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Madhusri’s Tamil mauling notwithstanding, the lilting tune and backgrounds make Eppo nee thoroughly enjoyable. Lucky Ali sings Gutkha lakkadi, a track usually marked for Jassi Gift - completely mindless but catchy enough. Mamta Mohandas’ delightful vocals adorn the awesome Kaala kaala, though its unpardonable that she makes ‘morning’ of the ‘bull’ - there’s considerable difference between ‘kaalai’ and ‘kaaLai’, for heaven’s sake! Kutti pisaase and Veeramulla are assembly-line techno-kuthu/ folk while Vandhuthaanda Kaala that eulogizes the all-powerful hero is appropriately racy with stupid lyrics. Three neat tracks from GV Prakashkumar, but the nonchalance towards the language and pronunciation is appalling!

Keywords: Simbu, Silambarasan, Vedhika, Vethika

The sonorous melody Uyirile glistens with Rahman’ish touches across interludes, backgrounds and the tune that seems reaches varying, Rahman-like highs! Dhaiyare dhaiya is incredibly innovative - dollops of Rahman’ish flourishes, Celtic deviations, with generous stepdancing elements thrown in. Sooriyane has Lucky Ali mincing Tamil words into a mess, within a neat, Rock’ish tune, while Kanji paanayin, while being thoroughly enjoyable, showcases both the composer’s immaturity in using utterly disparate stock sounds and seeking valid inspiration from Rahman’s fusion-qawali tracks like Monalisa. But, despite all this, Vellithirai is a very interesting soundtrack and a confident step ahead for the young composer.

Keywords: Prakashraj, Gopika, Prithviraj, G.V.Prakash Kumar

Sandeep Chowta weaves his magic all over the rhythmic, uber-hip Missing Sunday that sparkles with Mahua Kamat’s vocals and Suraj sounding terribly like Adnan Sami. Suroor’s Pyar to hona hi hai is exactly what you expect from a Pakistani band – mildly sufi’ish, rock’ish et all. Daler’s Loot liya too is his typical stuff, much better than his last album. Shibani Kashyap’s Kashmakash and Raghav’s Manzar are extremely competent, especially the former, with Shibani’s superb singing and even DJ Suketu’s hyper-energetic remix making the cut. Much like the film’s Telugu original (Anukokunda Oka Roju), Sunday’s assorted composers present an enjoyable soundtrack.

Keywords: Ayesha Takia, Ajay Devgan, Arshad Warsi, Irrfan Khan, Anjana Sukhani

Achcham thavir is a fantastic, ambient musical rendition of Bharathiyaar’s inspiring words. Kathazha kannala and Kannadhaasan has the composer trying desperately to catch up with his monster fishy hit and employs most of the former’s elements, and both are pulsatingly catchy and loud. Manasukkul’s appealing melody is accentuated by Shweta’s vocals while it’s the singing (of the composer) that kills an otherwise lovely Veenayadi nee enakku – this could’ve been so much better with another, established singer. The four theme scores are pretty good too, I must add. Director Mysskin and composer Sundar C Babu have an interesting encore in Anjaadhey.

Keywords: Narain, Mysskin

After Darling, here’s another instance where Himesh Reshammiya overshadows Pritam with just one track. Himesh’s Tum mile is no great shakes actually - a hum-along’ish track thankfully sung by KK and not by the composer himself. But it just steamrolls over the substandard fare dished out by Pritam - two annoying Sunidhi tracks (Tere bina and Ya baba) and an average Pancham’esque attempt in Jaane maula, just saved by Amit Kumar’s raucous rendition. Sachin and Jigar’s other track, the poignant, well-scored and well-sung (by KK) Allah Beli is considerably better too. Overall a middling soundtrack…not that I expected anything more!

Keywords: Nikhil Dwivedi, Amrita Rao

Salim Sulaiman’s Same same but different is full on techno with cheesy lyrics and bilingual banter – but the likeable hook makes up for the cheesiness! Ronnie Shirish’s lovey-dovey Dheere however is stale and predictable. Sukhwinder’s title song is a confluence of sounds, most prominently Marathi folk, all packaged in a glitzy, throbbing orchestration. Pritam’s Dil ka haal is the soundtrack’s weakest link, despite all that snazzy things that the composer throws at us - the tune is plain boring and silly. Two above average, catchy ditties make the cut, but this soundtrack is far from the standard Nagesh Kukunoor material!

Keywords: Shreyas Talpade, Subash Ghai

The Top 10 Hindi film songs of 2007, in order of my preference. If you find a particular popular track missing from this list, do a check on Milliblog’s archives - the soundtrack may have released in 2006 even as the film released in 2007. Best example…Guru! I tend to go by my review date, specifically. As usual, this list is no attempt to please anybody - just my 2 cents on some of the better music that came out from Hindi film industry. Feel free to argue and agree in the comments section. I’m willing to make a change in this list if any new soundtrack released before the end of this year has a song interesting enough…yes, I’m referring to the much-awaited music of Jodha Akbar. Lets see!

