The overall gaiety in Aaranne and its enthusiastic rhythm are instantly infectious! Aaro nee aaro has phenomenal vocals by Swetha and Yesudas for a sweeping melody, while Manjari’s Chimmi has really sweet, (Rahman’s) Uzhavan’ish orchestration! Reshmi’s Appaa is a serene, traditional solo with beautiful santoor backdrop, while her other song, Chalanam, gains completely from her [...]

Nee akaleyaano‘s soundscape is pensive, meticulously constructed and magical! V.Sreekumar’s vocals go along the fascinating orchestration beautifully, even as the tune goes way beyond conventional film song structures confidently. The prelude to Prayam is one of the best I have heard in recent times; it mixes jazz elements much like how Sandeep Chowta approaches massy [...]

Priyankari has all of Dharan’s trademark tactics – a gorgeously foot-tapping rhythm and fabulous arrangements, lovely vocals (including Mamta Mohandas’) and a simple, lilting tune – instant win! Ormathan has faint shades of Vinnaithaandi’s Anbil Avan…just in the overall feel, but is still an engrossing listen! Dharan repurposes his Sivi chartbuster, Neruppum, as Mizhiyil – [...]

Kizhakku pookkum has a heady mix of a rhythmic tune, scintillating vocals by Shreya Ghoshal and Sabri Brothers, among others and that brilliant Arabic (thanks: Raouf & Vino) hook at the right spots. Prithviraj uses his irresistible voice again in Njan, in a slow, lovely rap’ish tune, while the composer gets everything brilliantly right in [...]

If I were to sum up what went wrong in Raavan, it’d perhaps be, ‘Ramayan killed the Raavan star’. In other words, nothing is wrong with Raavan – the audience’s expectation of it being Ramayan’s retelling is the problem. There is enough intelligence pumped by Mani into this film but unfortunately the country is very [...]

Considering I’m already adequately impressed with Raavan, this is merely a set of random thoughts. Veera (Beera) is the least Tamil sounding song of all, but Mustafa Kataone’s African gibberish (it may have some real meaning in African, however!) assumes new meaning as if it’s in Tamil – almost like him singing, ‘Podangoyyan, appan…something’! Similarly, [...]

The highlight of Puthiya Mugham is Prithviraj’s vocals in Kaane kaane and the actor passes the singing test with flying colors – the suddenly soaring tune by Deepak too helps generously. The mellow, Charukesi-like Yedhukula murali is fabulously tuneful while Shankar Mahadevan completely rocks Picha vecha naal mudhal – a stunningly simple and imaginative tune, [...]

The musical highlight of the thoroughly enjoyable Malayalam original of this film, Classmates, was Vineet Srinivasan’s rendition of Alex Paul’s tune in Ende khalbile. While this soundtrack does not offer anything similarly moving, it still is a fairly good effort from Vijay Antony. Azhagai pookkudhe’s melody; the soaring friendship song, Nanbanai paartha and the short, [...]

The filmy rain song, Junile nilamazhayil is a very pleasant listen, despite the predictable, Vidyasagar’ish tune, while after that classically-inclined prelude, Thottu thottu degenerates into a catchy, but mundane pseudo-Punjabi number. Seyona is plain obnoxious and Priyane, beyond the likeable sound, sounds like a tacky Tamil song, made even more tacky. Kabadi kabadi is shockingly [...]

The ambient chants in Cheka cheka give way to a guitar-laden tune that is disappointingly routine, while the title song is all sound and is pointlessly stylish. Composer Vishwa redeems himself somewhat with the likeable melody in Aaja sakhi even as the other composer Sai Karthik offers a considerably better tune in Emo edemaina, a [...]