Week 177: On Spotify | On YouTube
14 songs this week! All the songs are available on Spotify, while YouTube is missing one song because it is inside a jukebox – the short track from SebastianPC524! I have embedded the jukebox below.
Ik Tu Hai – Attack (Shashwat Sachdev) – Hindi: For a film about a supersoldier, the first single is so very soft and melodious! Shashwat’s song starts wonderfully with what seems almost like the seconds of a clock amplified in the background, wonderfully handled by Jubin Nautiyal’s singing and interspersed by Salman Khan on sitar. But at the 2-minute mark, the song takes on a brilliant rock sound amping up the song’s appeal too!
Kannaatti – Nooru Kodi Vaanavil (Siddhu Kumar) – Tamil: Siddhu’s tune is pleasant enough but it is Anand Aravindakshan’s singing that makes a tremendous difference and elevates the song significantly. When he delivers the ‘Kannaatti’ hook, it seems to be coming from deep inside his heart, with so much conviction!
Va En Thozhi – Ben Human (Indipop) – Tamil: I recall being impressed with Ben’s earlier singles in 2019 – Hey Zara and Single Superstar. In Va En Thozhi too, his overall sense of sound and melody makes a pretty engaging song, produced well by Max Ulver. The song felt like listening to an early-Harris Jayaraj song, and that’s a compliment.
En Kadhal – Andhagan (Santhosh Narayanan) – Tamil: So, after the Telugu and Malayalam remakes of Andhadhun, and the not-Andhadhun-remake Kannada film Sakath, here is the Tamil remake of Andhadhun that has a similar-sounding title too. Considering the hero is a pianist (a blind pianist, at that), there is a piano-led lead song in all the versions. In Hindi, it was Amit Trivedi’s Naina Da Kya Kasoor, a fairly ebullient song unlike what one may expect from a piano-led melody. The Malayalam version mirrored that approach, with Jakes Bejoy’s Munthiri Poovo. But the Telugu equivalent composed by Mahati Swara Sagar used a sweeping, classic filmy melody in Maestro’s Vennello Aadapilla. Santhosh’s Tamil version too goes with the Telugu idea – a deeply melodic, piano-led tune, unless a different song exists in the Hindi and Malayalam template in the soundtrack. Sid Sriram is his usual self considering the melody’s highs are perfectly made for his range.
Imaikkariye – Selfie (G.V. Prakash Kumar) – Tamil: When the song started with ‘Look into my eyes’, I was ready to give up on it, but GVP quickly changes track into the ‘En Uyire’ and ‘Imaikkariye’ phrases that take the song on a very different zone. That, and the anupallavi’s melody, sung by GVP, and then by Manasvini Gopal (charanam?) keep the song consistently likeable.
Nee Kanulalo Daagundaa – SebastianPC524 (Ghibran) – Telugu: What a shame that this song is just one-and-a-half minutes long! I would rate this as the soundtrack’s best song, next to Heli, that has been found to be way too similar to Jathikkathottam from Thanneer Mathan Dinangal. Anudeep Dev’s voice is fantastic, and Ghibran’s melody is the real winner here, with a deeply resonant sound that reminded me of Ilayaraja’s melodies.
Manasutho Choodaleni & Chinna Maata – Clap (Ilayaraja) – Telugu: The first interlude in Manasutho Choodaleni took me straight to Raja’s 90s repertoire, and for some reason, I started singing ‘Kurta maxiyum salwar kameezum sumandha pengaLe’ and I realized that the tune is also perhaps mildly connected. Also, for some reason, I liked the Telugu version more than the Tamil version – Raja’s age-withered voice, to me, did justice to the Telugu verse better. Chinna Maata too is on similar lines – evoked Raja’s 90s music a lot at least to me. The melody is lush and the rhythm too played contrastingly nice on top.
Mizhi Arikil – Veyil (Pradeep Kumar) – Malayalam: Pradeep conjures a film song that almost sounds like a meditative experience! The sparse sound—involving Pradeep’s voice and the keyboard, mainly—remains largely intact barring the higher-pitched singing in the middle. Long after the song is over, the ‘Yelelelele’ refrain continued to haunt me!
Sellamma – PS Jayhari, ft. KS Harisankar (Indipop) – Malayalam: PS Jayhari, who had a couple of impressive tunes in 2019’s Athiran, has a very listenable melody here. Harisankar’s singing is perfect and amps up that ‘Sellamma’ hook beautifully.
Tandanano – Maati Baani, ft. Shubha Raghavendra (Indipop) – Kannada: Maati Baani’s first single under their new Folklore series sponsored by Target (O Re Jiya) did not work for me despite the heady confluence of Konnakkol, Hindustani music, and Kannada rap. But their 2nd single in the series hits the bullseye… and how! Tandanano too has a Kannada element, but unlike the first single, this entire song is in Kannada! But true to the band’s musical ethos, they mix Kannada folk with Mariachi and the result is an exuberant song that is instantly likeable and danceable!
Goriye – Darshan Raval (Indipop) – Punjabi/Hindi: It’s interesting to see Darshan enter Guru Randhawa territory, with DJ Lijo in tow. The catchy song has spunk and is very easy on the ear, with Darshan’s always-engaging singing helping things even more.
Ranjhé – Ikky, Lavi Tibbi (Indipop) – Punjabi: Canadian musician Ikwinder Singh aka Ikky produces a high-energy Punjabi track that shines with its global musical outlook! If you listen only to the 40-second segment right in the middle of the song starting with the 2nd minute, you may think you are listening to an international pop track! But that’s the song’s success – it seamlessly fuses the wonderfully enthusiastic Punjabi verse to truly global-sounding music. The result is hugely enjoyable.
Ellulleri Ellulleri – Ram Surendar (Indipop): The Mavila tribal folk song has been used and reused many times in Kerala. Most recently, Justin Varghese produced a pulsating techno recreation of the song in Ajagajantharam. Ram Surendar’s version is aptly pulsating too but in a more conventional danc’y outlook, sung well by Durga Viswanath.
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