Songs and album credits at the end.

In interviews that Vineeth Sreenivasan and Hesham Abdul Wahab have given different media houses in the context of Hridayam, they mention that one of the primary reasons that they ended up working together in this movie is Hesham’s 2015 sufi album, Qadam Badha – which made me particularly happy because I quite liked the album (and reviewed it as well, back then) and have felt that it deserved a lot more credit. And quite fittingly, there are songs in Hridayam that come across as an extension of the album. The most obvious one being the composer’s take on Bulleh Shah’s Bas Kar Ji, wonderfully delivered by Sachin Warrier (and a fine chorus, of which there is a lot in this album). And then there is Manasse Manasse, the opening track of the soundtrack written by veteran lyricist Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri and delivered by Vineeth that kinda sorta feels like a spiritual successor to my favourite song from Qadam Badha, Sangeet Mera (they even seem to be both based on the lovely abheri raga), but with a more pronounced middle eastern influence (of which there is a lot in this album as well, courtesy the Istanbul Ensemble). An instrumental version of the song appears later, in the orchestral theme song played by the ensemble alongside Cochin Strings. Hesham’s mirroring of Manasse here extends even to the way the percussion kicks in – in Manasse it happens towards the end when Vineeth sings the classical notes, the theme too features tabla as Cem Ekmen replicates Vineeth on his duduk (big fan of his prelude solo for the track by the way). Continuing on the raga, the makers do a short, ambient adaptation of the most famous Carnatic composition in abheri, Thyagaraja Swami’s Nagumo. The choice of song bears additional significance here since, as the album notes mention as well (really appreciate this touch from the makers, trivia notes for each song), a popular adaptation of the song was featured in the 1988 movie Chithram that involved the parents of some of the key figures in this movie. I generally try not to compare covers, but in this case it is inevitable, and the singing by Arvind Venugopal in particular underwhelms a tad. What I did enjoy though is Punya Srinivas’s work on the veena. In fact I liked the Revival version more, where the composer mashes up elements from different songs of the album, and a second singer – Swetha Ashok – joins the proceedings. Actress Darshana Rajendran’s ad-lib rendition of Baawra Mann (Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi) in the 2017 film Mayanadhi had gained a lot of attention back then – in Hridayam she finally makes her playback debut, with a track incidentally named Darshana! Hesham himself leads the singing in this one, and Darshana’s echoing voice makes for a neat addition in the second half. My favourite thing about the song is the bass groove though, spruced up by the oud, baglama etc as it progresses. Arun Alat’s lines from Darshana get recycled in Sarvam Sadha that sees Srinivas behind the mic – nice to hear the man in Malayalam after long. The sarvam sadha refrain that is repeated almost throughout the song by Vineeth gives the song a prayer-like quality, even as it gradually builds up intensity. Felt a bit of Thattathin Marayathu throwback with this one.

In one of last year’s best soundtracks, Meenakshi Sundareshwar, a curious thing composer Justin Prabhakaran did with his vocal choice was employing the most senior singer to feature in the album, Sadhana Sargam, in a cameo of sorts, humming in the movie’s theme song. It’s not often one sees a veteran in that kind of a role. Not that it was any less effective, of course. Hesham does something similar in the song Minnalkodi, one of my current favourites from the movie (emphasis on current). The folk track is very Rahman-esque, the heavy percussion sitting well with the rainy metaphors in Kaithapram’s lines. Hesham, Sachin Warrier and Mohammad Maqbool Mansoor lead this song, but the surprise twist happens about halfway through the song, with K S Chithra playing chorus (she somehow sounds..younger here?)! Unlike Meenakshi Sundareshwar though, this is not the doyenne’s only appearance in the movie – Chithra gets a solo track in the form of Mukilinte, a gentle, soulful track much like the beauty she delivered in Malik last year. Composer keeps the orchestration quite minimal as well, letting the singer take the spotlight (learnt about an Arabic instrument called tanbur, thanks to this song). Onakka Munthiri kind of sits in the same zone as another wedding-themed song from Vineeth’s first movie, Changayi, except this one is better realised. Hesham composes this a cappella with a lot of charming folksy sounds, and even the words (written by Vineeth Sreenivasan) carry a very cutesy feel. Divya Vineeth takes the lead on this one, Vineeth and the chorus offering her solid support. Actor Prithviraj is roped in for Thaathaka Theithare, a song that is thematic of the college life that is central to the movie – one of his better renditions, but a regular playback voice would have worked better for this, I feel. Groovy song, that said. The movie’s longest track (Arike Ninna) goes to Job Kurian who dominates the song in his trademark style even as the composer goes experimental with the heavily electronic soundscape – particularly enjoyed the first interlude that has some nice flute-playing by Nikhil Ram. After Anoop Sathyan’s tribute to Chennai city in Varane Aavashyamundu two years back, Vineeth Sreenivasan decides that it is now his turn to do one (although Chennai Pattanam from Oru Vadakkan Selfie kind of counts as one as well). Kural Kekkudha is a Tamil song written by Guna Balasubramanian treated to a very catchy execution by Hesham. That it is Unni Menon singing (and whistling!) the track makes it an even better experience.  Finally my other two current favourites from the movie – Pottu Thotta Pournami and Puthiyoru Lokam. The former is a romantic piece with a delightful melody (based on durga/shuddha saveri raga it would seem) delivered to perfection by Sachin Balu and Megha Josekutty – that give-and-take in the second verse is splendidly done. And Puthiyoru Lokam is fabulous classical-pop fusion from the composer (think the dominant raga is mohanam, although I am not sure) that once again features two top class singers, Vimal Roy (debutant I think?) and Bhadra Rajin.

Hesham Abdul Wahab apparently always wanted to compose in a Vineeth movie, and that desire clearly shows in Hridayam. This truly is a labour of love from the composer – a multilingual, multi-genre treat. At a time when most Malayalam soundtracks do not last more than 15 minutes, a soundtrack of this length and diversity (quick hat-tip to Minnal Murali as well, on that note) is a welcome change to a music lover like me. Add to that the way this album has been packaged and marketed, feels nice to see this level of care compared to how a lot of movies do not even have their songs come out on time.

Music Aloud Rating: 4/5

Top Recos: Too many to name, but do start with Pottu Thotta Pournami, Minnalkodi and Puthiyoru Lokam 

Album Credits

Song: Manasse Manasse
Sung by Vineeth Sreenivasan
Lyrics by Kaithapram
Additional Vocals by Ayshath Safa
Strings by Francis Xavier, Josekutty, Herald Antony, Francis Sebastian,
Carol George, Jain Purushothaman, Danny John and Mariadas VJ (Cochin Strings)
Ney by Eyup
Duduk by Cem Ekmen
Daf, Bendir and Additional Percussions by Omer Avci

Song: Darshana
Sung by Hesham Abdul Wahab and Darshana Rajendran
Lyrics by Arun Alat
Oud by Selim Boyaci
Qanun by Onur Cicin
Duduk by Cem Ekmen
Baglama by Adem Tosunoglu

Song: Mukilinte
Sung by K.S. Chithra
Lyrics by Kaithapram
Tanbur by Adem Tosunoglu

Song: Onakka Munthiri
Sung by Divya Vineeth
Lyrics by Vineeth Sreenivasan
Additional Vocals by Suroor Musthafa, Sara Maria Rose,
Adwaith B Kumar and Amrutha KS
Vocal Percussions by Vineeth and Hesham

Song: Thathaka Theithare
Sung by Prithviraj Sukumaran
Lyrics by Kaithapram
Solo Trumpet by Trumpet Babu

Song: Minnalkkodi
Sung by K.S. Chithra, Mohammad Maqbool Mansoor,
Sachin Warrier and Hesham Abdul Wahab
Lyrics by Kaithapram
Additional Vocals by Suroor Musthafa, Sara Maria Rose,
Adwaith B Kumar and Amrutha KS
Davul and Stick Percussions by Omer Avci
​​​​​​
​​​​​​Song: Arike Ninna
Sung by Job Kurian
Lyrics by Arun Alat
Flute by Nikhil Ram

Song: Pottu Thotta Pournami
Sung by Sachin Balu and Megha Josekutty
Lyrics by Kaithapram
Zurna by Cem Ekmen
Guitars and Bass by Sumesh Parameswar
Saxophone by Nikhil Ram
Pumpkin Drums, Brushes, Udu and Shakers by Omer Avci

Song: Nagumo
Sung by Arvind Venugopal
Original Composition and Lyrics by Tyagaraja
Veena by Punya Srinivas
Mridangam by Kammath

Song: Puthiyoru Lokam
Sung by Vimal Roy and Bhadra Rajin
Lyrics by Kaithapram
Additional Vocals by Suroor Musthafa, Sara Maria Rose,
Adwaith B Kumar and Amrutha KS

Song: Sarvam Sadha
Sung by Srinivas
Lyrics by Arun Alat
Additional Vocals by Divya Vineeth and Vineeth Sreenivasan
Guitars by Nikhil Nair

Song: Kural Kekkutha
Sung by Unni Menon
Lyrics by Guna Balasubramanian
Whistling by Unni Menon
Additional Vocals by Swetha Ashok, Haritha Balakrishnan, Narayani Gopan,
Bharath, Sreejesh and Nandhagopan

Song: Bas Kar Ji
Sung by Sachin Warrier
Poem by Bulleh Shah

Song: Hridayam Theme
Performed by Istanbul Ensemble and Cochin Strings
Duduk by Cem Ekmen
Solo Violin by Francis Xavier
Strings by Francis Xavier, Josekutty, Herald Antony, Francis Sebastian,
Carol George, Jain Purushothaman, Danny John and Mariadas VJ (Cochin Strings)
Ney by Eyup
Kemenche by Adem Tosunoglu

Song: Nagumo Revival
Sung by Arvind Venugopal and Swetha Ashok
Original Composition and Lyrics by Tyagaraja
Strings by Francis Xavier, Josekutty, Herald Antony, Francis Sebastian,
Carol George, Jain Purushothaman, Danny John and Mariadas VJ (Cochin Strings)
Oud by Selim Boyaci
Baglama by Adem Tosunoglu
Additional Vocals by Vineeth and Hesham

All songs composed,
arranged and programmed by Hesham Abdul Wahab

All songs mixed by Harishankar V at My Studio (Cochin)
Mix assisted by Akshay Kakkoth
My Studio sessions managed by Murali Krishna Nair

Songs mastered by Biju James at Inspired One Studios (Chennai)
Mastering Assistants – Abin Ponnachan and Kelvin Mathew

Recordings Engineers – Sai Prakash, Omer Avci, Antony, Hesham, Pg Ragesh, Avinash Sathish, Nandhagopan, Amal Mithu Anitha, Midhun V Dev, Shiju Ediyatheril, Sanju Arakkal, Sree Shankar, Biju James, Lijesh and Roopesh

Recording Studios – My Studio (Cochin), K7 Studios (Cochin), Krishna Digidesign (Chennai), 20db Studio (Chennai), VGP Studios (Chennai), Omer Avci Studios (Istanbul), Audiogene Studio (Cochin), Muzik Ministry Studios (Cochin), Voice and Vision (Chennai), Sapthaa Records (Cochin)

Additional Audio Technical Assistance by Sai Prakash, Bibin Ashok, Vipin Lal and Vishnu Raj
Musicians/Singers coordinated by KD Vincent

Songs and complete album credits at the end.

The Gogavale brothers divide the vocal duties between themselves for the soundtrack’s first two songs. The title song deserved a more power-packed voice than Atul Gogavale’s though, for the kind of energy and attitude it exudes. That is but a small foible however, in a thoroughly rousing composition that the composers supplement with their own words – words that signify defiance against a society that looks down upon the protagonists of the movie. And the combination of street band sounds and folk percussions is a perfect fit as a backdrop, as is the fine chorus that is as prominently featured as Atul. There isn’t much of a parallel to be drawn between the soundtracks of Sairat (Ajay Atul’s last work with director Nagraj Manjule) and Jhund, which is understandable considering they appear to be set to two very different themes. What both albums do have in common, however, is the let-your-hair-down song – while Lafda Zala doesn’t touch the manic energy levels that Zingaat does, this one too is sung by Ajay Gogavale and combines club and folk elements like the latter. And the fact that it is a retro synth pop base that the composers introduce the folk elements into (the exhilaration when the percussions kick in around the Lafda Zala hook!) makes it an incredibly groovy affair.

After handing Abhay Jodhpurkar his Bollywood debut in Zero, the composers introduce another singer from the South – one of the current best – Sid Sriram to the industry with Jhund, and he gets not one but two songs here! Laat Maar is the inspirational entry for the sports movie that Jhund is, but it also works as a statement of rebellion of the underdog thanks to Amitabh Bhattacharya’s finely written verse – starting with the title itself that’s a clever choice of phrase working on both levels. Sid Sriram produces a soaring, impassioned rendition that we have heard him accomplish in style multiple times in the past, and he is complemented here brilliantly by the chorus and Saurabh Abhyankar (aka 100 RBH) whose searing rap cuts through the song around midway. The expansive arrangements seem slightly evocative of Imagine Dragons’ Believer. Given the movie’s theme, the soundtrack does not have a romantic track, a genre Ajay Atul usually excel at. So, Baadal Se Dosti is the closest we get to a trademark Ajay Atul track – a soulful melodic piece featuring some of those familiar orchestral flourishes. Sid Sriram is in fine form here too, negotiating the highs and lows, the tender and the intense bits all with practised ease. Once again the chorus comes to his support in the second half, and does a splendid job of it.

Jhund. Short, but very effective soundtrack from Ajay Atul (and Amitabh Bhattacharya) for Nagraj Popatrao Manjule. Just like Sairat was.

Music Aloud Rating: 4/5

Top Recos: All of them (just four tracks anyway!)

