Rahman channelizes his sweeping patriotic template to a motivational song in Nenjae ezhu – adequately impactful. Innum konjam is absolutely hypnotic – splendid vocals by Vijay and Shweta! Naetru aval gets its sound right, but the rambling tune doesn’t help, while Enga pona is Shakthisree and Keba’s show all the way! Sonapareeya, despite the foot-tapping [...]

How would you react if a man wearing a black robe with hood and just a hole in the place of face (with light streaming through the hole!) came to you and gave you a curious looking box? I’d personally freak out and swat that creature with anything that is handy. But kids in Rahman’s [...]

Chithirai nila is a serene opening, powered by wonderfully hopeful lyrics by Vairamuthu, adorned with imaginative background changes and ending on an anthemic high! Sid Sriram powers Adiye with supreme confidence – of course, the song itself is perhaps the first ever old school Gospel style in Tamil and it blends brilliantly with Karky’s lyrics. [...]

Challa is every bit Rahman as far as the free-flowing, slow-burning tune is concerned, despite the Punjabi, and the phonetic similarity of the key word to Rabbi’s Bulla; Keba Jeremiah’s guitars work almost like the 2nd voice in the song! Saans, the possible mouth-to-mouth resuscitation anthem, sees Rahman performing the challenging task of straddling his [...]

Pyaasa-style existential questions, in Rahman’s vocals, rule Kya hai mohabbat, while Dost hai goes full-on hip-hop to retain just one hook from the original. Hosanna, Phoolon jaisi and Sunlo zara are, at best, boy-band’ish pop, but Rashid Ali does elevate the last one, even as it is mauled by inconsistent interlude upgrades. Sharminda hoon‘s lyrics [...]

Phir se ud chala’s tune almost feels like a free-form flight, beautifully accentuated by Mohit’s vocals, George Doering’s mandolin and a literal take-off half-way into the song. Jo bhi main and Sadda haq offer anthemic tunes – the former with a moody rock base and the latter as a bombastic, angst-laden outburst with particularly expressive [...]

While the presence of Bob Marley’s son – Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley – may have added some reggae, Miracle Worker surprises by going wholly reggae. The result is a Peter Andre-Mysterious Girl-like frivolousness. Rahman adds a few carefully placed Hindi utterances in the Radio Mix. Satyameva Jayathe works better, though there seems to be a [...]

“The film has a story that can be summed up in one sentence on the back of an envelope.” Next time you see that sentence or its cousins and nephews in a film review, mentally kick the reviewer. The truth is, most films’ stories can indeed be written in a sentence on the back of [...]

With a definite, but mutated fusion reggae sound and dew fresh vocals by Minmini, Chinna chinna aasai doesn’t sound like anything one has heard before in Tamil film music. Vairamuthu’s lyrics, in particular, is a captivating word play on the ‘aasai’ theme, while the composer makes a lovely uncredited vocal appearance mid-way. Rukkumani rukkumani opens [...]

Rahman’s three openers, The Canyon, Liberation Begins and Touch Of The Sun are situational, but what follows is sheer magic! Liberation In A Dream goes beyond its predecessor, while its successor, Liberation soars brilliantly; the kaleidoscope of sounds is enchanting. The splendid Acid Darbari is marred only by occasionally synthetically repetitive vocals, while R.I.P makes [...]