Raavanan (Tamil)-Music Review-A.R.Rahman

As promised earlier, here is a quick look at the Thamizh counterpart of Manirathnam's Raavan, Raavanan.

Its always tricky to score music for multilingual flicks (without considering dubbing here) especially if the balance has to be struck between a North Indian language and a South Indian language. If the tunes are composed keeping in mind, say, the film in Hindi, it may end up sounding alien to a South Indian listener.

1. Veera suffers from the aforementioned. It sounded much better in the Hindi soundtrack.

2. 'Behne De' is 'Usure Poguthey". Its a double whammy for Karthik as he handles the song brilliantly in both versions. Vairamuthu's lyrics are good. "Indha olagatthil idhu onnum pudhusilla, Onnu rendu thappi poghum ozhukkathula, Vidhi solli vazhi pottaan manusapulla, vidhivilakkillaadha vidhiyum illa". Nice!

3. Kodu Potta sounded better in Thamizh than the Hindi 'Thok do Khilli'. A rebellious song with words like "சோத்துல பங்கு கேட்டா, எலையப் போடு! சொத்துல பங்கு கேட்டா, தலையப் போடு!", still gives me a heard before feel.

4. Shankar Mahadevan and Anuradha Sriram sing Kaattu Chirukki (Ranjha Ranjha). Anuradha is irritatingly shrill at places. I still don't like it much.

5. KaLvare KaLvare (Khili re)sung by Shreya Ghosal is mellifluous and still my pick of this album with typical Rahman style arrangements. Shreya continues with her rollicking form in Thamizh with another surefire hit here.

6. Kedaakkari: I found it quite cacophonic even when I heard it in Hindi. This one obviously cannot be any better. The lyrics are also quite mundane.

Overall, though ARR has managed to balance most of the tracks between Hindi and Thamizh decently, as I mentioned in my Hindi Review, the album itself is, personally, quite a let down (especially after VTV) from whatever the Mani-ARR combo have offered before (I am not even talking about the music in Mani's films before ARR stepped in).

Raavan-Music Review

The most awaited album of the year is here. Raavan (Hindi) by A.R.Rahman, for his mentor Mani Rathnam. The Thamizh audio is yet to reach stores. I will take it up separately.

(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.