Tunes Weekly is excited. You know why? The independent music scene in Kerala is getting brighter by day. We already have a good number of established Kerala-based bands (or bands with Keralites), and the vast treasure trove of talented young musicians, who dare to experiment, will only make it bigger and better. This promising trend is nourishing the film music industry too, with composers welcoming fresh talents to collaborate with them and filmmakers asking them to produce a tune for movie soundtracks.
And, this edition of Tunes Weekly, featuring the top five songs of last week, starts with an indie song.
Firefly (When Chai Met Toast)
They call their music happy, and Firefly, the first single of the Kochi-based band 'When Chai Met Toast', justifies that wholesomely. The song takes off to a smooth start with Ashwin Gopakumar leading the vocals. The banjo, guitar and percussion pitch in and they all add to the said happiness quotient. The song makes you smile every time the band goes for a punchy ‘hey’. Ashwin, backed by others on the vocals, sounds neat as ever. Banjo is an instrument that can be branded 'cheerful' and Achyuth Jaigopal brilliantly keeps its sounds in the forefront throughout the track to great effect. The delightful celtic-folk streak that runs through the song right from the beginning literally puts up a happy signboard. Play this one and watch the video of them performing, for their energy and smiles are infectious.
Remo Nee Kadhalan (Remo)
Composer Anirudh Ravichander has come a long way from his 'Kolaveri Di' identity. Remo is his upcoming Tamil soundtrack in which he is teaming up with his actor pal Sivakarthikeyan again. Anirudh employs some quirky, rhythmic beatbox to grab our attention and packs a punch right from the beginning, as he edges on to a highly catchy ‘Ivan ava thaan’. The pakkamelam that accompanies the ‘Remo nee kadhala’ portion helps the song maintain a fine balance. With Vignesh Shivan’s minimal lyrics that go on repeat mode, Anirudh pumps up the energy in the neatly packed song, composed and sung by him, with a dynamic chorus giving him the right backup.
Manogatham Bhavan (Anuraga Karikkin Vellam)
Anuraga Karikkin Vellam is the talk of the town. The movie is going strong despite the Kabali mania and it has a quality soundtrack set by Prashant Pillai to boast about. The best song of the album is ‘Manogatham Bhavan’, where the composer makes good use of his Carnatic and Western music knowledge to produce a lovely tune. Mathangi and Haricharan sound effortless in the rendering, and the former is just brilliant. Prashant adds a fine layer of saxophone to go with the track that is sure to melt hearts. It is not an easy task to make fusion music work, however, the composer scores high with the blissful ‘Manogatham Bhavan’.
Sindhu Ma (Mohenjo Daro)
Is ‘Sindhu Ma’ in Mohenjo Daro an extended version of ‘Tu Hai’ from the same film, or is ‘Tu Hai’ a shorter version of ‘Sindhu Ma’? We can say both, I guess. ‘Sindhu Ma’ is longer by nearly 2 minutes and that extra portion has Rahman putting to good use the composer’s liberty by letting the fabulous Sanah Moidutty open the song. Rahman has a few freewheeling lines for himself before the singers get to ‘Tu Hai’, the song in the song. The music director has kept it all Indian, going with the theme of this period film set in 2016 BC and he ends the track on a grand note, calling in the choir.
Rasaali (Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada)
‘Rasaali’ is not all that latest, one might say. The A.R. Rahman song was released online quite a while back, but Tunes Weekly could not afford to miss it, as it is such a wonderful composition. The song is strong on its classical music elements but there's so much more to it. When you listen to it repeatedly, you will start noticing more, as is the case with most Rahman numbers. The singers—Sathya Prakash and Shashaa Tirupati—are splendid. The song’s highlights are the Carnatic violin solo before the anupallavi and the ‘Ninnukori’ portion by Shashaa before charanam. If you have not listened to this gem, do it now.
Bonus track
Now that you have listened to Rasaali, let me lead you on to a funny take on the song. How different would it be had another popular composer from Tamil composed Rasaali? You might easily guess that composer. Here’s the disclaimer by the creative mind anyway: Disclaimer: this is a light hearted take on the original song by A.R. Rahman, whom I worship, and is not intended to offend the sentiments of either ARR fans, Woody Allen fans or anyone else.
Have fun ☺
