Hello there, Tunes Weekly time. With earful of good music, it is a bit of a task to limit the week’s best to five, but short is sweet, we think. You may not find your current favourite track in here but we would be so glad if you happen to like a song from the list we put here in Tunes Weekly.
This week, we have two songs from Rahul Raj and one each from Vinu Thomas, Santhosh Narayanan and Sean Roldan. Of the five, two are lovely melodies and three are peppy numbers.
Enough said, let’s hear them.
Halli Sreehalli (Mudhugauv)
Rahul Raj is back with Mudhugauv after last year’s Kohinoor that featured the soothing 'Hemanthamen'. ‘Halli Sreehalli’, a song written on 'kiss' for a movie that has built its story around 'kissing'. The song is entertaining and Rahul Raj makes his intention pretty clear right from the beginning. The funky rhythm easily catches our attention and singer Chinmayi too gets in the groove, sets the path for Rahul Raj to sing the highlight of the song – the ‘Halli Sreehalli’ portion backed by heavy percussion. The nadaswaram is charming and Chinmayi has a Harris Jayaraj-ish ‘wowu wowu’ bit to render and it fits the song well. It is amusing to listen to her lines winding up on a high with a kissing sound. ‘Halli Sreehalli’ is fun indeed!
Oru Vela (White)
From the foot-tapping ‘Halli Sreehalli’, we move to the sweet ‘Oru Vela’, composed by Rahul Raj and sung delightfully by Sweta Mohan. The tune is simple where Sweta’s prowess and Rahul’s classy arrangement come to the fore to create a melodic atmosphere. After the soft pallavi, the composer sweeps us off our feet bringing in some gorgeous flute and violins in the interlude. ‘Oru Vela’ tells us how good a musician Rahul Raj is.
Muzhuthingal (Oru Murai Vanthu Parthaya)
Interestingly, and to great effect, composer Vinu Thomas makes use of some a cappella sounds in ‘Muzhuthingal’ throughout the song. Vineeth Sreenivasan is at his comfortable best and sounds effortless. The sassy beats too work big time in favour of the song which strikes a fine balance between peppiness and melody. The thavil that Vinu adds in the second interlude is superb value addition. ‘Muzhuthingal’ has a unique sound.
Chellamma (Joker)
In 2014, Santhosh Narayanan created magic with the music of Tamil film Cuckoo, that narrated the love story of a blind couple. Two years later, the director of the movie Raju Murugan makes his next, Joker, and hands over the music department to Sean Roldan, another brilliant musician and a buddy of Santhosh. The soundtrack is a gem and ‘Chellamma’ is the best pick. The track begins with K. Perumal singing a stirring ‘aalelumaalelum’ as Sean goes ‘toofan ke phoolka’ in Hindi. A brilliant Lalitha Sudha makes us feel the intrinsic agony and love within the lyrics through her voice as the song glides along. The song with minimal orchestration is heartwarming and wins over our hearts. Sean Roldan comes up with up an enchanting tune in ‘Chellamma’, give it a listen to feel the magic.
Kadhal Kappal (Iraivi)
The name Santhosh Narayanan is now synonymous with quality, earthy music. In Iraivi, he saves 'Kadhal Kappal' for him to croon. The highlight is his unique singing, which is propped up by harmonium and native percussion. 'Kadhal Kappal' is a typical Santhosh Narayanan number that can be easily liked.
