Originally published in The Hindu.
Man meedhu – Parandhu Sella Vaa (Tamil – Joshua Sridhar)
Joshua Sridhar, who made music for the little known Tamil film ‘54321’ in 2015, is back with Parandhu Sella Vaa that seems more likely to release (given that it stars a star-son—Nasser’s son). And the composer shows that his music is still eminently listenable. The pick of the album is Man meedhu, a simplistic but lilting melody accentuated by Rajesh Krishnan’s—a decidedly more popular singer in Kannada, where Joshua Sridhar found a lot of work, and success, during his non-Tamil sojourn—singing, sounding like a younger SPB, and Na.Muthukumar’s lyrics eulogising women with the choicest verse.
Tuk tuk – Sultan (Hindi – Vishal-Shekhar)
That Salman Khan is a man of many talents is universally known already, given his acting and driving skills. A recently added skill happens to be singing, propped no doubt by innovations in digital voice correction. So, he has already sung—or re-sung—Sultan’s title song, Jag ghoomeya, 440 volt and Baby ko bass pasand hai’s Punjabi version. One song from the sprawling album he may not re-sing is Tuk tuk, a lively and highly rhythmic number featuring fantastic vocals by Nooran Sisters, and Vishal Dadlani’s rap. The punchy rhythm kicks after an extended—lasting over a minute and a half—prelude, and the funky package includes a dash of aptly added dubstep too.
Alli billi – Right Right (Telugu – J.B.)
That very dependable and under-rated Telugu composer, J.B. strikes again in Right Right’s Alli billi! The rhythm is so very Telugu – gently and wonderfully lilting. J.B. gets singer Hymath to handle the soft melody amidst generous strings, marred only by the seeming overuse of digital voice correction. The way the composer adds two different pitches of the ‘Alli billi’ line (Vaane vaane kannulona, and Thene thene mabbulona, in another pitch) is mighty charming, as are the beautifully imaginative interludes.
Muddu pori – Sipaayi (Kannada – Ajaneesh Loknaath)
Ajaneesh Loknaath seems to be surely on his way to usurp Arjun Janya’s position as Kannada film industry’s busiest composer. The comparisons don’t end there – both Arjun and Ajaneesh are blessed with not-so-enjoyable voices that they love flaunting, as if not getting the message. But they both make it up with really likeable tunes, as is evident in Muddu pori in Sipaayi, in Ajaneesh’s case. Middling vocals by Ajaneesh, but the melody is as good as it gets – thoroughly sing-along’ish and immediately pleasant.
Hrudayama – Oka Manasu (Telugu – Sunil Kashyap)
Veterans like Ilayaraja have exploited Carnatic raaga-based melodies in the Southern film music so much that when relative newbies like Sunil Kashyap arm their songs with some of these raagas, it seems rather derivative, unfortunately for them. But, Sunil really does a great job employing Kalyani raaga in Hrudayama, and ensures that it is sung well, by Vijay Yesudas and Swetha Mohan. The question of being derivative is unfair, given that these are carnatic raagas that can be used by anyone, but you can’t shake your memories heading back to Thalapathy’s Sundari kannaal oru and Pudhukavithai’s Vellai pura ondru.