Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist.
Week 137: On Spotify | On YouTube
17 songs this week. YouTube doesn’t have the 5 individual songs from Maara, so I have added the full playlist. Spotify playlist has 16, and is missing only the latest song from Carvaan Lounge Tamil, Kunguma Poove.
Mawaali Dil – Shashwat Singh Ft. Nikhita Gandhi (Hindi/Indipop): A pleasant and easily likeable melody by Shashwat that he sings too, to great effect. Nikhita appears only towards the end, very briefly, but the overall package works well, with that captivating chorus’ish hook.
Theeranadi, Kaathirundhen, Unnaithaane & Oh Azhage/O Ajooba – Maara (Ghibran) – Tamil: Besides Yaar Azhaippathu and Oru Arai Unadhu, about which I wrote about in the Weeklies late last year (in November), I’m amazed at the quality of music in Maara, the Tamil remake of Charlie (which had stupendously good music by Gopi Sundar). In Theeranadhi, Padmalatha is stunningly good with her singing for the incredibly sweet melody! Ghibran layers the tune with a fantastic chorus to accentuate the effect.
Kaathirundhen took me straight to Raja’s Kaadhalin Deepam Ondru from Thambikku Entha Ooru, possibly owing to the Charukesi raaga usage. Ghibran’s melody is absolutely haunting and while this is Charukesi’s table stakes, the composer does a particularly lovely job in the anupallavi where it gets closer to the Raja song. Ananthu and Srisha Vijayasekar are so very good. Unnaithaane has such a strong whiff of Rahman’s early style at least in the way it begins, but Ghibran makes it his own eventually even in the short run-time by bringing the Yaar Azhaippadhu refrain.
In Oh Azhage (that also has a Hindi version, O Ajooba!), Ghibran’s nuanced orchestration comes to the fore the way it sounded to me in his period around Nayyandi. Both Benny Dayal and Yazin Nizar (in the Tamil and Hindi version, respectively) handle the soaring tune really well, marked by the ‘Adangaadha Kaatre’ (Jashn-e-zindagi hai) refrain.
Kaava Ulla Kalludi – Parris Jeyaraj (Santhosh Narayanan) – Tamil: Trust Santhosh to deliver a true-blue Gaana! The package is a tinge more modern than Deva’s bare-minimum authenticity, but it sounds effective overall. The lyrics by Asal Kolaar (who also sings it) and Rokesh is the clear highlight. It includes phrases like, “Indha gaanava like panna bell adi” indicating a YouTube bell icon!
Pakkam Neeyum Illai – Vivek-Mervin (Tamil/Indipop): Though there’s a tinge of Anirudh’s music, I found the duo’s new pop song closer to Salim-Sulaiman’s, for some reason. Very catchy and breezy, but with a hint of sadness all through. The music video is imaginative too, explaining why the sadness with an interesting twist!
Velli Nilave – Eeswaran (Thaman S) – Tamil: Eeswaran’s soundtrack (with 4 songs) is very, very Thaman, but I do not mean it in a good way. The tunes are way too familiar and the rhythm/beats/music too seems regurgitated. The only song that stood out for me was Velli Nilave with its melody ably backed by that techno sound that Thaman concocts imaginatively. ML Gayatri handles the tune very well.
Paadatha Pattellam – Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy, Dharan Kumar & Kunguma Poove – S.M.Subbaiah Naidu, Flute Navin (Tamil/Recreation): This Carvaan Lounge Tamil seems like a neat idea. After Vijay Antony’s Namma Ooru Singaari, here are 2 more Tamil classics recreated with chutzpah! Dharan’s breezy recreation of Paadatha Pattellam gains tremendously from U Rajesh’s Mandolin, and of course, the superb singing by Sathyaprakash and Nithyashree. In Kunguma Poove, Flute Navin turns the classic number into a brilliant dance-floor mix, wonderfully supported by Chinmayi’s and his own singing, besides the terrific flute bits.
Okey Oka Lokam – Sashi (Arun Chiluveru) – Telugu: A smashingly melodious song that gets almost everything right – the singer (Sid Sriram), the tune (a tantalizing combination of Kaadhal Rojave in the tune and Vennilave in the backgrounds, and many other songs that sound similar to it), possibly based on Kaapi raaga. Composer Arun Chiluveru has a winner here!
Padipoya – Alludu Adhurs (Devi Sri Prasad) – Telugu: DSP’s famous dependence on the rhythm helps him once again, in this charming song! His repetitive background rhythm elevates an otherwise standard melody, and Javed Ali too contributes to that, to a large extent. DSP does play his creativity well in the interludes too, particularly’s Manonmani’s Saarangi, and himself on the Banjo.
Sandalle Sandalle – Sreekaram (Mickey J Meyer) – Telugu: Aah, the joy of hearing Mickey deliver a gorgeously lilting Sankranti song, timed so well for the 2021 Sankranti! Lovely song, beautifully sung by Anurag Kulkarni and Mohana Bhogaraju handling the Sandalle hook.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHcxrX-Jrsw
Korameesam Polisoda – Krack (Thaman S) – Telugu: Thaman’s melody is nice enough and Ramya Behara singing makes it better, but truly stands out is Thaman’s use of Chennai Strings Orchestra in the backgrounds. The effect is almost akin to an Ilayaraja song.
Kinavil – Sumesh & Ramesh (Yakzan Gary Pereira & Neha S Nair) – Malayalam: The film’s first single was back in early March 2020 (Neeyum Njanum), before the world went haywire. Here comes the 2nd single when the world is finding its way back, gradually. Just like the first song, this one’s sung by Neha S Nair and Sangeeth too. The composing duo, Yakzan Gary Pereira & Neha S Nair, weave a dreamy melody that waltzes (literally, in the anupallavi!) along beautifully.
Shivali – AK vs AK (Alokananda Dasgupta) – Marathi: Of the 4 songs in the Netflix film’s soundtrack, the one that worked for me is this cracker of a Marathi song. This is Marathi kuthu handled really well, with a punchy, earthy background and energetic singing by Nakash Aziz.