Album Credits

Song – Aaya ye Jhund hai (Title)
Music: Ajay – Atul
Lyrics- Ajay – Atul
Singer – Atul Gogavale
Additional vocals – Jay , Mallhar Sarja & Ajay Gogavale
Music composed, arranged, produced & conducted – Ajay- Atul
Indian percussions -Satyajit Jamsandekar ,Raju kulkarni , Ashish Aroskar
Chorus – Umesh Joshi, Vijay Dhuri, Swapnil Godbole, Jitendra Tupe, Janardan Dhatrak, Rahul Chitnis, Vivek Naaik
Recorded & mixed by : Vijay Dayal @ YRF studios
Assisted by : Chinmay Mestry
Mastered by Gethin John, Hofad Mastering, Wales UK

Song Name: Lafda Zala
Music: Ajay-Atul
Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya
Singer: Ajay Gogavale
Recorded & mixed by : Vijay Dayal @ YRF studios
Assisted by : Chinmay Mestry
Mastered by Donal Whelan at Hafod Mastering ( whales )
Music composed, arranged, produced & conducted: Ajay- Atul
Additional programming – Devansh Bhatia
Indian percussions – Satyajit Jamsandekar, Raju kulkarni

Song Name: Laat Maar
Music: Ajay – Atul
Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya
Singer: Sid Sriram
Rap: Sourabh Abhyankar
Choir: Deepanshi Nagar, Shivika Rajesh, Ann Fernandes, Pallavi Shyam Sundar, Rupali Moghe, Leena Rajan, Priyanka Rawlani, Snigdha Pious, Chaitanya Shinde, Rituraj Tiwari, Chaitanya Kulkarni, Prashant Muzumdar, Pankaj Dixit, Manish Sharma, George Sebastian, Anurag Naik
Music composed, arranged, produced & conducted: Ajay- Atul
Recorded & mixed by : Vijay Dayal @ YRF studios
Assisted by : Chinmay Mestry
Mastered by Donal Whelan at Hafod Mastering ( Wales )

Song – Baadal se dosti
Music : Ajay – Atul
Lyrics : Amitabh Bhattacharya
Singer – Sid Sriram
Music composed, arranged, produced & conducted – Ajay- Atul
Flute – Varad Kathapurkar
Choir : Deepanshi Nagar, Shivika Rajesh, Ann Fernandes, Pallavi Shyam Sundar, Rupali Moghe, Leena Rajan, Priyanka Rawlani, Snigdha Pious, Chaitanya Shinde, Rituraj Tiwari, Chaitanya Kulkarni, Prashant Muzumdar, Pankaj Dixit, Manish Sharma, George Sebastian, Anurag Naik
Recorded & mixed by : Vijay Dayal @ YRF studios
Assisted by : Chinmay Mestry
Mastered by Gethin John, Hofad Mastering, Wales UK
Music Label: T-Series

Songs and album credits at the end.

Seven years since his debut in Hunterrr, it’s taken another movie by director Harshvardhan Kulkarni  for Khamosh Shah to make his return to Bollywood (for a guest composition though, this time). The man seems to have a way with ballroom-style romantic pieces – my favourite piece from Hunterrr was Chori Chori, and here Shah offers an equally pleasant, waltz-y Maange Manzooriyaan that also sees the playback debut of Maalavika Manoj (known in indie circles as Mali – here’s a recent-ish song of hers that I love). And she does a fine job of delivering Azeem Shirazi’s finely crafted words. Nothing flashy in the arrangement from the composer, but I did love how Jitendra Thakur’s violin solos punctuate the second verse. A male version of the song which is identical to the original in all other aspects bar the scale, is sung by another brilliant musician, Abhay Jodhpurkar. When I first heard Bandi Tot, I totally did not expect it to be an Ankit Tiwari song since I am not used to hearing this level of upbeat from the man. That novelty aside, there isn’t much in offer in this song apart from the singing, by Tiwari and Nikhita Gandhi. Last of the guest acts is Tanishk Bagchi, creating the title song with one of his frequent lyrical collaborators, Vayu. While this one isn’t a “remix”, it does come across as a bit of a mashup between Bagchi’s own Sweety Tera Drama and another wedding-themed blockbuster, London Thumakda (incidentally composed by the movie’s lead composer Amit Trivedi). Once again, it is the sprightly rendition (Nakash Aziz, Rajnigandha Shekhawat & Raja Sagoo) and the song’s visuals that keep it going more than anything else

Amit Trivedi gets four songs in Badhaai Do, two of which get three versions each (someone in the team is a Pritam fan, clearly). And those two also happen to be the best songs of the album. Hum Thay Seedhe Saadhe is a beautifully understated romantic melody, quite fitting for the situation it is used in the movie. While in the movie it is Shashaa Tirupati’s version (which is my favourite among the three) that appears in the sequence, it is a bit annoying to see the YouTube video upload of the video carry Raj Barman’s version – even among the two male renditions of the song, Abhay Jodhpurkar is the superior one, Barman’s sounds weirdly tinny and off in places, possibly owing to some error in the vocal processing. Varun Grover’s lines portray the blossoming romance very well, working in perfect sync with the song’s mood (that takes me back at times to this favourite by Amit Trivedi’s old band Om). Special mention to the flautist Nikhil who doesn’t appear until the second verse, but then puts on a brilliant show, especially in the second interlude. Atak Gaya is where Varun Grover produces his best lines, and once again Amit keeps his melody and arrangement gentle, appearing as the song does, as the backdrop of the evolution of the other romantic arc of the film. Love the folk touch the composer provides to round the song off, with Krishna Kishor’s kanjira providing accompaniment. Arijit Singh and Abhijeet Srivastava lead the vocals in the two versions that feature this arrangement, with Rupali Moghe coming in for the folk outro – Arijit’s version is unsurprisingly the superior one. The third, acoustic version, shorn of the imaginative elements in the arrangement and with the composer himself behind the mic, doesn’t match up either. Gol Gappa has too much of the composer’s older songs all over it to offer anything memorable really. The same would have applied to Hum Rang Hain as well – song that can be considered the anthem of the movie (and hence evocative of similar rock anthems Amit has done in the past) – if not for the visual sequence it has been used around. That final instrumental passage is particularly effective in how the crescendo corresponds with the pivotal moment onscreen.

Badhaai Do. A decent soundtrack (with two amazing songs) made better by its utilisation in the movie. On an aside, given their track record so far, Amit Trivedi really should be collaborating more often with Varun Grover.

Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5

Top Recos: Hum Thay Seedhe Saadhe, Atak Gaya, Maange Manzooriyaan

Album Credits

Song: Badhaai Do – Title Track
Singers: Nakash Aziz, Rajnigandha Shekhawat & Raja Sagoo
Composed, Programmed And Arranged By Tanishk Bagchi
Lyrics: Vayu
Dholak & Tabla: Raju Sardar
Male Voices: Sudhanshu, Rakesh, Kabul
Female Voices: Surya Ragunaathan, Shudhi Ramani, Debanjali B Joshi, Annette Fernandes
Mixed & Mastered: Eric Pillai At Future Sound Of Bombay
Music Production Coordinator: Chayan Rio Ghosh

Song: Atak Gaya – Arijit Singh
Singers: Arijit Singh & Rupali Moghe
Composed & Produced by Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Varun Grover
Additional Music Production: Krishna Kishor
Guitars: Keba Jeremiah,
Violin:Sai Rakshith,
Kanjira: Krishna Kishor
Recorded by Mani Ratnam

Song: Atak Gaya – Acoustic
Singer: Amit Trivedi
Composed & Produced by Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Varun Grover
Programmed by John Paul
Acoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar, Mandola, Backing Vocals: John Paul

Song: Hum Thay Seedhe Saadhe – Raj Barman
Singer: Raj Barman
Composed & Produced by Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Varun Grover
Additional Music Production: Krishna Kishor
Guitars: Keba Jeremiah
Flute: Nikhil
Rhythm: Krishna Kishor
Recorded by Mani Ratnam

Song: Hum Thay Seedhe Saadhe – Shashaa Tirupati
Singer: Shashaa Tirupati
Composed & Produced by Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Varun Grover

Song: Gol Gappa
Singers: Neha Kakkar & Amit Trivedi
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Anvita Dutt
Produced by Gourab Dutta & Amit Trivedi
Sound Engineer, AT Studios: Abhishek Sortey
Tumbi, Bouzouki, Mandolin, Banjo: Tapas Roy
Live Recording at Seven Heaven Studios
Backing vocals: Arun Kamath, Suhas Sawant & Rajiv Sundaresan
Recorded by Rupak Thakur at Click Studios

Song: Bandi Tot
Singers: Ankit Tiwari & Nikhita Gandhi
Music: Ankit Tiwari
Lyrics: Anurag Bhomia
Music Produced & Programming: Dj Phukan
Pluck Instrument: Tapas Roy
Pluck Instrument Recorded At: Rupjit Das At Playhead Studio
Vocals Recorded At: Ankit Tiwari Studio
Mix Master: Eric Pillai At Future Sound Of Bombay
Music Production Team: Mayur Sharma, Zyra Nargolwala

Song: Hum Rang Hain
Singers: Shashaa Tirupati, Nakash Aziz & Amit Trivedi
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Varun Grover
Produced by Raja Rasaily & Amit Trivedi
Backing vocals: Arun Kamath, Suhas Sawant, Rajiv Sundaresan, Rishikesh Kamerkar

Song: Hum Thay Seedhe Saadhe – Abhay Jodhpurkar
Singer: Abhay Jodhpurkar
Composed & Produced by Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Varun Grover

Song: Maange Manzooriyan – Female Version
Singer: Maalavika Manoj
Music: Khamosh Shah
Lyrics: Azeem Shirazi
Music Production: Sunny M.R. (Chordfather Productions)
Music Programming & Arrangement: Samyukta Narendran Zia & Sunny M.R.
Mixing & Mastering: Farhad K.Dadyburjor
Live Viola & Violin: Jitendra Thakur
Live Guitars : Roland Fernandes
Additional Guitars : Veljon Noronha
Female Vocal Dubbing Studio: Studio 504
Recording Engineer: Rahul Sharma
Male Vocal Dubbing Studio : Euphony Studio
Live Recording Studio: Euphony Studio
Recording Engineer: Partha Protim Das

Song: Maange Manzooriyan – Male Version
Singer: Abhay Jodhpurkar
Music: Khamosh Shah
Lyrics: Azeem Shirazi

Song: Atak Gaya – Abhijeet Version
Singers: Abhijeet Srivastava & Rupali Moghe
Composed & Produced by Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Varun Grover

Amit Trivedi songs Mixed & Mastered by Shadab Rayeen at New Edge
AT Studios Crew:
Sound Engineer: Urmila Sutar
Assistant Engineers: Pukhraj & Milan
Executive Producer: Krutee Trivedi
Manager: Shruti Shah

Music on Zee Music Company

Songs and soundtrack credits at the end.

For a movie that appears to have been shot largely in a rural setting, there aren’t a lot of folk sounds in Vishal-Shekhar’s (now Vishal & Sheykhar) soundtrack for Jayeshbhai Jordaar. Where they do appear though, the composers incorporate them quite well. In fact, the most “folksy” song from the set, Dheere Dheere Seekh Jaaunga, had the potential to be the best song of the soundtrack if not for the uneven processing in Sheykhar Ravjiani’s singing. It’s a pity really, since I quite rate Sheykhar as a singer and was quite excited about this one for that reason in particular. The song has quite a bit going in its favour of course – the soothing cadence, Jaideep Sahni’s words, Priya Saraiya’s Gujarati chorus – but alas. The other half of the composer duo though, Vishal Dadlani is in fine fettle in both the songs he sings for the movie. And my favourite among the two is Jordaar, that starts with a prelude by Keerthi Sagathia before guitarist Warren Mendonsa, drummer Gino Banks and bassist Nathan Thomas step in to propel the song into the jordaar zone. Infectious energy in this one, something that Vishal has seldom had problems delivering. The highlight though, is that bhai toh ek dum jordaar hook. Vishal’s other song, Firecracker comes in the Nashe Si Chadh Gayi mould (incidentally the last YRF-Ranveer Singh movie the duo composed for), and appears in two versions – one with Hinglish lines (written by Kumaar and Vayu) and a more dominantly English version where Vishal joins in on lyrical duties as well. Once again the composers manage to get an entertaining hook going, around the Laal Rangi Chola refrain. My favourite from the album is Dil Ki Gali that sees the Bollywood debut (I think?) of the wonderful-sounding Katyayani. The arrangements are absolutely on point with this one – the laidback bossa nova-esque guitar groove complemented by the piano which lends the song that atmospheric feel, and gives way to a neat melodica solo towards the end – all so nicely done. Katyayani is the star of the song of course, negotiating the highs and lows of the melody with finesse – love how her first verse leads each time into Sheykhar’s short segment, which albeit a repeated phrase, is quite an earworm in itself. Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara‘s Nanki’s Theme is likely to make an impact in the movie, but as a standalone track it doesn’t offer much. Effective humming by Jonita Gandhi though.

Granted that one track is repeated, and one isn’t their track, but good to see what qualifies as a proper(ish) length soundtrack from Vishal-Sheykhar after a long time, featuring a couple of nice compositions as well.

