive with the incredible Theme music and the scintillating, but Rahman-styled, Unnai saranadainthen. Now we know Cheran’s contribution to his past movies’ music. Cheran does stand vindicated!

Thaimaasam begins sounding uneasily similar to Thirumalai’s Vaadiyamma, but sounds pretty good, overall. Kailash Kher sings fairly good Tamil in Podhumada saami which seems to be fashioned along Muthu’s Vidukathaya in tune and carries similar philosophical underpinnings. Che che is catchy and innovative, and should look good on screen. The should-be intro song, Hey pangali apes the Dhool kind of music, but fails to make an impact. The mandatory Vidyasagar melody, Sollitharava is rhythmic & pleasant. Vidyasagar in Majaa’s music clearly aims to ape Dharani’s musical sensibilities but falls just short. I suppose that’s precisely what the Director brings in!

Murugadoss has predominantly used the crux of Memento (besides a couple of scenes), while narrating an interesting revenge drama. The film even kills Asin, ala Kakka Kakka and is thus impactful! The sparingly used Matrix-style action in the climax is wonderful. The director’s masterstroke is the twin-villain technique that magnifies climax action, since the setting is rather uninspiring! Surya and Asin’s chemistry is fabulous and so is their individual performance. And the whistles in the theatre with regard to Nayanthara are all for the wrong reasons! Music is good, but is used as pointless fillers, at inappropriate times! Overall…rivetting!

The intro, ‘call-to-the-fans’ Vaada vaada and Kodambakkam area make for painful listening. Idhu enna has the forgotten Uma Ramanan and a passable tune. Deivathukke is a rare pathos song in a Vijay movie, and is sure to increase the cigarette vendor’s business. Deepavali deepavali is noisy and sounds like Vikram’s Vanithamani! That leaves us with Ada ennaatha, with mega-silly lyrics, but gives the Vijay fan a valid reason to whistle and dance, with one hand on the lungi and the other on the beedi, thanks largely to the versatile Anuradha Sriram. Overall, Sivakasi is Srikanth Deva’s hallmark – dumb and noisy!