Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist.
Week 189: On Spotify | On YouTube
9 songs this week! All the songs are available on YouTube, while Spotify is missing one song – the one by Mejjo Joseph.
Phir Na Aisi Raat Aayegi – Laal Singh Chaddha (Pritam) – Hindi: Despite an underwhelming trailer, Pritam seems to have done his job really well for the film! After Kahani, this is yet another splendid melody from the man, once again supported amply by Arijit Singh! The melody’s simple structure and softly understated music work tremendously to its advantage.
Gaaye Ja – Sunny M.R., ft. Arijit Singh – Hindi/Indipop: It’s good to hear Sunny’s music again considering he finds assisting Pritam to be a more consistent work. This one fits perfectly within this fabulous Telugu music repertoire, including that captivating electric guitar by Ankur Mukherjee and an always unpredictable melody and music combo that remains consistently interesting all through. Arijit, of course, is the song’s highlight, with his delightful singing.
Gagan Dhuan Dhuan – B Prasanna, ft. Bombay Jayashri – Hindi/Indipop: Oh boy, what a surprise this was! Bombay Jayashri’s voice is fantastic, as always, and she has been handed a deeply melodic tune that she handles brilliantly! The bigger surprise is Prasanna’s music which goes far beyond merely embellishing the melody! There’s an almost Hollywood’ish flourish at places – whether such nuance was really needed for this melody or not is a different question, though. That it sounds amazing is what matters.
Main Jee Raha – Roposo Jamroom (Ana Rehman/Jam8 Studio, ft. Jazim Sharma and Shilpa Rao) – Hindi/Indipop: After the first single from Roposo Jamroom (Raah Dikha De – Mohit Chauhan, Asees Kaur) and looking at the impressive line-up of singers, I had assumed that the quality would be consistently good. That didn’t happen, sadly. But after 3 songs that did not work for me at all, I’m glad to hear one that does. The faux-sufi style sound has a strong whiff of Pritam’s music from the mid-2000s, but Ana Rehman’s tune holds on its own too, confidently. The singers carry it really well – Jazim is good, but it is Shilpa Rao who is the true star here!
Mittai Mittai – Anel Meley Pani Thuli (Santhosh Narayanan) – Tamil: I really, really wonder why doesn’t Vijay Narain get more songs to sing! The freshness he brings with his relatively less-heard voice adds hugely to the song’s appeal. Of course, Santhosh’s breezy melody is delightful too, particularly the way he introduces Karthika Vaidyanathan’s part in the charanam.
Adiye Adiye – Panni Kutty (K) – Tamil: I think it’s been ages since I heard new music from composer K. Panni Kutty’s soundtrack is interesting, but while the other songs did not work for me, this one does, almost effortlessly. A lot of that credit should also go to Haricharan, given his impeccably good singing and voice.
En Paathi Neethanadi – Mejjo Joseph – Tamil: Mejjo recreates his own 2019 Malayalam song ‘Kadhakal Neele’ while retaining Haricharan’s voice, but changing Shweta Mohan’s voice with Chinmayi’s. I can’t really choose between Shweta and Chinmayi given both are outstanding singers, but the Tamil version sounds as sweet as the original. The tune remains wonderfully warm and lush.
Natavara (Chiru Song) – Ante Sundaraniki (Vivek Sagar) – Telugu: I do understand that this song’s appeal is considerably more about the picturization and the cool 90s Chiranjeevi dance moves by the kids. But Vivek’s music also took me back, to some extent, to Anjali’s soundtrack (even the group dance filming)! And God, Mano’s voice takes one straight to that era!! 
Maayagange – Banaras (B. Ajaneesh Loknath) – Kannada: Despite the fact that the song has been released in 5 languages, let me pick the Kannada version given Ajaneesh’s roots. The tune too, despite being converted into so many languages, seemed distinctly Kannada in flavor to me. And it had the Ajaneesh trademark too in the kind of sweeping melody employed. But beyond the melody, the music sparkles with some electronic sounds.