Music Aloud Rating: 3/5

Top Recos: Dil Ki Gali, Jordaar, Firecracker

Soundtrack Credits

Song: Firecracker
Singers: Vishal Dadlani, Sheykhar Ravjiani
Music: Vishal and Sheykhar
Lyrics: Kumaar, Vayu
Recording Studio: YRF Studios (Shantanu Hudlikar, Vijay Dayal, Abhishek Khandelwal, Chinmay Mestry, Manasi Tare)
Mixed By: Abhishek Khandelwal (YRF Studios)
Assistant Mixing Engineer: Dileep Nair
Mastered By: Gethin John (Hafod Mastering, Wales UK)

Additional Music Credits:
Music Produced By: Abhijit Nalani

Director of Choreography: Ruel Dausan Varindani

Song: Dheere Dheere Seekh Jaaunga
Singers: Sheykhar Ravjiani, Priya Saraiya
Music: Vishal and Sheykhar
Lyrics: Jaideep Sahni
Recording Studio: YRF Studios (Shantanu Hudlikar, Vijay Dayal, Abhishek Khandelwal, Chinmay Mestry, Manasi Tare)
Mixed By: Abhishek Khandelwal (YRF Studios)
Assistant Mixing Engineer: Dileep Nair
Mastered By: Gethin John (Hafod Mastering, Wales UK)

Additional Music Credits:
Music Produced By: Abhijit Nalani
Electric Guitar: Warren Mendonsa
Acoustic Guitar: Sanjoy Das

Director of Choreography: Ruel Dausan Varindani

Song: Jordaar
Singers: Vishal Dadlani, Keerthi Sagathia
Music: Vishal and Sheykhar
Lyrics: Jaideep Sahni
Recording Studio: YRF Studios (Shantanu Hudlikar, Vijay Dayal, Abhishek Khandelwal, Chinmay Mestry, Manasi Tare)
Mixed By: Abhishek Khandelwal (YRF Studios)
Assistant Mixing Engineer: Dileep Nair
Mastered By: Gethin John (Hafod Mastering, Wales UK)

Additional Music Credits:
Music Produced By: Abhijit Nalani
Guitar: Warren Mendonsa
Drums: Gino Banks
Bass Guitar: Nathan Thomas

Song: Dil Ki Gali
Singers: Katyayani, Sheykhar Ravjiani
Music: Vishal and Sheykhar
Lyrics: Jaideep Sahni
Recording Studio: YRF Studios (Shantanu Hudlikar, Vijay Dayal, Abhishek Khandelwal, Chinmay Mestry, Manasi Tare)
Mixed By: Abhishek Khandelwal (YRF Studios)
Assistant Mixing Engineer: Dileep Nair
Mastered By: Gethin John (Hafod Mastering, Wales UK)

Additional Music Credits:
Music Produced By: Abhijit Nalani

Song: Firecracker (English)
Singers: Vishal Dadlani, Sheykhar Ravjiani
Music: Vishal and Sheykhar
Lyrics: Vishal Dadlani, Kumaar, Vayu
Recording Studio: YRF Studios (Shantanu Hudlikar, Vijay Dayal, Abhishek Khandelwal, Chinmay Mestry, Manasi Tare)
Mixed By: Abhishek Khandelwal (YRF Studios)
Assistant Mixing Engineer: Dileep Nair
Mastered By: Gethin John (Hafod Mastering, Wales UK)

Additional Music Credits:
Music Produced By: Abhijit Nalani

Director of Choreography: Ruel Dausan Varindani

Song: Nanki’s Theme
Singer: Jonita Gandhi
Music: Sanchit Balhara, Ankit Balhara
Mixed By: Abhishek Ghatak
Mastered By: Gethin John (Hafod Mastering, Wales UK)

Additional Music Credits:
Guitars: Nyzel Dlima

Songs, and artist credits (to the extent available) at the end of the review.

My favourite song from A R Rahman’s long -awaited reunion project with Rajeev Menon back in 2018 – Sarvam Thaala Mayam – was the track co-composed by ARR and Menon, Varalaama, a wonderfully realised raagamaalika that never got the love it deserved (IMO). In Iravin Nizhal, the composer goes on a similar route with Paapam Seiyathiru Maname – a siddhar paadal (a form of folk music) written by Kaduveli Siddhar. This video by Carnatic musician Prince Rama Varma has a nice explanation of siddhar paadal and the most famous song in the genre, also written by Kaduveli Siddhar (the video is in Malayalam though). As I understood it, siddhar paadal feels a bit like baul sangeet in Bengal, paanan paattu in Kerala etc. It is fascinating how much this peripatetic bard practice exists across cultures. And in almost all of these, there appears to be some plucked string instrument involved. With bauls it is the ektara, in Kerala there’s the nanthuni/yaazh/pulluvarkudam, I would imagine that even in siddhar paadal there was something similar in use. In what I assume is a nod to this fact, the basic rhythm for Paapam Seiyaathiru is provided by one such instrument (not sure if live or synthesised), and the effect it has is just incredibly calming, especially in the first minute and a half when there is no other instrument to steal the limelight (Also a random aside – the instrument’s twang that kicks off the song prompted a revisit of Mitwa ) Rahman subtly builds the instrumental layers onto this beautifully unhurried track – the mohan veena that heralds each switch in raga (guessing the ragas are kedaaragowla/saama, hamir kalyani, hamsanaadham – could not figure out the minor scale raga at 2:38), ghatam, kanjira all delightful additions to the proceedings. The icing on the cake is of course the delicate, brilliant rendition by Niranjana Ramanan and Keerthana Vaidyanathan.  The melody also lends itself very well to the soulful, achingly short theme piece titled Shadow of the Night.

Shreya Ghoshal is in splendid form in Maayava Thooyava, a charming melodic piece that would have been a nice fit in Kaaviya Thalaivan. Here too the instrumental build-up is gradual, resulting in a rich profusion of strings (Sunshine Orchestra) and mridangam (D A Srinivas) that gives the song a thoroughly satisfying ending. Got to know thanks to a friend that the interlude arrangements are a bit different in the Telugu version of the song, interestingly, the dilruba solo replaced with a vocal + conversational segment. Expressing a heartbreak in an unexpectedly boisterous fashion is something ARR has done in the past as well – Heer (Tamasha) comes to mind. Bejara is a similar attempt with similarly impressive results. The composer goes for a street sound here, and the combination of horns (Omkar Dhumal) and percussion (Sivamani) delivers it in style. Haricharan and Bamba Bakya do a fine job of delivering Parthiban’s lines that feature some smart wordplay. Those occasional touches of sivaranjani raga coming in Haricharan’s voice are likely to take your mind back to the Alli Varugiraale segment from Kaaviya Thalaivan’s Alli Arjuna. Being the soundtrack of a movie titled Iravin Nizhal, you can understandably sense a quietness, a feeling of night on occasion. Nowhere else is it as prominent as in the dark, haunting Kaayam that kind of follows in the footsteps of Madura Marikozhundhae from Chekka Chivantha Vaanam. With an almost free-form singing by Khatija Rahman, Deepthi Suresh, Soundarya Bala Nandakumar, Veena Murali and Sowmya Mahadevan for most part, this song feels most representative of the seemingly unconventional nature of the movie itself. It is only around the 4:15 mark that the song turns “regular”, with what turn out to be the opening lines of another track from the album. Fine singing by the ladies in this one. Kannethire is the song that gets briefly referenced towards the end of Kaayam, sung in its expanded form by Sarthak Kalyani with some brief but very effective support from Hiral Viradia. Lovely melody that benefits as much from the use of guitars (and mandolin, I think?) as it does from the top-quality singing.

Iravin Nizhal. Fabulous soundtrack from A R Rahman that strikes a good balance between the esoteric and conventional; the best work that he has produced in Tamil in quite some time.

Music Aloud Rating: 4/5

Top Recos: All of them (but Paapam Seiyathiru definitely ranks first)!

PS: Thanks to @pnamblat for providing the link to the siddhar paadal explanation; you can read his insightful analysis of Paapam Seiyathiru here.

Soundtrack Credits

Kaayam

Song Composed, Arranged and Produced By A R Rahman

Singers: Khatija Rahman, Deepthi Suresh, Soundarya Bala Nandakumar, Veena Murali, Sowmya Mahadevan

Lyrics: Radhakrishnan Parthiban

Additional Vocals: Elfe Choir

Conducted by Roe Vincent

Flute: Kamalakar

Strings: Sunshine Orchestra

Conducted by Jerry Vincent

Music Supervisor: Nakul Abhyankar

Sound Engineers:

Panchathan Record inn:

Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh, Sarthak Kalyani

AM Studios:

S Sivakumar, Pradeep Menon, Krishnan Subramanian, Aravind MS, Sathya, Ainul

Mixed by Pradeep Menon

Mastered by Suresh Permal

Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan

Musician Coordinator: Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum, Siddique, TM Faizudeen

Maayava Thooyava

Song Composed, Arranged and Produced By A R Rahman

Singer: Shreya Ghoshal

Lyrics: Madhan Karky

Mrudangam: D A Srinivas

Dilruba: Saroja

Flute: Kareem Kamalakar

Strings : Sunshine Orchestra, Conducted by Jerry Vincent

Music supervisor: Nakul Abhyankar

Sound Engineers: Panchathan Record Inn,

Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh, Sarthak Kalyani

AM Studios,

Sivakumar S, Pradeep Menon, Sathya, Krishnan, Aravind MS

Mixed By Pradvay Shivashankar

Mastered By Suresh Permal

Apple Digital Masters Riyasdeen Riyan

Musicians Co Ordinators Samydurai R, Abdul Haiyum , Siddique, TM Faizudeen

Bejara

Song Composed, Arranged and Produced By A R Rahman

Singers: Haricharan Seshadri, Bamba Bakya

Lyrics: R. Parthiban

Mandolin: Subhani

Saxophone: Omkar Dhumal

Rhythm: A.Sivamani

Chennai String Section conducted by Jerry Vincent

Music Supervisor: Nakul Abhyankar

Sound Engineers:

Panchathan Record inn:

Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh, Sarthak Kalyani

AM Studios:

S Sivakumar, Pradeep Menon, Krishnan Subramanian, Aravind MS, Sathya, Ainul

Mixed by Pradvay Shivashankar

Mastered by Suresh Permal

Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan

Musician Coordinator: Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum, Siddique, TM Faizudeen

Paapam Seiyathiru

Song Composed, Arranged and Produced By A R Rahman

Singers: Niranjana Ramanan, Keerthana Vaidyanathan

Lyrics: Kaduveli Siddhar

Kannethire

Song Composed, Arranged and Produced By A R Rahman

Singers: Sarthak Kalyani, Hiral Viradia

Lyrics: R. Parthiban

Shadow of the Night

Song Composed, Arranged and Produced By A R Rahman

Songs at the end of the review.

There is just a brief segment in the otherwise routine Parinda that made my ears perk up – when about 3.5 minutes into the song, Sukhwinder Singh sings a series of lines ending pee aaya, jee aaya and so on. The mind instantly went back to the many pee aaya’s and jee aaya’s that the man had delivered for Anand Bakshi and A R Rahman in Taal (Ramta Jogi). Don’t know if lyricist-director Karan Malhotra did actually mean this as a nod to Bakshi saab, but what is incredible is to hear Sukhwinder deliver at pretty much the same level, 23 years later! In fact, one of the best things about Shamshera’s soundtrack is composer Mithoon going for Sukhwinder Singh in three of the six songs – man still owns those soaring notes like nobody’s business and is a terrific choice for the grand sound that the composer is gunning for in this album. Sukhwinder is joined by Abhishek Nailwal in the title track, which once again turns out a humdrum affair despite the attempts to liven things up with booming percussions, horns, chants and the like. My favourite among the Sukhwinder songs is Hunkara – an engaging, albeit familiar and a tad dated, folk number (penned by guest lyricist Piyush Mishra) that he delivers alongside another vocal powerhouse, Richa Sharma and a fine chorus.

While Sukhwinder does not exactly get songs that do justice to his skills, the singer who does manage to get lucky on that front is Neeti Mohan. Fitoor, her duet with Arijit Singh (incidentally the second Fitoor of his career), is the best song of the movie – the haunting ambient melody is a genre that is bread and butter for Mithoon, but the man does offer more here than usual; those occasional classical touches (raag darbari I think?) for instance almost sit in the Sanjay Leela Bhansali zone, and I very much mean this as a compliment. With two top quality singers behind the mic, the delivery was of course never in doubt – although Neeti does most of the heavy lifting here. Neeti’s other song is a qawwali – once again rather formulaic both melody-wise and arrangement-wise, but lively enough and sung well enough, both by the lady and Altamash Faridi (I see Sudesh Bhosale in the credits as well but could not spot his voice) to make you overlook that fact. Ji Huzoor is all about that hook (targeted at the insta reel crowd, surely) that I must admit I have gotten quite addicted to over time! Good rendition by Aditya Narayan.

While it is a welcome sight, seeing Mithoon get a project that has him trying something different to his usual line of songs, I wish it had resulted in a better end product here. The grand soundscape is all there, but not enough substance to fill it with. That said though, to compare with Thugs of Hindostan (which Shamshera has been getting compared with since day 1), I like this soundtrack a bit better.

Music Aloud Rating: 2.5/5

Top Recos: Fitoor, Ji Huzoor, Kaale Naina

Songs and soundtrack credits at the end.

Cutie Cutie equates the protagonist with all things cute and vulnerable and innocent, presumably to establish a ground zero for the transformation that Jerry undergoes through the movie. I could not find an analogue for every song from Kolamaavu Kokila in Good Luck Jerry (although the movie seems to follow the original quite faithfully, as per the trailer), but Cutie Cutie seems to be this movie’s Kalyaana Vayassu, based on the romantic flavour. Electronic sounds dominate the soundscape, as it does for the rest of the soundtrack as well, but with some effective interventions from the live instruments, particularly Dilshad Khan’s sarangi. Also liked the surprise addition of mridangam to the mix towards the end of the song. Nakash Aziz leads this one in confident fashion, supported by composer Parag Chhabra. Mor Mor, the album’s only other “happy” song, is set around a wedding, going by the brass orchestration and lines like Baari Barsi (which lyricist Raj Shekhar gives his own quirky twist to). Once again the arrangement has you hooked to the song, an engaging mix of electronic and folk elements, as does the singing, especially by the ladies Deedar Kaur and Gurlej Akhtar. Jogan appears to be the other end of the journey that begins with Cutie Cutie – and this has in the lead one of my favourites, Romy, provided excellent support by Nikhita Gandhi and Rupali Jagga (sounded a bit like Shilpa Rao in her solo bit in the second verse). Composer sets this one to a lovely haunting melody, and while the immersive backdrop adds perfectly to the feel, it also feels like a nod to A R Rahman (songs like Ranjha Ranjha came to mind) – love that violin solo by Manas Kumar in the interlude, and that gunshot incorporation is a nice touch.

Continuing Raj Shekhar’s theme of tweaking popular adages is Jhand Ba – if you are familiar with the phrase, you already know the gist of the song, and the lyricist presents some smart metaphors to drive the point home in a quirky manner, in keeping with the dark humour theme of the movie. Quality work from Parag yet again; that retro feel imparted by the record crackle, the staccatoed rhythm, Tapas Roy’s short solos on the mandolin (?) all make for an addictive combo. Star of the song though is Madhubanti Bagchi with her spotless rendition. An alternate version of the song sees it shorn of all the lighter elements – since it is titled the sad version – and it is great to see that the melody is equally effective in this emotive form, helped also by Madhubanti Bagchi’s vocals. The Jhand Ba refrain is replaced by the singer’s humming, to suit the situation. My favourite song from the album carries a name that we have encountered quite often over the past two years – Paracetamol. It is amusing to hear the word paracetamol in a deeply philosophical sounding track that essentially appears to be imparting a “keep calm (medicate, rather) and carry on” kind of a message. Jubin Nautiyal leads the first two verses of the song before a cameo from Glaswegian-Indian rapper Soom T and a seamless shift into qawwali mode featuring Navdeep Dhatra, Manish S Sharma and Pankaj Dixit. Some lovely flute pieces from Paras Nath throughout the song.

