The music for this flick is composed by Ramesh Krishna (google tells me that there is a Kannada music director of the same name, but no further information is known) and Naga is the Director. Its anyone's guess that its supposed to be spooky thriller set in some haunted house (though the title sounds like some Mollywood flick).
But the unique aspect about this soundtrack is all the songs (3 full songs and 2 instrumental bits/themes) are composed in a single raaga/raagam. Quite an interesting approach considering the nature of the film!
Raagam Vasantha! Yes, this is the raaga that one will hear from start to finish in this soundtrack (I am not calling this a 'music review' for the simple reason that I am not familiar with the intricacies of the Raagas or its 'Janya' etc.). One song in this raagam I loved in recent times is "Kandaen Kandaen Kadhalai" from Karu. Pazhaniappan's "Pirivom Santhippom". This scintillating melody was composed by Vidyasagar.
Two of my all-time favorite songs by Maestro ILaiyaraaja, "Maan Kandaen" from "Raaja Rishi" and "Nil Nil Nil Badhil Sol" from "Paattu Paada Vaa" are other songs that I know in the same raagam. The latter, though it sounds very simple is quite a complex melody.
Coming back to the songs of Ananthapurathu Veedu..
1. "Chithira Vaanam's" pallavi sung by Karthik sounds almost like an extension of the aforementioned Vidyasagar melody, both in tempo and feel. Incidentally "Kandaen Kandaen" was also sung by Karthik alongwith Swetha Mohan (Daughter of singer Sujatha). The rap bits by Suchi (Mirchi Suchi) is where it takes a different color. Good listen nevertheless!
2. Nee Nee Innoru Thandhai: This song uses the voice/giggles of a child (Master Aryan, who acts in the film as well) quite nicely. Swetha Mohan gets to sing this alongside another star son Vineeth Sreenivasan. Vairamuthu's lyrics are interesting. The celtic piece in the 2nd interlude seems to be included to add some variety and avoid monotony. Works decently well.
3. Balram (Kaatrin Mozhi..) gets to sing "Thaaye", a pathos song with nice arrangements. The flute bit alongwith the wailing violins in the second interlude are quite striking.
The instumental pieces are functional and could make more sense with the movie.
Kudos to the director and music director for trying out something new here. I am not aware of any such previous attempts. Maybe Ramesh Krishna should have tried some different voices. Most of the voices (Karthik, Swetha, Balram..) featured are ones oft repeated by Vidyasagar and if you are unaware of the credits, there is every chance you might mistake this soundtrack to be by the latter.
All said and done this album works well for me, just for the experimental aspect involved.
You can listen to the songs from Ananthapurathu Veedu here.
You can listen to "Kandaen Kandaen" from "Pirivom Santhippom" here.
Vasantham all the way!
4 comments:
Interesting!
I am listening to these songs for the first time and based on my first hearing these are my observations:
1.'Chiththira Vaanam' gives the flavour of Vasanta in the prelude itself.However, the CharaNams and the interludes deviate a lot.That silly mirchy is of course a very big distraction.
2.'Nee Nee' seems to have a somewhat different start but except for the Pallavi-where the 'Thanthai' and 'Pillai' parts use alien swaras- some phrases in the first interlude, and a few phrases in the CharaNams- I do not find much of Vasanta here.Especially, the second interlude totally follows a different scale.
3.'Thaye Enge' has left me confused.It sounds a lot like Pantuvarali.But for that matter, even 'Andhi mazhai pozhigiRathu' sounds both like Pantuvarali and Vasanta.
In any case, a different attempt though I would'nt say it is a great album.
I would also recommend you to listen to 'Manmadha RagangaLe'(Bala Nagamma) where Vasanta makes an appearance as part of the ragamalika..
Thanks Raj..Valuable inputs!
Kiran says "'Ore kadal' has all the songs tuned in Shubhapantuvarali.
And from what I read seems even the background score is in Shubhapantuvarali"
Need to check this out..
Yeah..Wikipedia confirms the Shubha PantuvaraaLi concept of Ore Kadal, which is according to me one of Shyama Prasad's best, with stellar performances from Mammootty and Meera Jasmine..Music was by Ouseppachan.
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