Yaara maula: Gulaal (Hindi OST), Piyush Mishra Gulaal’s OST, in its entirety, was a complete stunner. I really admire the way Piyush brings a predominant feel and unique sound to all the tracks, uniformly. While I adore Ranaji and break into a smile everytime I pass, ‘Jaise door des mein…’, Yaara maula is the track [...]

Hariloranga hari is complete masala mix – catchy arrangements, Mika-styled rap elements and a surprising devotional piece right in the middle! Ellora silpaani is groovy, with spirited vocals by Rita, much like the equally foot-tapping Bommali, with Malvika and Hemchandra’s trendy singing. Ney patasu has some inspired interludes but the tune is strictly average and [...]

Namaskara sir, A maga and Shakalaka rock n roll are youthful and trendy with good singing by all involved, while Karthik’s Thanthane is a neat techno ballad and the singer, as always, is in super form! The inspirational A mere Bharath mahan is a weak link, with silly vocals and arrangements and the remix of [...]

Mutturaj kaalitta is almost constructed like a Dr. Raj track, it is Shankar Mahadevan’s enthusiastic vocals that save the otherwise disjoint song while Shreya saves the simple, middle eastern’ish melody in Poli ivanu. The grandly imagined royal song, Raja Rani is painfully irritating and dated while the medley of old songs in Kempa is good [...]

Despite the ambient mood set by its ominous backgrounds, Bohemia’s I got the picture is mostly contrived – tries too hard to fit a Hindi track in an alien format…and fails. Neeraj Sridhar composes the very spritely Aaja Maahi and sings it along with Tulsi Kumar, but it’s in Salim Sulaiman that the soundtrack truly [...]

Have you ever heard of a whale that attained puberty? Samanja thimingilam offers that fascinating insight sorely missing from Animal Planet, complete with a sultry female voice. The bland reworking of a folk track, Yerunadhu; the Bombay theme inspired desolation in Yen saami; the even more ruminative Saamiya tholachutten; and the loud item number, Vada [...]

Yaar paarthathu may have well been composed by Director Vikraman himself – sounds exactly like all his countless, flat and jaded tracks and very unlike any Vijay Antony number. Vijay’s Adada and Devadhai desathil are surprisingly amateurish – pretty lame singing and tunes that are strangely rough round the edges. Inbamey tries a techno sound [...]

Veteran noise-maker Deva stages a comeback with Suriyan Satta Kalloori and strangely sounds exactly like his son, Srikanth Deva, in the fairly catchy Kalaai kaalai, though Udit Narayan seems bent on killing the language, as always. The modern, operatic take on Guru brahma is surprisingly decent while the two extraordinarily coarse gaana tracks – Kaadhal [...]

Anbaale azhagaadum’s tune is straight out of MS Viswanathan’s repertoire and roping veteran Dr Balamuralikrishna to croon this seems pointless – the violin interludes do showcase the composer’s creativity though! Naandhaan Goppanda uses the sound of Theneeril snehidham (Subramaniyapuram) and is as outdated as a 90s TV title song, much like the jarringly 80s, synthpop/ [...]

Update: I have a friend who knows Charan and apparently Manorama Music has not paid these guys for this album! This is so incredibly unfortunate! These guys have made amazing music and couldn’t get a decent label to back them? Looks like you cannot have music as a career in this country! Bottomline – DO [...]