Having been a big fan of Anirudh’s soundtrack for Kolamaavu Kokila, I was quite curious how Good Luck Jerry would match up. And I have to say that Parag Chhabra has done a splendid job here, made even more impressive by the fact that this is his first full soundtrack. He of course has a lot of help coming from lyricist Raj Shekhar. Special mention also to the top notch production throughout the album. I really, really hope the movie does well, at least for the sake of the songs, if nothing else.

Music Aloud Rating: 4/5

Top Recos: Paracetamol, Jogan, Jhand Ba

Soundtrack Credits

Song: Mor Mor
Song Composed, Produced & Arranged by: Parag Chhabra
Lyricist: Raj Shekhar
Singers: Deedar Kaur, Gurlej Akhtar, Vivek Hariharan & Parag Chhabra
Additional Vocals: Pinky Maidasani
Backing Vocals: Navdeep Dhatra, Manish S Sharma & Pankaj Dixit
Executive Music Producer: Deepak Sugathan
Music Producers: Parag Chhabra, Vineeth Jayan
Additional Music Programmers: Utsav Nanda
Mixing Engineer: Shadab Rayeen At New Edge
Mixing Assistant to Shadab: Pukhraj Sonkar & Anup Kumar
Music Premix Engineer: Deepak Sugathan
Recording Engineers: Sachin Ahuja At Sangeetika Studio & Amey Londhe At Audio Garage Studio
Mastering Engineer: Shadab Rayeen At New Edge
Musicians:-
Ethnic Plucked Instruments: Tapas Roy
Harmonium: Parag Chhabra

Song: Paracetamol
Song Composed, Produced & Arranged by: Parag Chhabra
Lyricist: Raj Shekhar
Singers: Jubin Nautiyal, Parag Chhabra
English Rap Performed & Written by: Soom T
Additional Vocals: Shehnaz Akhar, Sahil Akhtar
Sufi Vocal Section: Navdeep Dhatra, Manish S Sharma & Pankaj Dixit
Executive Music Producer: Deepak Sugathan
Music Producers: Parag Chhabra, Vineeth Jayan
Additional Music Programmers: Utsav Nanda
Mixing Engineer: Shadab Rayeen At New Edge
Mixing Assistant to Shadab: Pukhraj Sonkar & Anup Kumar
Music Premix Engineer: Deepak Sugathan
Recording Engineer: Rupjit Das At Playhead Studio & Chinmay Mistry At Yashraj Studios, Mumbai
Mastering Engineer: Shadab Rayeen At New Edge
Musicians:-
Flute: Paras Nath
Guitars: Utsav Nanda
Sitar: Asad Khan & Sarang Vechalekar
Dholak: Jayant Patnaik

Song: Jogan
Song Composed, Produced & Arranged by: Parag Chhabra
Lyricist: Raj Shekhar
Singers: Romy, Rupali Jagga, Nikhita Gandhi & Parag Chhabra
Backing Vocals: Navdeep Dhatra, Manish S Sharma, Pankaj Dixit & Dipanshu Tiwari
Executive Music Producer: Deepak Sugathan
Music Producers: Parag Chhabra, Sunny M.R. (Chordfather Productions), Vineeth Jayan & Nakul Chugh
Additional Music Programmers: Utsav Nanda, Nabeel Jubair (Chordfather Productions), ZIA (Chordfather Productions)
Mixing Engineer: Deepak Sugathan
Recording Engineers: Rupjit Das At Playhead Studio, Kittu Myakal At Sound Ideas Studio, Ritvik Shah At Chordfather Productions & Franco Bhalla At Kailasa Studio
Mastering Engineer: Deepak Sugathan
Musicians:-
Ethnic Plucked Instruments: Tapas Roy
Violin, Viola: Manas Kumar

Song: Jhand Ba
Song Composed, Produced & Arranged by: Parag Chhabra
Lyricist: Raj Shekhar
Singers: Madhubanti Bagchi & Parag Chhabra
Executive Music Producer: Deepak Sugathan
Music Producers: Parag Chhabra, Sunny M.R. (Chordfather Productions)
Additional Music Programmers: Japjisingh Valecha
Mixing Engineer: Deepak Sugathan
Recording Engineer: Rupjit Das At Playhead Studio
Mastering Engineer: Shadab Rayeen At New Edge
Assistant to Shadab: Pukhraj Sonkar & Anup Kumar
Musicians:-
Ethnic Plucked Instruments: Tapas Roy
Mouth Percussion: Parag Chhabra

Song: Cutie Cutie
Song Composed, Produced & Arranged by: Parag Chhabra
Lyricist: Raj Shekhar
Singers: Nakash Aziz & Parag Chhabra
Additional Vocals: Gary Misquitta, Rishikesh Kamerkar, Keshia Braganza & Suzanne Dmello
Executive Music Producer: Deepak Sugathan
Music Producers: Parag Chhabra, Vineeth Jayan, Sunny M.R. (Chordfather Productions)
Additional Music Programmers: Utsav Nanda & Japjisingh Valecha
Mixing Engineer: Deepak Sugathan
Recording Engineer: Rupjit Das At Playhead Studio
Mastering Engineer: Deepak Sugathan
Musicians:-
Sarangi: Dilshad Khan
Ethnic Plucked Instruments: Tapas Roy

Song: Jhand Ba (Sad)
Song Composed, Produced & Arranged by: Parag Chhabra
Lyricist: Raj Shekhar
Singers: Madhubanti Bagchi & Parag Chhabra
Executive Music Producer: Deepak Sugathan
Music Producers: Parag Chhabra & Japjisingh Valecha
Additional Music Programmers: Utsav Nanda
Mixing Engineer: Deepak Sugathan
Recording Engineer: Rupjit Das At Playhead Studio
Mastering Engineer: Deepak Sugathan

Songs and soundtrack credits at the end.

The lyric video of Kahani describes the song as “the soul of Laal Singh Chaddha”, and you can see that in the reflective lines (top work from Amitabh Bhattacharya). There is a feather seen floating about in the lyric video – people who have watched Forrest Gump would know the significance of that of course – here it also works as an indicator of Pritam’s lightweight treatment of the song. The composer has always had his way with these sweet, cutesy melodic pieces, and this one, with its waltz rhythm and the general European sound (a delightful profusion of accordion and plucked strings) is an instant throwback to the pinnacle of such songs from the man – Barfi. Sonu Nigam maybe a more accomplished singer than Mohan Kannan, but there is something about the earnest delivery that the latter does in his version of Kahani that makes it a wee bit more endearing, despite Sonu getting an extra verse. Sonu Nigam gets one more beauty in the album, another lovely, jaunty melody that operates in pretty much the same zone as Kahaani albeit with a romantic theme, Main Ki Karaan. Amusing coincidence that Barfi had a romantic song with literally the same title, in Hindi – Main Kya Karoon – although the coincidence ends there! Sonu aces it as expected, with the occasional Punjabi folk interventions from Romy. Not sure if this is the Forrest Gump comparison playing in my head, but I wonder if the song was modelled on Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head which was quite famously used in the movie – going by the mood, the instrumentation, the rhythm etc. There is even a clarinet that pops up in the second half (beautiful solo from Shirish Malhotra), like trumpets appear in Raindrops. None of this is a slight on Main Ki Karaan of course, the song is a gem.

That takes us to the serious half of the album. Tur Kalleyan is a motivational song that plays out almost like a sufi track. Once again the composer aces the melody – after a prelude by Arijit Singh, it is largely Shadab and Altamash Faridi’s show (good to see the brothers start to get quality songs again this year) who power through the soaring notes with practised ease, topping it off with some fab improvisations towards the end. Like Tur Kalleyan, Tere Hawaale too opens with an impassioned rendition from Arijit Singh, but continues along a mellower, prayer-like path, riding on Arijit and Shilpa Rao’s fabulous vocals, supported by some great harmonium and tabla. Loved how towards the end of Tere Hawaale, Pritam circles back to the segment that kicks off the song, except in Shilpa’s voice. If Kahaani and Main Ki Karaan were throwbacks to Pritam’s Barfi soundscape, Phir Na Aisi Raat Aayegi takes us even further back in time, to the songs the composer used to do for Emraan Hashmi-Mahesh Bhatt movies. It is nice to hear a song of this kind from the man after a long time – it still sounds as haunting, and Arijit does a fine job of matching the soulfulness through his voice. Even so, if I were to pick a song that doesn’t match the overall level of this soundtrack, it would be this one.

The last time Pritam and Amitabh Bhattacharya came together for an Aamir Khan movie, they produced the brilliant Dangal. Six years later, we have another musical gem on our hands in Laal Singh Chaddha!

Music Aloud Rating: 4/5

Top Recos: Kahaani, Main Ki Karaan, Tere Hawaale

PS: While listening to Phir Na Aisi Raat, I couldn’t help but wonder how it might have sounded in the voice of KK.

Soundtrack Credits

Kahani

Music – Pritam
Lyrics – Amitabh Bhattacharya
Singer – Mohan Kannan
Music Arrangement and Production – Jim Satya, Stefan Mathew, DJ Phukan & Sunny M.R.
Sound Design – DJ Phukan, Sunny M.R. & Ashwin Kulkarni
Mix & Master – Shadab Rayeen at New Edge
Chief Engineer & Shootmix – Ashwin Kulkarni
Music Production Manager – Anurag Sharma
Sound Engineers – Ashwin Kulkarni, Aniruddh Anantha, Pranav Gupta and Harjot Kaur
Vocal Conductors – Akashdeep Sengupta, Dev Arijit & Aniruddh Anantha
Mixing Assistant to Shadab – Pukhraj Sonkar and Anup Kumar

Musicians
Bass – Roland Fernandes & Pranab Das
Accordion – Satyajit Prabhu
Ethnic Stringed Instruments – Tapas Roy
Orchestra – Budapest Film Orchestra
Lead Orchestrator – Daryl Griffith
Orchestrator – James Yan
Score Editor – Wes Hicks
Session Conductor – Daryl Griffith
Orchestra Recording Engineers – Péter Barabás, Gergő Láposi
Orchestral Contractors – Kriszti Lőkös, Réka Lőkös, Csaba Lökös
Orchestral Production By – Maestro Music UK
Orchestra Contracted By – CLMusic
Orchestra Recorded At – Tom Tom Láng Studio, Budapest
Piano Performed By – Daryl Griffith
Piano Recorded At – Pannónia Studio, Budapest
Piano Recording Engineer – Tamás Dragon

Main Ki Karaan

Music – Pritam
Lyrics – Amitabh Bhattacharya
Singers – Sonu Nigam, Romy

Music Arrangement – Anurag Saikia, DJ Phukan, Sunny M.R. & Zafar Ansari
Sound Design – DJ Phukan, Sunny M.R. and Ashwin Kulkarni
Mix & Master – Eric Pillai at Future Sound of Bombay
Chief Engineer & Shootmix – Ashwin Kulkarni
Music Production Manager – Anurag Sharma

Sound Engineers – Ashwin Kulkarni, Aniruddh Anantha, Pranav Gupta and Harjot Kaur
Vocal Conductors – Akashdeep Sengupta, Dev Arijit & Aniruddh Anantha
Sound Engineer (at Yashraj Studios) – Vijay Dayal
Assistant to Vijay Dayal – Chinmay Mestry
Mixing Assistant to Eric – Michael Edwin Pillai

Musicians
Live Instruments Conducted by DJ Phukan and Anurag Saikia
Guitars – Ishaan Das
Ethnic Stringed Instruments – Tapas Roy
Clarinet – Shirish Malhotra
Whistler – Shubham Shirule
Backing Vocals Design and Perform – Anurag Saikia & Tushar Joshi
Chorus Arranger – Nikhil Paul George
Choral Arranging, Conducting & Soprano Solo – Timbre Cierpke
SONUS Choir: Joy Baker, Reagan Bunce, Tetra Cierpke, Timbre Cierpke, Sadie Dunn, Emily Hinkle, Rachel Stoltz & Danielle Taylor

Tur Kalleyan

Music – Pritam
Lyrics – Amitabh Bhattacharya
Singers – Arijit Singh, Shadab Faridi & Altamash Faridi
‘Tur Kalleyan’ phrase suggested by Kulvinder Bakshish Singh
Music Label: T-Series
Music Arrangement and Production – Himonshu Parikh, DJ Phukan & Sunny M.R.
Sound Design – DJ Phukan and Ashwin Kulkarni
Mix & Master – Shadab Rayeen at New Edge
Chief Engineer & Shootmix – Ashwin Kulkarni
Music Production Manager – Anurag Sharma
Sound Engineers – Ashwin Kulkarni, Aniruddh Anantha & Pranav Gupta
Vocal Conductors – Dev Arijit & Aniruddh Anantha
Backing vocals designed and performed by – Shubham Shirule, Ana Rehman & Himonshu Parikh
Mixing Assistant to Shadab – Pukhraj Sonkar and Anup Kumar
Music Production Assistant to Himonshu – Shirish Prakash Singh
Musicians: –
Guitars – Warren Mendonsa
Bass – Rajkumar Dewan
Ethnic Stringed Instruments – Tapas Roy
Tabla – Akshay Jadhav

Tere Hawaale

Music – Pritam
Lyrics – Amitabh Bhattacharya
Singer – Arijit Singh, Shilpa Rao

Phir Na Aisi Raat Aayegi

Music – Pritam
Lyrics – Amitabh Bhattacharya
Singer – Arijit Singh
Music Arrangement – DJ Phukan & Himonshu Parikh
Music Production – Himonshu Parikh
Additional Keys – Tanuj Tiku
Sound Design – DJ Phukan and Ashwin Kulkarni
Mix & Master – Eric Pillai at Future Sound of Bombay
Chief Engineer & Shootmix – Ashwin Kulkarni
Music Production Manager – Anurag Sharma
Sound Engineers – Ashwin Kulkarni, Aniruddh Anantha, Pranav Gupta and Harjot Kaur
Vocal Conductors – Dev Arijit, Aniruddh Anantha & Akashdeep Sengupta
Backing vocals designed and performed – Arjun Chandy
Recording Engineer at Arijit’s Studio – Sukanto Singha
Mixing Assistant to Eric – Michael Edwin Pillai
Musician:
Guitars – Krishna Pradhan

Label – T-Series

Songs and musician credits at the end. I have posted videos where available, since that is the best way to enjoy these songs.

