Milliblog monthly multilingual music reco – August 2014

Just a little crush, If you feel & Open book – TV Dinners (Indipop – Mikey McCleary)
One heck of an enjoyable album that clearly deserves more promotion. Really wish other composers, who did jingles before moving to films, also pick some of their favorite jingles and make full songs out of it! They could perhaps do with the blessings (and budget) from brands too. After all, if Chings Secret can commission an antirely new, full-fledged masala song, complete with a music video to boot (all handled by the crew of Kill Dill), then why won’t a Close-up or Vodafone fund and co-own a full-song?
Listen to the album on Gaana, here.

Fanny re & Shake your bootiya – Finding Fanny (Hindi – Mathias Duplessy & Sachin-Jigar)
While Fanny re, with its whimsical sound is a good listen, no doubt, it is Sachin-Jigar who rule the soundtrack with their lone song, Shake your bootiya. The hyper energetic bossa nova song is a total earworm!

Maps, It was always you, Sugar, Leaving California, New love, Coming back for you, Feelings & Shoot love – V (Maroon 5)
Maroon 5’s new album, V, is comfort food. The sound is very Maroon 5, with little change into anything different, though there are occasional deviations to sound a little like other artists. The sound is uniformly likeable. It Was Always You, in paticular, is a song that I thought had a distinct Indian’ness to it – something very R D Burman and a bit more melodic than the usual pop/rock song.

Thaane pookkum & Kayethum doorathu – Sapthamashree Thaskaraha (Malayalam – Rex Vijayan)
There’s something really fresh about Thaane pookkum’s entire package, not to mention Job and Saptaparna’s vocals. Sushin’s singing does the magic in Kayethum doorathu – Rex’s music is consistently inventive and layered across this soundtrack. It’s time Rex made his move into the more lucrative markets like Tamil and Telugu.

Vaddi, Run for money dude & En moochum – Burma (Tamil – Sudharshan M Kumar)
Sudharshan’s composing debut is not earthshakingly new or different, but he does really well withing commercial and established parameters, with a generous sprinkling of styles of other composers like Anirudh and Dharan. My favorite is the so-Anirudh’ish En moochum venaam – that hook is something I’d have guessed as belonging to Anirudh if I had not known the composer’s name.

Mazhakatha, Kukkuru kukkuru, Sundari penne & Title song – Oru Oorla Rendu Raja (Tamil – D.Imman)
Imman strikes it rich, after the middling Sigaram Thodu (barring Takku takku). The biggest surprise is actress Laksmi Menon’s singing debut – what’s with these pretty Malayalee actresses who can also sing so darn well? Mamta Mohandas, Remya Nambeesan and now Lakshmi Menon! The other delight in this album is the title song that one can easily brush aside as conventional but for the super use of Shanmugapriya raaga. Ilayaraja has used this raaga to the hilt already and it feels good to see Imman digging it up again with a neat adaptation!
Listen to the songs on Saavn.

Dance Raja dance & Chombu chombu – Super Ranga (Kannada – Arjun Janya)
Dance Raja dance is solid fun. Upendra not only breezes through the vocals, but the tune itself seems oddly suited to his style! Chombu chombu is Vijayprakash’s show – the man is fantastic in his casual, stylish rendtion!

Merise merise – Paathshala (Telugu – Rahul Raj)
With its Enigma-like electronic sound and easily likeable soft and simple tune, this is the soundtrack’s best.

Peecha raja & Rakkhad – Bey Yaar (Gujarati – Sachin-Jigar)
The first Gujarati film soundtrack I have listened to, if I recall right! Thankfully, the duo doesn’t treat the soundtrack with any specific care to include Gujarati’ness to it – the songs could have been in a Hindi film too and given their universla sound they appeal easily.

Enthu cheiyyan & Po mone dinesha – Peruchazhi (Malayalam – Arrora)
Navin ‘Arrora’ Iyer is back, but this time in Malayalam. Enthu cheiyyan is my favorite from the soundtrack, but I have a special corner for Po mone too since, for reason, it reminds me of Bachelor Party’s Kappa kappa, one of my favorites.

Aye Mr.Minor, Yaarumilla, Sandi kuthirai & Vaanga makka – Kaaviyathalaivan (Tamil – A R Rahman)
Despite the messed up genre timeline (creative licence?), this is still a thoroughly enjoyable soundtrack. Sandi kuthirai is my personal favorite – Haricharan’s vocals and a free-flowing tune that sounds like Rahman winking at his listeners and asking them to let loose and have fun… super stuff!

Yaen ingu vandhaan – Meaghamann (Tamil – Thaman)
The best of the soundtrack, sung fabulously by Pooja, and imagiantively penned by Madhan Karky, from the point of view of the woman, including the killer, ‘Kodiya kodiya valigalai kooda, pidikka seidhaane’. That’s one heck of a line explaining you-know-what in the most graceful manner!

Sarasa sarasaro & Maayamo – Rasam (Malayalam – Job Kurien)
Sarasa sarasaro seems to me like the Malayalam equivalent of Ilayaraja’s iconic song from Unnaal Mudiyum Thambi, Enna samayalo. Totally enjoyable and perhaps makes you hungyru too! Mayamo is my favorite from the album, though – Job’s immersive singing apart, some of the repetitive phrases are superbly composed and imagined! This man should compose more!
Listen to the songs on Saavn.

