Milliblog!

Tere bin, featuring KK is uncannily like Pritam – very similar, up-tempo ballad. The remix is even more like a Pritam track! The title track sounds, at best, like fusion attempts of early 90s, while Khuda baksh and Mahi, featuring Krishna, are surprisingly straight out of a masala film’s judai situation! Thankfully, there is Meethi baatein teri and I believe – both carry brilliant tunes and spirited vocals + arrangements combination! Dummadum is an ever-impressive song – Bandish’s live version is high on energy! But for the last three tracks, this is a strangely sub-standard effort after a spirited debut.

Keywords: Christopher Powell, Desmond Powell, Adil Manuel, Bobby, Brennon Denfer, Ulrich S.N. Gomes, Deepak Nair, Robert, Sidhu

To be fair, I started watching A Sargunam’s debut, Kalavani, loaded with expectations. This was one film that was touted as a sleeper hit and got massively positive reviews almost everywhere.

So, it may be the expectations or the nature of the film’s screenplay – it was boring, for large parts.

That however does not mean the film was not good. I was expecting a Pasanga (at least going by many reviews that claimed the film was a curious combination of Pasanga and Nadodigal), but it turned out to be completely different. Merely having Vimal in the lead in a similar role doesn’t make this film a Pasanga. Or, merely having a kidnap scene doesn’t make this film a Nadodigal.

If I were to connect this film, I’d blasphemously do it, with Pandirajan’s second film, Aan Paavam.

The film has 2 really good ideas…nah, make it one and a half. One is Arikki LC112. The second (half) is the way it ends.

Barring these, there are no genuinely interesting scenes to sustain interest for 2 1/2 hours. The only thing that works big time is how it is filmed with rustic nativity. The characters and locations are so natural and earthy that you almost smell the paddy fields.

There are minor, genuinely brilliant scenes, sprinkled across the film. The way the director skips specific scenes to reveal only a part of the story or show it later, is an interesting technique that works very well at places. For instance, Vimal blackmails his mother and sister by aiming a brick at the TV, for money. That scene is almost meaningless, then. But, Sargunam gradually reveals its impact in the subsequent scene when Saranya attends Vimal’s father’s phone call from Dubai. The meaning manifests fully when the Dubai-based dad’s friend visits them, in their dilapidated house! That confidence in not revealing the entire point is commendable.

Or, take the scene where Vimal takes special care of the few paddy plants that the heroine plants in their field. It extends obviously, but the way Vimal’s dad guesses the affair is a subtle, beautiful touch.

The film is thankfully devoid of any violence, bloodshed or pointless bravado. Even the most volatile scene – where Vimal sneaks in a village fest to be close to Oviya – is handled very naturally.

The way the film ends is another touch that is vastly similar to Aan Paavam, in tone and not in any specific scene. The way Vimal uses his smart-alecky intelligence to diffuse the prevailing tension is something that Pandiarajan (or his guru, K Bhagyaraj) mastered back then.

But, all this is wrapped in a screenplay that goes on endlessly about predictable and repetitive scenes about Vimal and Oviya meeting in a paddy field or some other location nearby. Even the running joke with Ganja Karuppu gets stale after the first gag, though, it seems like the gag is repeated solely for use in the climax, as a crucial plot point.

It is perhaps to Pandiraj’s (of Pasanga) or Sasikumar’s credit that an otherwise decent effort like Kalavani pales in comparison – mind you, only in comparison. On its own, Kalavani is a watchable film for a lot of nifty and creative scenes that are peppered all over the film. It is just that they don’t add up to an entirely riveting film.

Beyond the controversy about assorted record labels rejecting her and the album-leak brouhaha ahead of its launch, Annie’s latest album is a surprisingly fine effort. The 3 melodic tracks, Kiya yehi piyar hai, To woh nahin and Listen do expose Annie’s rather limited vocal range in vocals but musically they are mighty good, particularly the first two. The rest is enthusiastically catchy and the ones that stand out include Ali Mustafa composed Zara zara, Bilal Saeed composed Vari vari and the Mahiya sound-alike Tu mera dil. This album is an intelligent effort to mask Annie’s below-average vocals with listenable tunes!

Keywords: Annie, Annie Khalid, Mahiya, Kiya Yehi Piyar Hai, Kya Yehi Pyar Hai

Paadhai’s second effort, Ranam Sugam, is interestingly packaged as a Musical Novelette! The music seems heavily influenced not by the man revered in the CD – A R Rahman, but by Yuvan and Dharan! Dharan-like songs Yaar ival and Thedi soru (Bharathiyaar’s!) work quite well, while in Kaadhal sollu, besides the Yuvan-like Kaadhal sollu portion, the lead singer struggles in the Bombay Jayashree style of singing. The lovely Veyyil mazhai is the pick of the album, while Neer yezhutha is a hilarious talkathon! Ranam Sugam is rough around the edges, but full marks for the creativity in format and packaging!