Until a few days back, the wiki entry for Thallumaala translated the title to “Chain of fights” – they have since changed that to “Ballad of fights” which is what the translation provided at the cinema is as well. Maala translates both to a chain/garland, and poem/song (generally of a devotional nature). The movie’s title is a pun that works both ways; in fact the “chapters” within the movie are all puns themed on fights. Writer Muhsin Parari’s apparent love for wordplay percolates into the album’s songs as well – most of which he has penned – and is one of the highlights of the soundtrack for a pun-lover like me! The title song, Thallumaala Paattu (a play on Maala Paattu – maala song) has the composer (Vishnu Vijay) and writer riffing off a traditional song to create a heady ode to the movie’s five male protagonists. Vishnu makes brilliant use of Subani’s ethnic strings, and the refrain on Babu’s trumpet adds to the grand feel in the latter half – the singers do a great job as well. The song has a great lyric video on YouTube (a la Thee Minnal from Minnal Murali), but wait till you see the actual video – in a movie where the songs are pretty much perfectly in sync with the visual proceedings, this is still my favourite song video sequence. Kannil Pettole does not have a great melody, and probably deserved a stronger voice than Vishnu Vijay’s, but Irfana Habib’s rapping and the Arabic-infused arrangements elevate the song considerably (that oud/saz interlude by Subani is a banger!). And then there is the incredible video shot across Kerala and UAE, that could almost be the video for a Western pop song (also appears to draw from other such videos, for that matter). The abovementioned oud/saz interlude gets a brilliantly soulful reworking on Vishnu Vijay’s flute, in the second interlude of Tupathu, a quirky rap song that might have worked better with some other male voice instead of main man Tovino Thomas (although his female counterpart Shaktisree Gopalan sounds fab), but is very effective even so. Lot of clever analogies here for the lovers’ spat, ranging from oil wars to football references, although the English lines don’t work as well.

The drunken revelry in Ndaakkippaattu with its folk beats brings to mind Tamil songs of similar mood, like Tasakku Tasakku, especially with that onomatopoeic “Jj-ndaakku” refrain. Brilliant play by Parari again, repurposing the phrase that implies “you do it” to vocalise the song’s rhythm. Among the many references thrown in here (some of which are Malayalam pop culture ones likely to be lost on non-Malayalis) is a nod to Fight Club, a movie that is likely to have acted as an inspiration to Thallumaala on some level. The vocal department for this one appears to be comprised mostly of the actors, and for the largely conversational nature of the song, it works quite well. Excellent combination of horns and percussion to close the song. The flippant tone of Ole Melody sort of underplays how complex the song’s, uh.. melody (and the almost tongue-twisty lines) gets at times, but the composer has two extremely competent singers in Benny Dayal and Haricharan deal with it spectacularly. Brilliant composition (shades of bageshri raga in the tune, perhaps?) from Vishnu Vijay that alternates smoothly between reggae and qawwali modes, with some funny quips from actor Salim Kumar for garnish. Some of those transitions from the quieter moments into bursts of classical vocals took my mind back to this Amit Trivedi beauty from Coke Studio. Love the bass line on this one (not sure who the player is) and the understated use of Kishore Kumar’s sitar. My other favourite from the album is a guest composition by Dabzee and SA (of the hiphop band Manushyar) that, like Thallumaala Paattu, picks up a traditional tune to form the basis of an incredibly groovy tribute to Tovino’s character, called Manavaalan Thug. Once again there is a very swanky video adding to the song’s allure. Of the two BGM pieces, Grudge Song is an intense instrumental piece that features a woodwind (oboe or duduk, perhaps) cover of the Thallumaala Paattu melody. Thoottikkanoda Patha is the only song where the musicality is heavily sacrificed for the quirkiness aspect – it surely works for the sequence it appears in during the movie, but as a standalone song, it does not offer anything particularly enjoyable.

Thallumaala’s music is radically different from anything that Vishnu Vijay has produced in Malayalam movies thus far, and it is great to see him absolutely nail it in a new territory! He has some solid support from Muhsin Parari, of course. And a hat tip to Dabzee and SA as well, for their outstanding guest composition (a bit annoyed that this one never made it to the big screen though). Watching movies at the cinema and getting addicted to the music as a result is something I have sorely missed in recent times; delighted to have rediscovered that experience with this one!

Music Aloud Rating: 4/5

Top Recos: All of the vocal tracks, but start with Ole Melody and Manavaalan Thug!

Soundtrack Credits

Song : Thallumaala Paattu
Singers : Hrithik Jayakish, Neha Girish, Eshaan Sanil, Thejas Krishna, Vishnu Vijay
Lyrics : Mu.Ri
Music Composed, Arranged and Produced : Vishnu Vijay
Tune Courtesy : Traditional Maala Paattu
Guitar : Godfrey Emmanuel
Oud, Ruan, Saz : Subani
Trumpet : Babu
Artist manager :Vincent K D
Session manager : Deepesh Krishnamoorthy
Vocal Producer : Ramesh Vasudev
Recording Engineer : Divine Joseph (2barQ studios Chennai); Kashyap RamMohan (2bar Q Studios Chennai); Prince Joe (2bar Q studios, Chennai)
Mixing & Mastering Engineer : Sujith Sreedhar @ The Master House, 2 bar Q Studios Chennai
Lyric Video by : Venky

Song : Kannil Pettole
Singers : Vishnu Vijay, Irfana Hameed
Lyrics (Arabic & Malayalam) : Mu.Ri
Rap Lyrics : Irfana Hameed
Music Composed, Arranged and Produced : Vishnu Vijay
Brass : Babu
Oud, Ruan, Saz : Subhani
Session Manager & Vocal Producer : Deepesh Krishnamoorthy
Recording Engineers : Divine Joseph (2barQ Studios Chennai), Kashyap RamMohan (2barQ studios Chennai), Prince Joe (2barQ studios, Chennai), Nishant (NHQ, Kochi)
Mixing & Mastering Engineer: Sujith Sreedhar @ The Master House, 2barQ Studios, Chennai

Song : Tupathu
Singers : Tovino Thomas, Vishnu Vijay, Shakthisree Gopalan
Lyrics : Mu.Ri
Music Composed, Arranged and Produced : Vishnu Vijay
Flute : Vishnu vijay
Guitar : Godfrey Emmanuel
Artist Manager : Vincent K D
Session Manager : Deepesh Krishnamoorthy
Vocal Producer : Ramesh Vasudev
Recording Engineer : Divine Joseph (2barQ Studios Chennai); Kashyap RamMohan (2bar Q Studios Chennai); Prince Joe (2bar Q Studios, Chennai)
Mixing & Mastering Engineer : Sujith Sreedhar @ The Master House, 2 bar Q Studios Chennai

Song : Ndaakkippaattu
Vocals : Vishnu Vijay, Muhsin Parari, Shenbagaraj, Santhosh Hariharan, Sreeraj, Swathi Das, Austin Dan, Lukman Avaran, Adri Joe, Gokulan, Binu Pappu
Lyrics : Mu.Ri
Music Composed, Arranged and Produced : Vishnu Vijay
Percussions : Krishna Kishore
Session Manager : Deepesh Krishnamoorthy
Vocal Producer : Ramesh Vasudev
Recording Engineer : Divine Joseph (2barQ Studios, Chennai) ; Kashyap Ram Mohan (2barQ Studios, Chennai) ; Prince Joe (2barQ Studios, Chennai) ; Shiju Ediyatheril (Audiogene Sound Studios)
Mixing & Mastering Engineer : Sujith Sreedhar @ The Master House, 2barQ Studios, Chennai

Song : Ole Melody
Vocals : Haricharan Seshadri, Benny Dayal, Salim Kumar, Vishnu Vijay
Lyrics : Mu.Ri
Music Composed, Arranged and Produced : Vishnu Vijay
Sitar : Kishore kumar
Tabla & Dolak : Sruthi Raj, Kiran
Session manager : Deepesh Krishnamoorthy
Vocal Producer : Ramesh Vasudev
Recording Engineer : Divine Joseph (2barQ studios Chennai); Kashyap RamMohan (2bar Q studios Chennai); Prince Joe (2bar Q studios, Chennai)
Mixing & Mastering Engineer : Sujith Sreedhar @ The Master House, 2 bar Q studios Chennai
Lyric Video by : Boby Rajan & Akshay Kammatipadam

Song: Manavaalan Thug
Music Composed & Arranged by : DABZEE
Written & Performed by : DABZEE & SA
Music Produced : MHR
Mix n Master : Ashbin Paulson
Chorus : DABZEE, SA, Babyjean
Studio : Mixlabs Studios, Bangalore
Subtitles : Leon Vincent

Songs and album credits at the end.

The soundtrack’s first three songs – Muthu’s Journey, Kaalathukkum Nee Venum, Marakkuma Nenjam (well, two songs technically, Muthu’s Journey is an abridged version of Marakkuma Nenjam, presumably the piece that accompanied the movie’s teaser that came out last year) – play out almost like a single, long pleasant track. The two songs have multiple elements in common; both have ARR channeling a delightful 90s sound, both start off fairly similarly, and with minimal percussion before the folk beats kick in during the interlude alongside the backing vocals, and in both the tracks, if one were to pick up a weak link, it would be the male vocals, particularly in Kaalathukkum.. It is especially frustrating when you think of what a perfect song this might have been if not for Silambarasan TR’s singing. Rakshita Suresh is exceptional in her delivery of Thamarai’s lines, the arrangement is splendid, highlighted by Kareem Kamalakar and Kiran’s flute solos (love the touch of melancholy in the second interlude), the spaced out use of folk percussions et al. In Marakkuma Nenjam, it is A R Rahman himself leading the singing, and while his delivery isn’t exactly top-drawer either, the earnestness in his voice does make up for it to an extent. Nevertheless, the song properly takes off when he goes Pulla at the end of his first verse and passes the baton to the female chorus! It is Keba Jeremiah’s work on the guitars and bass, especially that lovely rhythm he provides right from the get-go, that particularly stands out in the backdrop of this track.

Back in 2020, ARR featured Shreya Ghoshal’s vocals in the beautiful waltz Taare Ginn. In VTK she gets to sing a similarly dreamy track that also carries a European-esque sound – Unnai Nenachadhum. The lyrics and the melody appear to be referencing a much older period, and Shreya and Sarthak Kalyani are on point with their rendition. There are times when the song takes me back to Innum Konjam Neram from Maryan, especially in the interlude when the kanjira is introduced. Love how an instrument called mugaveena (a predecessor of naadaswaram, apparently, played here by one of the foremost exponents of the instrument, Mambalam Sivakumar) has been used almost like a clarinet here. ARR songs have always been one of the primary reasons that I learned about the existence of a lot of musical instruments. Good to add two more to that list, mugaveena and ghatasinghari (which I assume is a variant of ghatam) thanks to this album. Sivakumar’s mugaveena makes a reappearance, in a more conventional form, in the surprise number of the album – Mallipoo. ARR seems to venture into the gaana zone with this one, a genre I am not sure he has tried before, and the result is a brilliantly quirky and addictive song – that machaan yeppo vara pora hook is likely to stay in your head for a really long time! Solid melody from the composer here, sindhubhairavi raga baased, possibly, and Madhushree handles it perfectly.

Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu. A R Rahman’s third album with GVM and STR. And if I were to rank the three albums, this would come second, after Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya. A great set of songs, occasionally let down by the vocal choices.

PS: Absolutely loving the kind of stuff that ARR has been dabbling in, this second half of 2022!

Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5

Top Recos: Mallipoo, Unnai Nenachadhum, Marakkuma Nenjam

Soundtrack Credits

Song Name – Mallippoo

Singer – Madhushree

Backing Vocals – Sivaangi Krish, Shenbagaraj, Santhosh Hariharan, Narayanan Ravishankar, Swagat Rathod, Sarthak Kalyani

Lyrics – Thamarai

Musicians

Live Rhythm – Krishna Kishore & Iniyan

Mugaveena – Mambalam Sivakumar

Music Supervisor – AH Kaashif

Project Manager – Karthik Sekaran

Sound Engineers –

Panchathan Record inn – Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh, Sarthak Kalyani

Mixed by – Nitish R Kumar

Mastered by – Suresh Permal

Apple Digital Master by – Riyasdeen Riyan

Musician Coordinator – Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum, T M Faizudeen

Song Name – Marakuma Nenjam/Muthu’s Journey

Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A.R.Rahman

Singer – A.R.Rahman

Lyrics – Thamarai

Musicians

Ghatasinghari  – Vedha

Guitars & Bass – Keba Jeramiah

Strings – Sunshine Orchestra

Conducted by Srikant Krishna

Orchestrated by Prashanth Venkat

Backing Vocals –

Rakshita Suresh, Deepthi Suresh, Suryansh Aravind Srinivas, Shenbagaraj, Sarath Santhosh, Aparna Harikumar, Vrusha Balu, Padmaja Sreenivasan

Music Supervisor – AH Kaashif

Additional Programming – Nakul Abhyankar , Suryansh

Vocal Arrangement – Suryansh

Sound Engineers –

Panchathan Record Inn – Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh, Shubham Bhat, Sarthak Kalyani

AM Studios – Sivakumar S, Sathya Narayanan, Ainul

Mixed by Pradeep Menon

Mastered by  Suresh Permal

Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan

Musician Coordinators – Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum, Siddique, T M Faizudeen

Additional programming – Nakul Abhyankar, Suryansh

Vocal Arrangement – Suryansh

Song name – Kaalathukkum Nee Venum

Lyrics – Thamarai

Singers – Silambarasan TR, Rakshita Suresh

Song composed produced and arranged by AR Rahman

Musicians

Charango – Keba Jeremiah

Flute – Kareem Kamalakar, Kiran

Additional Vocals and Programming – Nakul Abhyankar

Sound Engineers – Suresh Perumal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh

Mixed by Krishna Chetan

Mastered by Suresh Permal

Apple Digital Masters

Riyasdeen Riyan

Musician Coordinator – Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum, Siddique, TM Faizudeen

Song – Unna Nenachadhum

Composer – A.R.Rahman

Singers – Shreya Ghoshal, Sarthak Kalyani

Lyrics – Thamarai

Musicians

Live Rhythm – Krishna Kishore & Iniyan

Mugaveena – Mambalam Sivakumar

Music Supervisor – AH Kaashif

Project Manager – Karthik Sekaran

Sound Engineers –

Panchathan Record inn – Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh, Sarthak Kalyani

Mixed by Nitish R Kumar

Mastered by Suresh Permal

Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan

Musician Coordinator – Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum, T M Faizudeen

Songs and soundtrack credits at the end.