Update as on Dec. 31, 2007: I’m including a new addition at No. 07 since it deserves its place in the Top 10!

01. Aao milo chale - Jab we met, Pritam Chakraborty

02. Woh ajnabee - The Train, Mithoon

03. Bol na halke - Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Shankar Ehsaan Loy

04. Jaane do na - Cheeni kum, Ilayaraja

05. In dinon - Life in a Metro, Pritam Chakraborty

06. Kash laga - No smoking, Vishal Bharadwaj

07. Maa - Taare Zameen Par, Shankar Ehsaan Loy

07 08. Ke bin tere - Aggar, Mithoon

08 09. Labon ko - Bhool bhulaiyya, Pritam Chakraborty

09 10. Dilli - Delhi Heights, Rabbi Shergill

The next 5 I was forced to drop from the Top 10!

10 11. Chakna - Namaste London, Himesh Reshammiya

11 12. Show me your jalwa - Aaja Nachle, Salim Sulaiman

12 13. Soni de nakhre - Partner, Sajid Wajid

13 14. Khoye khoye chand - Khoya Khoya Chand, Shantanu Moitra

14 15. Woh bheege pal - Manorama, Jayesh Gandhi

15 16. Johnny Gaddaar - Johnny Gaddaar, Shankar Ehsaan Loy

Top 3 OSTs

01. Metro, Pritam Chakraborty

02. The Train, Mithoon

03. Jab we met, Pritam Chakraborty

Composer of the year: Pritam Chakraborty

Top 3 Non-film albums

01. Jhoomo re (Kailasa)

02. Into The Light - Mandolin Meets Contemporary Sounds (U Rajesh)

03. Ramanasia (Raman Mahadevan)

Keywords: Hindi film industry, best of 2007, best songs of 2007, best hindi songs of 2007, best hindi film music in 2007, best hindi film songs - 2007

Its that time of the year again. The Top 10 Tamil film songs of 2007, in order of my preference. If you find a particular popular track missing from this list, do a check on Milliblog’s archives - the soundtrack may have released in 2006 even as the film released in 2007. I tend to go by my review date, specifically. As usual, this list is no attempt to please anybody - just my 2 cents on some of the better music that came out from Tamil film industry. Feel free to argue and agree in the comments section.

01. Katrin mozhi - Mozhi, Vidyasagar

02. Mayavi neeya - Sivi, Dharan

03. Para para - Katradhu Tamizh, Yuvan Shankar Raja

04. Athiradee - Sivaji, A R Rahman

05. Velaayee - Onbadhu rooba nottu, Bharadwaj

06. Unnarugil varugayil - Kalloori, Joshua Sridhar

07. Karu karu - Pachaikili Muthucharam, Harris Jayaraj

08. Alaigalin osaigal - Rameswaram, Niru

09. Kelaamal - Azhagiya Tamizh Magan, A R Rahman

10. Unnai saranadainthen - Ammuvaagiya naan, Sabesh Murali

The next 5 I was forced to drop from the Top 10!

11. Kanavellaam - Kreedam, G V Prakash Kumar

12. Sanjaram - Kannmoochi yenada, Yuvan Shankar Raja

13. Kannan varum velai - Deepavali, Yuvan Shankar Raja

14. Nakka mukka - Kaadhalil Vizhunden, Vijay Antony

15. Saroja saamaan nikalo - Chennai 600028, Yuvan Shankar Raja

Top 3 OSTs

01. Mozhi, Vidyasagar

02. Ammuvaagiya naan, Sabesh Murali

03. Katradhu Tamizh, Yuvan Shankar Raja

Composer of the year: Yuvan Shankar Raja

Keywords: Tamil film industry, best of 2007, best songs of 2007, best tamil songs of 2007, best tamil film music in 2007, best tamil film songs - 2007

To be fair, the director Perarasu’s singing debut along with Suchitra, Locku localu is appropriately coarse and catchy. A flash of Wilson Picket’s Land of a thousand dances in Innoru murai merely surprises since the rest of the song is completely inane. Yaarum ennidam is the only track that displays some sense with its fairly engaging tune and Bollywood’ish rhythms – but the intermittent children’s rhymes had me in splits! The rest? Utterly mindless! Perarasu seems hell bent on going full steam ahead with Srikanth Deva’s stock of assembly line tunes in Pazhani and ends up with yet another silly soundtrack.

Keywords: Palani, Bharath, Bharat, Kajal Aggarwal

Much as I enjoyed the Vadivelu starrer Imsai Arasan 23m Pulikesi, I personally thought its music was terrible, despite Shankar’s impeccable music sense across his projects. Sabesh Murali’s music was completely disposable - a trait they carry in this Vadivelu starrer too. The music is such an atrocious mish-mash of pointless tunes that it requires the film’s funnyman Hero to bring some semblance to them, on screen. Without that, it’s even a miracle that this soundtrack came into being. I do understand it’s a comedy film but a soundtrack of this nature is a frivolous waste of time and effort!

Keywords: Vadivel, Vadivelu