Keywords: Paadhai, Paathai, Ranam Sugam

With that Manisharma’ish Dolu dolu rhythm, Thannikulla is, vastly similar to Ilayaraja’s 1986 SPB classic, Pattu poove, from Naanun Oru Thozhilaali! Idhu thaan kaadhal is pleasant but is so templatized that it is boring. Mayanginen too uses Bharadwaj’s standard rhythms almost in a SA Rajkumar’ish way and it survives only because of its lilting tune. Sangu sakkara is filmy folk – the one that aims to sound authentic but ends up sounding silly. Vedha gosham muzhangave is where the composer goes creative, starting with the hymnal and moving on to catchy folk. Poor, staid overall effort from an out-of-form Bharadwaj.

Keywords: Akhil, Anusha, Bharadwaj, Nandhi, Nandi

Assorted trivia, in no particular order!

1. The first review on Milliblog was of A R Rahman’s Ah Aah (Tamil), posted on July 22, 2005. But, it was on July 17, 2005 that I first decided to start Milliblog!

2. In 5 years, number of soundtracks reviewed includes, Hindi – 345, Tamil – 293, Telugu – 72, Kannada – 45, Malayalam – 20 and 97 non-film musical albums.

3. 59 films too have been reviewed, much to my own surprise!

4. There are totally 62 reviews so far, in 5 years, that received 200 words!

5. The first soundtrack to receive a 200 word review was Yuvan Shankar Raja’s Pudhupettai. It was not by design – it just happened that I could not control the word count to 100 and decided to make an exception.

6. The composers who have got the maximum 200 word reviews,
- A R Rahman – 5
- Amit Trivedi – 4 (excluding soundtracks or albums where he was partly involved)
- Yuvan Shankar Raja – 3
- Shankar Ehsaan Loy – 3

7. Debutants who got 200 word reviews on Milliblog,
- Amit Trivedi, for his filmy debut, Aamir
- Piyush Mishra, for Gulal
- SS Kumaran, for Poo

8. The only 300 word review on Milliblog, of course, is Delhi 6. So far.

9. The first ever comment I got was from a user named Jacky, on my review of Rahman’s Mangal Pandey – this was the 2nd review on Milliblog.

10. If I were to recall one (only one) musical piece that I waited with bated breath to review, it would be Mithoon’s The Train. I remember getting really excited when I heard ‘Woh ajnabi’ in the promo.

11. The 2 albums that I’m most proud of reviewing based on the sheer exposure this little blog gave them – Raman Mahadevan’s Ramanasia and Thaalam, a Malayalam pop album.

12. From a personal experience, 2 composers who give the maximum bump to this blog’s page views – A R Rahman (obvious) and Yuvan Shankar Raja (not-so-obvious).

13. Posts which have got maximum comments (all 50+ comment posts, so far)
- Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (Tamil – A R Rahman) – 94
- Komaram Puli (Telugu – A R Rahman) – 87
- Raavan (Movie review) – 63
- Delhi 6 (Hindi – A R Rahman) – 60
- Raavan (Hindi – A R Rahman) – 58
- Radio (Hindi – Himesh Reshammiya) – 58
- Blue (Hindi – A R Rahman) – 54

14. The post I took maximum time to research and plan is ‘Ilayaraja in my life‘…one of my personal favorites.

15. The post I had maximum fun writing was the bizarro review of Ghajini…after I saw the frenzied responses to my original 100 word review where I had panned it.

16. The film review that gave Milliblog maximum exposure was the one for Love Aaj Kal.

17. The film reviews that I’m personally very, very proud of – Gwoemul (Korean, Joon-ho Bong) and Tempus Fugit (Catalan, Enric Folch)

If I were to look back at this eventful journey of sharing my opinions, I’d say I loved every moment I spent on it and will gladly continue to do it…forever.

Film music was treated with immense respect in India, back in the 50s, 60s and even 70s. It was a limited commodity back then and people had limited avenues to listen/enjoy it. The 80s and 90s opened the floodgates not only with the avenues for access to film music but also the overall output. Starting 2000 onwards, we had nothing but an explosion of film music where it has almost become commoditized.

I’ve had my share of collecting film music in cassette tapes and used to treasure them with great care. So, when I seem to treat with such nonchalance of writing 100 word reviews, it only means how far we’ve come. People can still talk of choices and how a 100 word review trivializes film music (even as I praise it no end), but the problem of excessive choice is not limited to film music alone. Almost everything nowadays offers us limitless choice and film music is no exception.