Happened to watch Chup over the weekend. Director Balki employs multiple elements in the movie to pay tribute to master director Guru Dutt, prominent among them being SD Burman’s songs from Dutt’s movies Pyaasa and Kagaz Ke Phool; and one of the things that is indelibly stuck in your head – thanks to its placement in the movie’s promos as well – is that cricket chirp-ish wooden percussion from Jaane Kya Tune Kahi. So, here’s an instrument whose sound has not been heard in the mainstream in a long, long time – imagine the odds that it suddenly finds use in two totally unrelated movies at around the same time (I assume it is the same instrument in both places, because the sound is pretty much the same – not sure what exactly it is, could be Chinese temple blocks or something like the instrument that is shown in this song)! The other place is of course the backdrop of my favourite song from Ponniyin Selvan, Alaikadal. And that percussion contributes immensely to the song’s appeal; A R Rahman appears to have drawn from yesteryear boat songs in its use (this thread explores some such songs), since Poonguzhali on whom the song is pictured is a boat woman as well. Rahman’s melody is a beauty, dominantly melancholic, but with the occasional hint of happiness, in perfect reflection of Siva Ananth’s lines (I understand that Kalki had written a poem himself in the book for this situation, but bar the title, that has not been recreated here, although the gist remains the same) Debutante (I think) Antara Nandy is exceptional in her delivery, and the backdrop is understated when she sings, largely comprised of the earlier-mentioned percussion, Lydia Stankulova’s harp and subtle use of strings that are responsible for the atmospheric feel. There is a second song in the album that is more obviously set around water/boat – Sol. The arrangements are replete with sounds of rowing, bubbles etc – even the way the singer(s) (just Rakshita Suresh credited, perhaps multiple tracks sung by her) sings Sol seems to almost mimic the bubble sound. Lovely song whose only problem is how short it is – the humming that happens throughout the song, its placement alternating between the foreground and background, gives it a charming, retro feel. Rakshita is in top form, conveying the flippant, conversational tone perfectly.

The soulful flute prelude (Kamalakar) belies the lively, playful track that Raatchasa Maamaney turns out to be – a dance drama setting I am told, a dialogue between Krishna and Kamsa (at this point I need to thank @aakripasta for being my Ponniyin Selvan subject matter expert). And Shreya Ghoshal absolutely rules this one with a flawless rendition of Kabilan’s lines, punctuated by Palakkad Sreeram and Mahesh Vinayakram’s fittingly “demonic” chants. In a track that is quite percussion-driven, there is a marked change in the instruments used to accompany the female and male portions – the lead percussion for Shreya’s segments sounds like a khol. Also worth mentioning is the kids’ chorus that also accompanies Shreya in both her verses. The frenzied give-and-take towards the end of the song has Sreeram and Mahesh doing some konnakol (vocalisation of percussion) which explains why Rahman chose two percussionists as male vocalists. The song that occasionally came to mind while listening to this track was interestingly not an ARR song, but an Anu Malik one – O Re Kanchi from Ashoka. Although Devaralan Attam credits Yogi Sekar as the lead vocalist, it is the chorus that is the star of this one. The composer incorporates Balinese kecak chants here, that gradually transition to Tamil chants in a similar fervid vein, and then to Yogi’s brief albeit soulful ode. Even while he sings, the chorus is doing their thing in the backdrop (very curious what that bass instrument is that plays short notes during Yogi’s segment; confused whether it is a wind instrument, kind of in the tuba range, or the twang of some string instrument being plucked) – lending the song a hypnotic effect. It is only the dum dum dum re refrain that I haven’t quite warmed up to. Ponni Nadhi starts off promisingly with the prelude by Bamba Bakya (who unfortunately passed away a few days back) and A R Raihanah, but where it gets waylaid is in the composer’s own lead vocals. It had all the elements otherwise to be a proper catchy track that sort of harks back to Mohenjodaro, but alas.  Chola Chola is the album’s weakest track, coming across as a standard heroic anthem whose appeal maybe enhanced by the movie visuals. That said, lyricist Ilango Krishnan does a fine job of adapting Kalki’s prose here.

The last two songs aside (which ironically are the ones the label decided to lead with), Ponniyin Selvan features the best songs that A R Rahman has produced for Mani Ratnam in a while! Excited to see these onscreen (and I assume that this one has a lot of background tracks as well – like this, hopefully)!

Music Aloud Rating: 4/5

Top Recos: Alaikadal, Devaralan Attam, Raatchasa Maamaney, Sol

Soundtrack Credits

Song Title: Alaikadal
Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A.R.Rahman
Singer: Antara Nandy
Lyrics: Siva Ananth
Lyric Video: Venky
Music Supervisor:Nakul Abhyankar
Project Manager: Karthik Sekaran
Musicians –
Chennai Strings & Sunshine Orchestra
Conducted by Jerry Vincent
Solo Violin : Vignesh
Harpist: Lydia Stankulova (Firdaus Orchestra)
Recording Engineer: Peter ElKhoury
Assistant Engineer(s) : Theodore Danso & Ali Hassan
Recorded at “Firdaus Studio by A.R Rahman, Expo City Dubai”
Additional Programming: Nakul Abhyankar, Shubham Bhat
Sound Engineers:
Panchathan Record inn
Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, TR Krishna Chetan, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh
AM Studios
Pradeep Menon, Manoj Raman, Aravind MS, Sathya, Ainul, Sathish V Saravanan
Mixed by Pradvay Sivashankar
Mastered by Suresh Permal
Dolby Music Mixed and Mastered by Riyasdeen Riyan
Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator: Samidurai R, Velavan B, Abdul Haiyum, T M Faizudeen

Song Title: Sol
Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A.R.Rahman
Singer: Rakshita Suresh
Lyrics: Krithika Nelson
Lyric Video: Venky
Music Supervisor: Nakul Abhyankar
Project Manager: Karthik Sekaran
Sound Engineers:
Panchathan Record inn
Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, TR Krishna Chetan, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh
Mixed and Mastered By Suresh Permal
Dolby Music Mixed and Mastered By : Riyasdeen Riyan
Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator: Samidurai R, Velavan B, Abdul Haiyum, T M Faizudeen

Song Title: Ratchasa Maamaney
Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A.R.Rahman
Singers: Shreya Ghoshal, Palakkad Sreeram, Mahesh Vinayakram
Kids Chorus: Ahana Balaji, Pranita N, JB Shaswin Azhvar, Samyukth A, Kanishkar A
Lyrics: Kabilan
Music Supervisor: Nakul Abhyankar
Project Manager: Karthik Sekaran
Lyric Video: Venky
Musicians:
Percussion – Sai Shravanam, Krishna Kishore, Lakshminarayanan, Praveen Sparsh
Flute – Kamalakar
Additional Programming: Nakul Abhyankar, Srikant Krishna
Sound Engineers:
Panchathan Record inn
Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, TR Krishna Chetan, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh
AM Studios
Pradeep Menon, Manoj Raman, Aravind MS, Sathya, Ainul, Sathish V Saravanan
Mixed by Pradeep Menon
Mastered by Suresh Permal
Dolby Music Mixed and Mastered By : Riyasdeen Riyan
Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator: Samidurai R, Velavan B, Abdul Haiyum, T M Faizudeen

Song Title: Devaralan Aattam
Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A.R.Rahman
Singer: Yogi Sekar
Chants : Dr. Narayanan, Deepak Subrahmanyam, Jithin Raj GR, Santosh Hariharan, P Sai Sharan, Shenbagaraj G, G Vignesh Narayanan, Keshav Vinod, Renjith Unni, R Sudarshan, K Ajay, Syed Subahan IBN, Rakshita Suresh
Lyrics: Ilango Krishnan
Music Supervisor: Nakul Abhyankar
Project Manager: Karthik Sekaran
Lyric Video: Venky
Musicians:
Percussion – Krishna Kishore, Guberan
Additional Rhythm : Nakul Abhyankar ,Kumaran Sivamani
Sound Engineers:
Panchathan Record inn
Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, TR Krishna Chetan, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh
AM Studios
Pradeep Menon, Manoj Raman, Aravind MS, Sathya, Ainul, Sathish V Saravanan
Mixed by Nitish R Kumar
Mastered by Suresh Permal
Dolby Music Mixed and Mastered By : Riyasdeen Riyan
Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator: Samidurai R, Velavan B, Abdul Haiyum, T M Faizudeen

Song Title: Ponni Nadhi
Song Composed and Arranged by A.R.Rahman
Singers: A.R.Rahman, AR Raihanah, Bamba Bakya
Lyrics: Ilango Krishnan
Music Supervisor: Nakul Abhyankar
Lyrical Supervision: Sreekanth Hariharan
Lyric Video – Venky
Musicians:
Shehnai – Balesh
Flute – Kamalakar
Violin – Vignesh
String Instruments – SM Subhani
Percussion – Guberan, Ranjith, Hariprasad, Kishore
Lead Drummer – SIVAMANI
Backing Vocals: Sarthak Kalyani, Swagat Rathod, Rakshita Suresh, Pooja Tiwari, Aparna Narayanan, Aparna Harikumar, Vrusha Balu, Pooja Venkat, Anu Anand
Additional Programming: Nakul Abhyankar, Shubham Bhat
Rhythm Programming: Kumaran Sivamani
Sound Engineers: Panchathan Record inn
Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Cresendo, Suryansh, Sarthak Kalyani, Nitish R Kumar
AM Studios
Sivakumar, Pradeep Menon, Manoj Raman, Sathya, Ainul
Mixed by Suresh Permal
Mastered by Suresh Permal
Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator: Samidurai R, Velavan B, Abdul Haiyum, Siddique, T M Faizudeen

Song Title: Chola Chola
Song Composed and Arranged by A.R.Rahman
Singers: Sathya Prakash, VM Mahalingam & Nakul Abhyankar
Lyrics: Ilango Krishnan
Music Supervisor: Nakul Abhyankar
Language Supervision: Srinivasa Murthy
Lyric Video: Venky
Musicians:
Flute – Kamalakar
String Instruments – SM Subhani
Percussion – Guberan, Ranjith, Hariprasad, Kishore
Chennai Strings & Sunshine Orchestra
Conducted by Jerry Vincent
Sunshine Brass
Conducted by Lisa
Orchestrated by Prashanth Venkat
Orchestra: Budapest Art Orchestra
Conductor: Peter Pejtsik
East Connection Music Recording, Studio 22
Pro Tools Engineer: David Lukacs
Recording Engineer: Gabor Buczko
Contractor/Session Producer : Miklos Lukacs
Additional Programming: Nakul Abhyankar, Shubham Bhat & Srikant Krishna
Rhythm Programming: Kumaran Sivamani
Sound Engineers:
Panchathan Record inn
Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, TR Krishna Chetan, Aravind Cresendo, Suryansh
AM Studios
Pradeep Menon, Manoj Raman, Sathya, Ainul, Sathish V Saravanan
AR Rahman Mumbai studio – R NITISH KUMAR
Mixed by Suresh Permal
Mastered by Suresh Permal
Dolby Music Mixed and Mastered By : Riyasdeen Riyan
Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator: Samidurai R, Velavan B, Abdul Haiyum, T M Faizudeen

Songs and complete soundtrack credits at the end.

Qala’s director Anvitaa Dutt gets the perennially underrated Sagar Desai to do a guest composition for the soundtrack – Udh Jaayega by Sant Kabir. The song is a bhajan that you will find multiple renditions of on Youtube, by Pt. Kumar Gandharv, Rahul Deshpande etc. If you are familiar with Sagar’s previous works, particularly the movie Ankhon Dekhi, you will already know why it is a great idea to get the man for such a track. And the man absolutely does not disappoint here, with his own classical-flavoured (raag bhimplasi perhaps?) take on the poem. Shahid Mallya, the singing voice for the male protagonist of the movie (played by Babil Khan) – a choice evocative of the era the movie is set in – is in fabulous form singing this one, even as he is matched in brilliance by his two accompanists, Sarang Kulkarni (sarod) and Satyajeet Talwalkar (tabla).  In keeping with the essence of the bhajan genre, Sagar ends the song on a frenetic note with a chorus joining the singer. For people yet to watch the movie, the composer has also done a fine job with the movie’s BGM.  Kabir’s lines feature in one more song titled Nirbhau Nirvair, but here, it is largely Anvita Dutt riffing off the poet’s words and philosophy to create another devotional piece.  Also a Shahid Mallya solo act, this one is bread-and-butter stuff for the singer who has excelled at Punjabi folk songs right from his Mausam days.  Amit Trivedi’s orchestration is simple yet again – and this is a running theme throughout the soundtrack, for obvious reasons – it is Tapas Roy’s rabab (which at times takes my mind to Dilbaro from Raazi) and Akhlak Warsi’s harmonium that dominate the backdrop in addition to Madhav Pawar’s tabla. Phero Na Najariya defines a pivotal moment for Tripti Dimri’s Qala in the movie, and Kausar Munir’s words, written in a very period-appropriate colloquial tone, beautifully conveys the character’s pleas for validation. Lovely soulful melody from Amit Trivedi here that is aced by Sireesha Bhagavatula, Dimri’s musical voice in the movie. I love how each song highlights different instruments; in this one it is sitar (Bhagirath Bhatt) and sarangi (Dilshad Khan) adding beautifully to the pathos.

