(I personally am quite excited about the movie for one reason. Actor Karthik is back with Mani Rathnam and I am curious to see how the master director has used him this time. They have come together twice before this. Once in Agni Natchathiram and before that in the probably the role of Karthik's career, in Mouna Ragam)
Now on to the music.
The album released on T-Series has six tracks.
1. Beera: The song is already catching up, thanks to the 40 sec teaser on air. The song begins with arrangements and rhythms that sound very african. Quite catchy and rendered well by Vijay Prakash and Mustafa Kutoane, its short by bollywood standards at 3.15 and ends ubruptly I thought. I am sure we are gonna listen to this a lot in the days to come.
2. Behene De: Sung by Karthik (not the actor), this song reminds one of a lot of ARR's past works, from Satrangi Re of Dil Se to Ni Main Samajh Gayi from Taal. Karthik does a good job. One for the charts this. Good listen despite the familiar tune.
3. Thok Di Killi: Have he heard something similar recently? Jai Ho? May be I am wrong. But quite a let down this one. Gulzar's lyrics are the only strong point of this racy number("Sadiyon se chalta aaya hai, Oonch neech ka lamba kissa, Ab ki baar hisaab chukaale, cheen ke le le apna hissa"). Sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Am'nico.
4. Ranjha Ranjha: Sung by Javed Ali and Rekha Bharadwaj (with additional vocals by Anuradha Sriram), this track begins well but meanders a lot towards the end and makes you feel may be its a tad too long (close to 6 mins). Again nothing really fresh about this song. Picturization save this.
5. Khili Re: Now, this song by Reena Bhardwaj (remember Baba.. Kichu Kichu Thaa?) is my pick of the album. A easy flowing track which is lilting all through. Simple arrangements (watch out for the melting flute, so reminiscent of ARR) and nice lyrics are the highlights of this one. Reena is brilliant.
6. Kata Kata: This song celebrates the "aakhri raat kunwara". Sung by Sapna Awasthi, Ila Arun and Kunal Ganjawala this again has nothing new to offer. Especially the rendering of "Kanya Ko Bulao" is quite irritating. Quite a placid track.
I would rate this right at the bottom of all his work for Mani Rathnam. I have heard people say that ARR's work catches up after a few listens (I personally do not agree. I liked everything about Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya right away, on first listen). If at all this sounds any better in the days to come (after the tamil audio also comes out) I will not hesitate to say so. But as of now I am not quite excited about the album except for Khili re.