I lead a busy, fast-paced life and I wanted a source for knowing the kind of music I (personally) should listen to. I also wanted it to go beyond the 2 languages I know well – Hindi and Tamil, since I strongly believe that language should not be a barrier in enjoying music from your own country. If we Indians do not listen to our own country’s music, who else will?

The result of all the above was Milliblog.

Thank you for reading this blog! Let me do a summary of the 10 years of Milliblog in July 2015!

Anandh takes up rock and Indian’ness in equal measure with seasoned ease for the title song; Ronit’s lead vocals and the backing chorus are extremely effective. Mohit Chauhan’s Man lafanga is stuff of Vishal Bharadwaj’ish allure – breezy, guitary and delightful. With its folk-rock sound, Dhatad tatad is highly infectious, but it is Nain parindey that rules the soundtrack! Anandh’s tune is breathtaking and Shilpa’s vocals breathe life into it beautifully! Even the instrumental, Born to fly, is impactful, but Suraj Jagan’s Rang daalein takes its 80s pop/rock base too seriously and goes overboard. Welcome solo filmy debut by R.Anandh!

Note: Please stop wondering who R.Anandh is. He is one of the composing trio, AGOSH (Anandh, Gopal and Shaleen) who debuted in Malayalam, with Nirnayam. They went on to compose for films like Mazha peyyum mumbe (Malayalam), Shakti, Harischandra, Kodeeswaran (Tamil), Zor (Hindi) and Paisa (Indipop). And, I’m glad it took one adman-turned-film-maker (Pradeep Sarkar), to bring Anandh into films again. Anandh’s most popular composition is, of course, the Limca jingle!

Keywords: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Deepika Padukone, Piyush Mishra, AGOSH, Agosh, R.Anandh, Limca, Nok Jhok, Gopal Rao, Shaleen

Enjoy!

Oru maalai neram…neat flute phrases, but tedious tune. The pathos-laden Theivam illai…even more so! That leaves us with just two more songs in the soundtrack and that’s where Yuvan scores big time! Iragai pole is vintage Yuvan, if that word can be used for such a young composer! It has everything one expects from the man – his own vocals, extremely catchy rhythms and ambient backgrounds that make it memorably catchy. Vaa vaa starts off as a conventional tune, but Yuvan works his charm by making stupendous use of his hook, Vaa vaa kattalaam. Two super hit soundtrack, in essence!

Keywords: Yuvan Shankar Raja, Karthi Sivakumar, Kajal Agarwal

In true Indian Ocean tradition, the live version of Des mera manages to capture the band’s inimitable energy better than the re-adapted, recorded version! The band’s other contribution, Zindagi se is a fantastic combination of Pakistani poet N M Rashid’s lyrics and some scintillating music. Ram Sampath’s Raghubir Yadav-sung Mehngai dayain is no different – terrific lyrics that take a massive jab at the price rise, while keeping the tune beautifully rustic. Nageen Tanvir’s Chola maati seems like a folksy take on the Rahman style of filmy prayer – adequately devout and earthy. True-to-theme soundtrack that helps set the film’s tone.

Keywords: Indian Ocean, Raghubir Yadav, Anusha Rizvi, Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao, Ram Sampath, Peepli Live

Power Star is that perfectly exhilarating hero-intro track – it is racy, immensely catchy and a cornucopia of fascinating sounds all working in brilliant sync. Amma thale starts of as Swetha Mohan’s show as she skillfully traverses through seemingly tongue-twisting lyrics by Chandrabose. But then Naresh Iyer literally flows in with this portion and increases the enthusiasm quotient significantly! This is essentially a simple, tuneful song that gains by Rahman’s imagination in the way the lyrics are intonated. Maaralente is beautifully orchestrated, almost like an Andhra-version of Rahman’s iconic Vande Mataram, complete with his own peekaboo take on Maa Telugu Talliki. Rahman also chooses to bestow it with his soaring vocals for maximum impact. Maham Maye and Dochey is Rahman having fun – the former’s peppy nature is in major doses due to spirited vocals by Javed Ali and Suchitra , while the Gangsta Blues’ style (Slumdog Millionaire) Dochey rivals Power Star in the way it skillfully uses sounds to great effect. Namakame echoes strong traces of Bombay Theme; this harmonious, prayer-like tune even has Chitra’s humming adding a gorgeous layer mid way! Komaram Puli’s music is a heady commercial cocktail, with immediately likeable tunes dexterously constructed with brilliant packaging.

Keywords: A R Rahman, Pawan Kalyan, Nikhisha Patel, Komaram Puli