Quite difficult to pick favourites in this album, but the other half of the soundtrack is what I like slightly more than the above three tracks. First of those, Shauq, accompanies a placid evening setting on a boat, and the song is very reflective of that (did I sense the faintest nod to Deewana Hua Baadal?). Amit’s extremely soothing and hummable melody is bolstered by an arrangement that features a lot of breezy, water-evocative touches, like Mangesh Jagtap’s santoor and some fine woodwind from I D Rao. Note the mention of Chandan Singh, credited for “song violin”, as he does exactly that – shadowing the singers throughout the song. Varun Grover is the lyricist for this one, and his words are replete with metaphors that brilliantly invoke the song’s setting. Speaking of Grover, he also plays a lyricist in the movie (named Majrooh!) who at one point makes a joke about how you could hide a corpse in a song’s third antara since nobody listens to it. And this is one thing that felt uncharacteristic about the soundtrack – let alone a third verse, none of the songs bar Shauq even features a second antara. Shauq is also the only song to feature a third singer – Swanand Kirkire, who has incidentally penned another song in the movie, doing a cameo at the start of the piece. The two songs that seem to stay truest to the film songs of the era are Ghodey Pe Sawaar written by Amitabh Bhattacharya and Rubaaiyaan written by Swanand Kirkire. The former is a Sireesha show all the way as she recreates the yesteryear feel in her singing with aplomb. Spectacular orchestration from Amit here – I have always considered the use of harmonium/accordion as an indicator of Amit Trivedi’s form – you will find a lot of his old tracks that substantiate this theory – and it makes me very happy to hear some fine specimens of both instruments in this album, even if it is to maintain that authentic feel. In Ghodey Pe Sawaar it is Satyajeet Prabhu with the accordion. Finally, Rubaaiyaan – probably the song I would pick as my top favourite, gun to my head – has Shahid Mallya seemingly channeling the likes of the great K L Saigal (and not in a Chetan Shashital in Saigal Blues kind of way). Although the melody is a bit light-hearted, there is a touch of melancholy in Kirkire’s lines, and the instrumental passages too carry a sense of foreboding. Special mention to I D Rao’s work on what sounds like oboe/clarinet, that creates some beautiful harmonies with Mallya’s singing. Also loved the cameo from Sireesha towards the end.

Anvitaa Dutt makes up for the lack of songs in her debut movie, in style! And in a year that has seen Amit Trivedi deliver in quantity but not so much in quality (10 movie soundtracks, which is probably the highest he has ever had in any year), it is heartening to finally see a soundtrack that shows us what the man can produce when he is really..on song! And like I wish every time I hear a new work of his, here’s hoping that we get to hear Sagar Desai more and more.

Music Aloud Rating: 4/5

Top Recos: All of them!

Soundtrack Credits

Ghodey Pe Sawaar

Composed By: Amit Trivedi

Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya

Singer: Sireesha Bhagavatula

Crew

Produced By: Sunny Subramanian & Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer (At Studios): Urmila Sutar

Recording Engineers (Yrf Studios): Vijay Dayal, Chinmay Mistry

Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen

New Edge Assistant Engineers: Pukhraj & Anup

Manager (At Studios): Shruti Shah

Live Musicians

Song Violin: Chandan Singh

Mandolin: Laxmikanth Sharma

Accordion: Satyajeet Prabhu

Violin: Chandan Singh, S Rao, Mohan Goyal, Dharmendra Jawda, Jitendra Jawda, Sanjay Verma, Dilshad Ahmed

Dholak: Girish Vishwa, Hafeez Khan

Percussion: Deepak Borkar

Woodwinds: I D Rao

Rubaaiyaan

Composed by: Amit Trivedi

Lyrics: Swanand Kirkire

Singers: Shahid Mallya, Sireesha Bhagavatula

Crew

Produced By: Sunny Subramanian & Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer (At Studios): Urmila Sutar

Recording Engineers (Yrf Studios): Vijay Dayal, Chinmay Mistry

Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen

New Edge Assistant Engineers: Pukhraj & Anup

Manager (At Studios): Shruti Shah

Live Musicians

Song Violin: Chandan Singh

Mandolin: Laxmikanth Sharma

Violin: Chandan Singh, S Rao, Mohan Goyal, Dharmendra Jawda, Jitendra Jawda, Sanjay Verma, Dilshad Ahmed

Dholak: Girish Vishwa, Hafeez Khan

Percussion: Deepak Borkar

Woodwinds: I D Rao

Veena: Narayan Mani

Sarod: Indrayudh Mujumdar

Shauq

Composed By: Amit Trivedi

Lyrics: Varun Grover

Singers: Swanand Kirkire, Shahid Mallya, Sireesha Bhagavatula

Crew

Produced By: Sunny Subramanian & Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer (At Studios): Urmila Sutar

Recording Engineers (YRF Studios): Vijay Dayal, Chinmay Mistry

Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen

New Edge Assistant Engineers: Pukhraj & Anup

Manager(At Studios): Shruti Shah

Live Musicians

Song Violin: Chandan Singh

Woodwinds: I D Rao

Percussion: Deepak Borkar

Veena: Narayan Mani

Santoor: Mangesh Jagtap

Sarod: Indrayudh Mujumdar

Phero Na Najariya

Composed by: Amit Trivedi

Lyrics: Kausar Munir

Singer: Sireesha Bhagavatula

Crew

Produced by: Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer (At Studios): Urmila Sutar, Vijay Dayal, Abhishek Khandelwal, Dileep Nair

Recording Engineers (YRF Studios): Vijay Dayal, Abhishek Khandelwal, Dileep Nair

Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen

New Edge Assistant Engineers: Pukhraj & Anup

Manager(At Studios): Shruti Shah, Aditya Hanchinal

Live Musicians

Tabla: Satyajit Jamsandekar

Side Rhythm: Deepak Borkar

Harmonium: Akhlak Warsi

Sitar: Bhagirath Bhatt

Sarangi: Dilshad Khan

Vibraphone: Deepak Deo

Nirbhau Nirvair

Composed By: Amit Trivedi

Lyrics: Sant Kabir & Anvitaa Dutt

Singer: Shahid Mallya

Crew

Produced By: Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer (At Studios): Urmila Sutar

Recording Engineers (YRF Studios): Vijay Dayal, Abhishek Khandelwal, Dileep Nair

Mixed & Mastered By: Shadab Rayeen

New Edge Assistant Engineers: Pukhraj & Anup

Manager (At Studios): Shruti Shah, Aditya Hanchinal

Live Musicians

Tabla: Madhav Pawar

Side Rhythm: Deepak Borkar

Harmonium: Akhlak Warsi

Rabab: Tapas Roy

Vibraphone: Deepak Deo

Udh Jayega

Composed by: Sagar Desai

Lyrics: Sant Kabir

Singer: Shahid Mallya

Live Musicians

Tabla: Satyajeet Talwalkar

Sarod: Sarang Kulkarni

Welcome to Music Aloud’s annual roundup #14!  A couple of changes this time around, mostly incorporating feedback I have received for the previous editions. Firstly, I have included separate (but slightly smaller) lists for Telugu, Kannada and Marathi instead of bunching everything up into one “Other Language Films” set. On the flip side though, that didn’t leave me with enough time to do a web series list or an instrumental/BGM list (both of which had some great stuff this year). Secondly, instead of doing a 25 + 5 honorary mentions system, I have decided to go with a set of 30 in every such case, since some people have in the past been unhappy about the final 5 not being included in the playlists etc. Everything else remains the same – I have gone by movie release year as usual, and the format for all film music remains Song title (Movie title) – Music Director(s)|Lyricist(s)|Singer(s). And the artwork comes as always from the dearest and most amazing @cookydoh!

Hope you enjoy the roundup, and wish you all a happy and peaceful 2023!

In case you don’t scroll down till the end of the piece, all playlists have been consolidated into one 186-song long playlist on Apple (one song short) and Spotify, since some people asked for it. Perhaps you can run it on shuffle at your convenience – you might end up discovering some great songs from languages you don’t usually follow.

Hindi

Playlist: Apple Music   |   Spotify   |   YouTube

It wasn’t a very exciting year for Bollywood; we had good songs come out every now and then, but very few soundtracks that stood out as a whole. On a heartening note though, the drop in remix numbers since 2020, seems to be here to stay (touch wood!), since there were very few songs of the kind even after things returning to near-normalcy in the industry this year. Instead, there seems to be a love for the retro sound itself burgeoning – albums like Amit Trivedi’s Qala and Achint’s Monica O My Darling being prime examples, and this was not just a Bollywood thing either – I for one would not mind it at all if this were to replace the remix trend, especially along the lines of Qala.  The year saw Amit Trivedi compose for as many as 10 Hindi soundtracks (and a couple outside of it too), the most he has done in any year. And yet a large chunk of those albums went by without creating so much as a ripple – a notable exception being the brilliant Qala (I do look forward to catching up on Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat after this roundup – Amit with Anurag Kashyap has rarely disappointed). It was Pritam who instead owned the year delivering some incredible diversity across the four movies he worked on (of which you will find Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 missing in this list, since all my favourites from the album are recreations, and given a choice, I always pick originals over recreations ). Man seems to be back in prime form, and I am particularly excited for his reunion with Anurag Basu in 2023. The other old timers mostly delivered an album apiece of note – it was nice to see even Shantanu Moitra do a full soundtrack in Hindi after a long gap. Among the newer crop, Parag Chhabra (Good Luck Jerry, An Action Hero), OAFF (Gehraiyaan) and Nilotpal Bora (Jaadugar) impressed with their first full Bollywood soundtracks – hoping to hear more from them in the coming years.

1  Rubaiyaan (Qala) – Amit Trivedi|Swanand Kirkire|Shahid Mallya, Sireesha Bhagavathula

2  Kahaani (Laal Singh Chaddha) – Pritam|Amitabh Bhattacharya|Mohan Kannan

3  Hum Thay Seedhe Saadhe (Badhaai Do) – Amit Trivedi|Varun Grover|Shashaa Tirupati

4  Beqaboo (Gehraiyaan) – OAFF, Savera|Kausar Munir|Savera, Shalmali Kholgade

5  Meri Jaan (Gangubai Kathiawadi) – Sanjay Leela Bhansali|Kumaar|Neeti Mohan

6  Baaki Sab Theek (Bhediya) – Sachin-Jigar|Amitabh Bhattacharya|Sachin Sanghvi, Jigar Saraiya & Amitabh Bhattacharya

7  Paracetamol (Good Luck Jerry) – Parag Chhabra|Raj Shekhar|Jubin Nautiyal, Parag Chhabra

8  Baadal Se Dosti (Jhund) – Ajay Atul|Amitabh Bhattacharya|Sid Sriram

9  Tere Hawaale (Laal Singh Chaddha) – Pritam|Amitabh Bhattacharya|Arijit Singh, Shilpa Rao

10 Shauq (Qala) – Amit Trivedi|Varun Grover|Swanand Kirkire, Shahid Mallya, Sireesha Bhagavatula

11 Rasiya (Brahmastra) – Pritam|Amitabh Bhattacharya|Tushar Joshi, Shreya Ghoshal

12 Dil Ki Gali (Jayeshbhai Jordaar) – Vishal Sheykhar|Jaideep Sahni|Katyayani, Sheykhar Ravjiani

13 Beqaraar (Looop Lapeta) – Santanu Ghatak|Santanu Ghatak|Ronkini Gupta & Raghav Kaushik

14 Fitoor (Shamshera) – Mithoon|Karan Malhotra|Neeti Mohan, Arijit Singh

15 Dhoop Paani (Sherdil) – Shantanu Moitra|Gulzar|KK, Rituraj

16 Ghodey Pe Sawaar (Qala) – Amit Trivedi|Amitabh Bhattacharya|Sireesha Bhagavatula

17 Kaala Jaadu (Freddy) – Pritam|Irshad Kamil, Shloke Lal|Arijit Singh, Nikhita Gandhi

18 Jaadugari (Jaadugar) – Nilotpal Bora|Hussain Haidry|Tushar Joshi

19 Main Toh Main Hoon (Mili) – A R Rahman|Javed Akhtar|Abhilasha Sinha

20 La Ilaaj (Darlings) – Vishal Bhardwaj|Gulzar|Arijit Singh

21 Doobey (Gehraiyaan) – OAFF, Savera|Kausar Munir|Lothika

22 Jab Saiyaan (Gangubai Kathiawadi) – Sanjay Leela Bhansali|A M Turaz|Shreya Ghoshal

23 Meri Jaan (RK/RKay) – Sagar Desai|Hussain Haidry|Shaan

24 Kaisi Baatein (Modern Love Mumbai) – Jeet Gannguli|Sameer Rahat|Sonu Nigam

25 Love You So Much – I Want To Kill You (Monica, O My Darling) – Achint|Achint|Sarita Vaz

26 Ghere (An Action Hero) – Parag Chhabra|Vayu, D’Evil|Vivek Hariharan, Parag Chhabra, D’Evil

27 Tafriyan (Jogi) – Sameer Uddin|Shellee|Neha Bhasin, Devenderpal Singh

28 Rangi Sari (Jugg Jugg Jeeyo) – Kavita Seth, Kanishk Seth|Traditional|Kavita Seth, Kanishk Seth

29 Raat Bhar (Modern Love Mumbai) – Vishal Bhardwaj|Vishal Bhardwaj|Meiyang Chang

30 Jogan (Good Luck Jerry) – Parag Chhabra|Raj Shekhar|Romy, Rupali Jagga, Nikhita Gandhi & Parag Chhabra

Malayalam

Playlist:   Apple Music   |   Spotify   |   YouTube

If I were to pick one favourite soundtrack from across all languages this year, it would be Vishnu Vijay’s Thallumaala. Having watched pretty much all the movies this year whose soundtracks I loved, I did not find another movie where the music was as integral and aligned with the visuals as it was in this one – and what a spectacle it was! Thallumaala’s folk-centric music represents a sort of peak of the steady rise in folk influence that has been seen in Malayalam music over the past couple of years – even outside of Thallumaala we have had some lovely folk flavoured songs this year, and as a lover of all things folk and classical, I couldn’t be happier about this trend. Another notable musical work of the year was Hridayam from Hesham Abdul Wahab – an album that brought with it some nice throwback elements like songs being released in cassettes and CDs, and even being released online as a Side A and Side B set. Two other highlights of the year were A R Rahman returning to the industry after about 30 years (Malayankunju) and Vidyasagar reuniting with director Lal Jose since 2013 (Solomonte Theneechakal). Justin Varghese, one of my favourite current gen composers, seemed to have finally garnered the attention of the industry this year (thanks in part to the national award he won for Joji‘s BGM I am sure) and delivered some great tracks across movies. The likes of Prashant Pillai, Jakes Bejoy, Govind Vasantha, Gopi Sunder and Ranjin Raj were busy across multiple South Indian languages, not just in Malayalam. Shaan Rahman ventured even further, debuting in Marathi! Alphons Joseph who sort of made a comeback two years back with Varane Aavashyamundu delivered some great music in Sundari Gardens and Panthrandu this year as well, hope that this is the start of a busy phase in the industry for the man.

