Minor Scale

Disclaimer: The fact that I’m a Rajini fan could have possibly marred the objectivity, if any, of this review.

Devuda Devuda - SPB

The all-important intro song of the Superstar welcomes you with fancy fanfare and even while the words Deja Vu, Rahman & Muthu are running through your head, SPB, in his new Bhangra avatar, interrupts your thoughts with excited Arrey Arrey Arrey’s. Peppy rhythms take over and SPB takes a break at the AP-TN border, on his way down from Jallandhar, and launches into Devuda Devuda Ezhumala Devuda. (I had written some lyrics couple of years back, in a fit of sheer boredom, the chorus of which went, Devuda Devuda Thala-ezhutha Maathuda. I thought they were quite inane then, but looks like a copyright notice for the Devuda Devuda part wouldn’t have been a bad idea). So anyway, at this point, the rhythm, which for a few seconds borrows its peppiness from ‘Khaai Ke Paan’ from Don, soon loses the dholak sounds, gathers some bass & strings, and lets SPB take over. The Bhangra influence is undeniable in the chorus, but somehow SPB annuls the effect to some extent and makes you realize what a bad idea it was to have Shouter Mahadevan, blowing his raspberries, sing for Rajini in the Baba title song. The interludes are a formality as it makes way for the deluge of philosophical nuggets that typifies the saranam of a Rajini intro song. Appreciation for the sanitary workers, barbers, dhobis rounded off by a Pattukottai reference lead you into the next interlude that’s mostly a lot of uh-ing and jungle beats gone crazy. More thoughts for the day in the second saranam and the song finally reaches an energetic conclusion. The song is almost a pastiche of former Rajini ‘beat’ songs whereby you get a whiff of Muthu, Baba or even Ejamaan. But then, does one really judge a Rajini intro song by only it’s musical quality?! If the song can serve as a crystal ball into the near future where you can see the man make the camera pan in dizzy circles as he walked around dealing out his nuggets, hugging the very happy people around him, and make a few nifty dance moves, then it’s all good. And to that extent, Devuda works, even though I was left with a nagging thought that maybe Vidyasagar could’ve done better. In any case, I might not be playing this after Chandramukhi has come & gone, but until then, Rrrrepeaatt-u. {5.5/10}

Konja Neram - Asha Bhonsle, Madhu Balakrishnan

A short, but lovely intro marks the beginning of this duet until an old and tired Asha Bhonsle queries if you wanna konjify for konja neram. Um, well, with that voice Ashaji, memories of my dead granny konjifying me as a kid is all that came back to me. But seriously, why Asha? Who wants to listen to a has-been, Hindi singer’s tremulous rendition of a Tamizh song? In fact, she even manages to offset Madhu Balakrishnan’s singing, thereby effectively ruining the song for me. The only bright spot in the song was the decent interludes, especially the beginnning of the second one with strings, flutes & the piano working off each other pleasantly. One has to admit that it is a very decent tune, but alas, afore-mentioned reasons will never have me listening to the song again. {4.5/10}

Athinthom - SPB

If, 30 seconds into this song, you grabbed the CD cover in a knee-jerk reaction to check to see if Ilaiyaraja was collaborating on the album, then I don’t blame you. And it’s not just the thavil/naadhasvram combo, popularized in Karagaatakaaran, but the entire song that makes you think this way. If this was Vidyasagar’s idea of a Raja tribute, then it almost works. SPB, with effortless singing, once again proves why he is the best, and when he caresses the words like he does when singing Mottu mottu, mella mella, mettu mettu, I found myself asking, for maybe the millionth time in the past 7-8 years, “Why is this man not singing as much as he should?” Anyway, this will be my favorite song in the album, for more reasons than one. {6/10}

Kokku Para Para - Rajeswari, Tippu, Manicka Vinagayam

A crescendo of beats lead into a flute piece, a catchy beat and one of the cleanest voices to grace Tamizh music in recent times. Rajeswari begins singing Kokku Para Para with much aplomb, confident in her pisiru-less voice to tackle this fun song set in somewhat higher notes. (Does anyone know who she is?Classical singer taking a shot at playback?). The chorus singing Idhu Pattaiya Kalappura Pattam, Superstar-u Pattam Nam Pattam is a nice touch, giving you an insight to the possible picturisation of this song. The saranam brings about a slight change in mood as also the rhythm with a hint of the tabla. Tippu & Vinayagam also make their entries with the former sounding much better singing these type of songs. In any case, Rajeswari continues to impress in the song and hopefully she’ll be seen more in the future. Overall, a very likeable song that is worthy of more than a listen. {5.5/10}

Raa Raa - Binni Krishnakumar, Tippu

Considering the movie is a remake of the Malayalam thriller, Manichitrathaazhu, this song must be the equivalent of the very effective Oru Murai Vandhu Paarthaaya. The original had Shobana dancing, rather eerily, to the song and the Tamizh version is thus also set to a predominantly classical base. The intro runs almost to a minute before Binni Krishnakumar, who sounds suspiciously like Sujatha, begins singing the all-out Telugu song. I read in some discussions that it is set in a rare raaga, even though I never sensed the freshness that would normally be associated to a song set in a rare raga. This song will always be subject to comparisons to the original which suggested the inherent rage of the character, whereas Raa Raa ends up sounding like a mushy love song. Maybe that’s how it is intended for this movie, but I find that hard to believe inspite of not having watched the movie yet. The singing is good, and the lakalakalaka chant would hopefully have the desired effect while watching the movie. {5/10}

Annanode Paatu - Karthik, Kay Kay, Sujatha

Easily the one song that I know I’ll always safely skip to go back to Devuda Devuda. Kay Kay going “Oh Oh” & ‘Huh-Huh” made me wish I were a doctor who could prescribe some constipation medication for him. And the chorus is just horrid…Nagada Piece-u?? What the hell is that? And it’s sad that Karthik & Sujatha were invited to sing the worst song in the album. {2/10}

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 19th, 2005 at 10:49 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.