Ziddi dil, Chaoro & Sukoon mila – Mary Kom (Hindi – Shashi Suman & Shivam Pathak)
A surprisingly good soundtrack from the debutants – I’m glad that Indian Idol finalists are actually getting decent work, and even better, they chose the highest form of task in the music ecosystem – composing (in my view). Need to point out that Hungama and BollywoodHungama have mentioned Sukoon Mila’s composer as Shashi Suman that even reviewers like Rajiv Vijayakar have assumed that Shivam has only one song in the album. Zee Music has clearly mentioned the 2 songs composed by Shivam in their YouTube jukebox, so I wonder where this confusion started from.

Mehboob ki – Creature 3D (Hindi – Mithoon)
Mithoon’s move into templatized zone is most depressing. His music had reached a rut with his long-named private album, but his come back into films, after a break, seems to be no better. This is the lone track that had me mildly excited that all is perhaps not lost.

Dhoomapanam – Galipatam + Dhanak dhanak, Prati chinukulo & No mistake – Ala Ela (Telugu – Bheems)
As I have mentioned earlier, I see Bheems as a good replacement for the now-inactive Mani Sharma (for what reason, I do not know!). The music has a similar commercial confidence!

Takku takku & Pidikkudhae – Sigaram Thodu (Tamil – D.Imman)
The one song that I really liked in this soundtrack is Takku takku – it is simply that kind of instantly likeable song. Pidikkudhae is a slow burner, and because Madhan wrote Takku takku, I assumed he was behind Pidikkudhae too when the line, ‘Anbe un kaigal theenda, Hormongal moongilaaga, sangeetham padikkudhae…’. But alas, this song had lyrics by Yugabharathi!

Ee mazhayithalilente – Teens (Malayalam – Viswajith)
The song, and the composer, I completely missed. I’m ashamed of so thoroughly missing a composer – a good one at that. This song is an absolute killer – something I was glued to for a week!

Penne penne – Irumbu Kuthirai (Tamil – GV Prakash Kumar)
Hats off to GV Prakash KUmar for being so open and vocal about his love for Pasta, an Italian dish, instead of singing about, say Idli or Dosa. But seriously, it is beyond shocking to see a Tamil Nadu born composer singing PeNNe as Penne, right in the first line and all through the song. If he himself is so callous about pronunciation, I shudder what he tells his singers. The song’s tune is a fantastic, though, the only reason why it is being added in this list.

Rakaasi – Rabhasa (Telugu – Thaman)
I had no idea that Junior NTR can sing. Or, it is perhaps the fact Thaman can make just about *anybody* (or anything) sing, thanks to technology. It’s a catchy no doubt, though heavily digitally processed.

Aathadi yenna solla, Usure nee & Aanandha thendral – Mahabalipuram (Tamil – K)
Aathadi yenna solla, if I had no idea K was the composer, would be Imman’s, in my head. The tune is straight off Imman’s head, but those backgrounds completely take on a different pattern, where Imman would have loaded it with a punchy folk rhythm. K, of course, picks up from his trademark strings background that he is so known for, and in the process creating a brilliant song. Usure nee is more like K’s own song from Aarohanam – the kind of song that I keep humming inside my head for a very long time! Shaktishree, for some reason, sounds so much like Chinmayi, in this song! Aanandha Thendral sounded to me like S A Rajkumar 2.0 – the family chorus song template is intact, but K adds an interesting flourish to it to make it a lot more enjoyable!

Aetti enga pora – Vanmam (Tamil – Thaman)
This song has all the hallmark of a Yuvan-Vishnuvardhan song, but this one’s Thaman’s! The ambient sound is present, as is the digital modulated voices, but given the tune is thoroughly engaging, those are minor quibbles.

En nenjil – Naaigal Jaakirathai (Tamil – Dharan Kumar)
A lovely boy-band’ish ballad, sung beautifully by Naresh Iyer and backed by a perfectly managed harmony/chorus.

Aaja saroja – Aagadu (Telugu – Thaman)
Thaman could have done anything in the backgrounds of this song, but he chooses a Pachai nirame (Alaipayuthey) style sound that adds significant value to the tune!

Engine ki seeti, Baal khade, Maa ka phone & Preet – Khoobsurat (Hindi – Sneha Khanwalkar)
Khoobsurat, if you ignore that one song by Badshah (why do producers insist on adding that one song by another composer? Some mythical belief about ‘saleability’? Is Badshah salebale at all?), is Sneha having riotous fun! The sound is vibrant and very Sound Trippin. Maa ka phone embodies that trippy outlook the best! Preet is the delightfully sober odd one out, headlined by brilliant singing by Jasleen Kaur Royal!

Odura nari & Nalla kettuka paadam – Aadama Jaichomada (Tamil – Sean Roldan)
A bit muted Roldan here, but his trademark sound is more or less identifiable and enjoyable… just that it is lesser than the earlier soundtracks. Odura nari is my favorite!

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