1  Ole Melody (Thallumaala) – Vishnu Vijay|Mu.Ri|Haricharan Seshadri, Benny Dayal, Salim Kumar, Vishnu Vijay

2  Pottu Thotta Pournami (Hridayam) – Hesham Abdul Wahab|Kaithapram|Sachin Balu, Megha Josekutty

3 Parudeesa (Bheeshma Parvam) – Sushin Shyam|Vinayak Sasikumar|Sreenath Bhasi

4 O Manuja (Djinn) – Prashant Pillai|Santhosh Varma|Sithara Krishnakumar

5 Aadalodakam (Nna Thaan Case Kodu) – Dawn Vincent|Vaisakh Sugunan|Soumya Ramakrishnan, Shahabaz Aman

6  Angane (Jack N Jill) – Gopi Sunder|Harinarayanan B K|Sithara Krishnakumar

7  Mannum Niranje (Malayankunju) – A R Rahman|Vinayak Sasikumar|Shweta Mohan

8 Theeyaanu (Pathrosinte Padappukal) – Jakes Bejoy|Joe Paul|Kapil Kapilan

9  Aanandamo (Solomante Theneechakal) – Vidyasagar|Vinayak Sasikumar|Abhay Jodhpurkar, Anwesshaa

10 Ashubha Mangalakaari (Super Sharanya) – Justin Varghese|Suhail Koya, J’mymah|Sarath Chettanpady, Meera Johny, J’mymah

11 Madhura Jeeva Ragam (Sundari Gardens) – Alphons Joseph|Joe Paul|Mridula Varrier

12 Shilakal (Kumari) – Jakes Bejoy|Kaithapram|Vaiga Nambiar, Akhil J Chand

13 En Kanavil (4 Years) – Sankar Sharma|Ranjith Sankar|Arun Alat, Sony Mohan

14 Mazha Paattu (Padavettu) – Govind Vasantha|Anwar Ali|Govind Vasantha, Anne Amie

15 Darshana (Hridayam) – Hesham Abdul Wahab|Arun Alat|Hesham Abdul Wahab, Darshana Rajendran

16 Pyali Reprise (Pyali) – Prashant Pillai|Shreekumar Vakkiyil|Preeti Pillai

17 Manavaalan Thug (Thallumaala) –  DABZEE|DABZEE & SA|DABZEE & SA

18 Ambili Raavum (Palthu Janwar) – Justin Varghese|Suhail Koya|Arun Ashok

19 Aaraam Naal (Visudha Mejo) – Justin Varghese|Suhail Koya|Vipin Lal, Meera Johnny, Justin Varghese

20 Badharile (19(1)(a)) – Govind Vasantha|Anwar Ali|Veetraag

21 Chaayum Veyil (Saudi Vellakka) – Palee Francis|Anwar Ali|Bombay Jayashri

22 Paathi Paathi (Night Drive) – Ranjin Raj|Murukan Kattakada|Kapil Kapilan, Nithya Mammen

23 Sancharare (Sayanna Varthakal) – Sankar Sharma|Anu Elizabeth, Rzee|Bhadra Rajin, Rzee

24 Akasham Pole (Bheeshma Parvam) – Sushin Shyam|Rafeeq Ahammed|Hamsika Iyer, Kapil Kapilan

25 Etho Vaathil (Djinn) – Prashant Pillai|Anwar Ali|Preeti Pillai, KS Harishankar

26 Thallumaala Paattu (Thallumaala) – Vishnu Vijay|Mu.Ri|Hrithik Jayakish, Neha Girish, Eshaan Sanil, Thejas Krishna, Vishnu Vijay

27 Enthaanithu Engottithu (Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey) – Ankit Menon|Manu Manjith|Vaikom Vijayalakshmi

28 Maaran (Kudukku 2025) – Bhoomee|Titto P Thankachen|Sid Sriram, Bhoomee

29 All Alone In the Ocean (Panthrand) – Alphons Joseph|Lillys Thaddeus|Hector Lewis

30 Minnalkkodi (Hridayam) – Hesham Abdul Wahab|Kaithapram|K.S. Chithra, Mohammad Maqbool Mansoor, Sachin Warrier, Hesham Abdul Wahab

Tamil

Playlist:   Apple Music   |   Spotify   |   YouTube

While A R Rahman’s presence in Hindi was peripheral this year, it was for Tamil that he reserved his best – Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu, Cobra, Iravin Nizhal and the grandest of them all, Ponniyin Selvan. It was his best year in the industry, both in quality and quantity. Also having a strong year was Anirudh, with the likes of Vikram, Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal, Beast and Thiruchitrambalam (although I do fear the repetitiveness in his music will catch up with him at some point). The result of which is that I have had to set aside a sizeable portion of my Tamil list to these two! Of course there were others who had a good year as well – G V Prakash Kumar, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Dhibu Ninan Thomas and Govind Vasantha especially catching the eye (ear?). Ilaiyaraaja had a handful of movies as well, including Maamanidhan where he worked with his sons Karthik Raja and Yuvan Shankar Raja, but only Maayon really stood out.

1  Alaikadal (Ponniyin Selvan Part-1) – A R Rahman|Siva Ananth|Antara Nandy

2  Paapam Seiyaathiru (Iravin Nizhal) – A R Rahman|Kaduveli Siddhar|Niranjana Ramanan, Keerthana Vaidyanathan

3  Naan Pizhai (Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kadhal) – Anirudh Ravichander|Vignesh Shivan|Ravi G, Shashaa Tirupati

4  Mallipoo (Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu) – A R Rahman|Thamarai|Madhushree

5  Vikram (Vikram) – Anirudh Ravichander|Vishnu Edavan|Anirudh Ravichander

6  Neel Koadugal (Mudhal Nee Mudivum Nee) – Darbuka Siva|Keerthi, Dima El Sayed|Bombay Jayashri, Dima El Sayed

7  Megham Karukkaadha (Thiruchitrambalam) – Anirudh Ravichander|Dhanush|Dhanush

8  Soraka Poove (Sardar) – G V Prakash Kumar|K Ekadesi|Adithya RK, Bhadra Rajin

9  Maayonae (Maayon) – Ilaiyaraaja|Ilaiyaraaja|Ranjani-Gayatri

10 Thozhi (Hey Sinamika) – Govind Vasantha|Madhan Karky|Pradeep Kumar

11 Natchathiram Nagargiradhu (Natchathiram Nagargiradhu) – Tenma|Arivu|Arivu, Sharanya Srinivas

12 Vaanam Yaavum (O2) – Vishal Chandrashekhar|Dharan KR|Pradeep Kumar

13 Raatchasa Maamaney (Ponniyin Selvan Part-1) – A R Rahman|Kabilan|Shreya Ghoshal, Palakkad Sreeram, Mahesh Vinayakram

14 Anbarey (Gulu Gulu) – Santhosh Narayanan|Vivek|Dhee

15 Naandhaana Naan Needhaana (Kathir) – Prashant Pillai|Uma Devi|Gowtham Bharadwaj, Keerthana Vaidyanathan

16 Arabic Kuthu (Beast) – Anirudh Ravichander|Sivakarthikeyan|Anirudh Ravichander, Jonita Gandhi

17 Mayava Thooyava (Iravin Nizhal) – A R Rahman|Madhan Karky|Shreya Ghoshal

18 Adheera (Cobra) – A R Rahman|Pa Vijay, thoughtsfornow|Vagu Mazan, thoughtsfornow

19 Parandhu Pogindren (Kuthiraivaal) – Pradeep Kumar|Prasath Ramar|Pradeep Kumar, Kalyani Nair

20 Pacha Elai (Love Today) – Yuvan Shankar Raja|Pradeep Ranganathan|Mathichiyam Bala

21 Thoovi Thoovi (Gargi) – Govind Vasantha|Karthik Netha|Ravi G

22 Kadavul Thandha Kavithai (Yugi) – Ranjin Raj|Kabilan|Pradeep Kumar, Saindhavi Prakash

23 Pesaadha Mozhiye (Kombu Vatcha Singamda) – Dhibu Ninan Thomas|Arunraja Kamaraj|Chinmayi Sripaada, KS Harisankar

24 Sol (Ponniyin Selvan-1) – A R Rahman|Krithika Nelson|Rakshita Suresh

25 Porkanda Singam (Vikram) – Anirudh Ravichander|Vishnu Edavan|Ravi G

26 Dippam Dappam (Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kadhal) – Anirudh Ravichander|Vignesh Shivan|Anthony Daasan, Anirudh Ravichander

27 Kanne Kanne (Visithiran) – G V Prakash Kumar|Yugabharathi|Roshan Sebastian

28 Chellamey (Poikkaal Kuthirai) – D Imman|Madhan Karky|Sid Sriram

29 Pogadhey (Nadhi) – Dhibu Ninan Thomas|Thamarai|Anila Rajeev

30 Oonjal Manam (Laththi) – Yuvan Shankar Raja|Karthik Netha|Shweta Mohan, Ranjith Govind, Yuvan Shankar Raja

Indian Indie/Pop

Playlist:   Apple Music   |   Spotify   |   YouTube

This list, as usual, is a compilation of my favourites among the non-film songs I managed to hear this year, and is not necessarily an accurate representation of the indie/pop scene of the year itself. I have also snuck in a couple of songs from last year, like Agnee’s Maahi Ve (good to hear them after long), because I discovered them late.

1  Fly (Demons) – Dhruv Visvanath

2  Ashes – Mali

3  Gagan Dhuan Dhuan – B Prasanna, Bombay Jayashri

4  The Nightingale – Parekh and Singh

5  Ghalib Hona Hai (Sukoon) – Sanjay Leela Bhansali, A M Turaz, Armaan Malik

6  Har Ek Baat (Sukoon) – Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Ghalib, Pratibha Singh Baghel

7  What World – Thermal And A Quarter

8  Bandish Blues – Darshan Doshi Trio, Varijashree Venugopal

9  Parai (Think Originals) – Roja Adithya, Sean Roldan

10 K Rap (Ta Dhom Project) – Viveick Rajagopalan, MC DEHAATI, MC Khoj, Ashwin Srinivasan

11 Jao Piya – Maatibaani, Ambi Subramaniam, Abhay Nayampally

12 Kahaani – Santanu Ghatak, Anirban Chowdhury

13 Ye Nadi Chali Kahaan (Songs of the River – Ganga) – Shantanu Moitra, Tanveer Ghazi, Sid Sriram

14 Vaarkadal – The Non violinist Project, KS Harishankar

15 Centre of the Universe (Caught in a Parade) – Easy Wanderlings

16 Oceans – Hanita Bhambri

17 Trishna Bandhan Ki (Trishna) – Nihira Joshi Deshpande, Mayukh Sarkar, Tejas Ranade

18 Wo Noor (Two Hearts Never Break The Same) – AP Dhillon 

19 Mohabbat Zindagi – Lucky Ali, Ankur Tewari, Mikey McCleary 

20 Maahi Ve – Agnee

21 Thymmei (PaDa Project) – Dalariti, Vasu Dixit

22 Rubaab – Kaam Bhaari, Bhaari Beatz

23 Sun Maahi – Armaan Malik, Amaal Mallik

24 Paper Boats – Chirag Todi, Gouri and Aksha

25 Pehli Baar Mile – Rochak Kohli, Gurpreet Saini

26 Tera Nishaan – Pina Colada Blues, Anumita Nadesan

27 Friendly Voices (Daybreak – EP) – Dualist Inquiry

28 Sajni – The Yellow Diary

29 Jaan Leke Gayi (Jadu Salona) – Amit Trivedi

30 Rashah (Hard Drive Vol.1) – Raftaar, Badshah

Telugu

Playlist:   Apple Music   |   Spotify   |   YouTube

It is obviously all about RRR and Naatu Naatu this year, with all the international fervour around it. On the contrary though, Telugu films had better music elsewhere, topped by Vishal Chandrashekhar’s outstanding work in Sita Ramam and Vivek Sagar’s in Ante Sundaraniki. There were two remake movies that featured great music as well – Ori Devuda which had Leon James emulating his work for the original, Oh My Kadavule, and Bheemla Nayak where Thaman created a folk-heavy soundtrack in line with Jakes Bejoy’s critically acclaimed Ayyappanum Koshiyum. This list (and the lists that follow after) is shorter than the previous ones, as I do not follow Telugu, Kannada and Marathi as extensively as the others.

1  Kaanunna Kalyanam (Sita Ramam) – Vishal Chandrashekhar|Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry|Sinduri Vishal, Anurag Kulkarni

2  Entha Chithram (Ante Sundaraniki) – Vivek Sagar|Ramajogayya Sastry|Anurag Kulkari, Keerthana Vaidyanathan

3  Adavi Gusagusalu (Bheemla Nayak) – Thaman S|Kasarla Shyam|Manisha Eerabathini, Sri Krishna

4  Evariki Vaarae (Ori Devuda) – Leon James|Ramajogayya Sastry|Harish Sivaramakrishnan

5  Naatu Naatu (RRR) – M M Keeravani|Chandrabose|Rahul Sipligunj, Kaala Bhairava

6  Kalaavathi (Sarkaru Vaari Paata) – Thaman S|Ananth Sriram|Sid Sriram

7  Neelambari (Acharya) – Mani Sharma|Ananth Sriram|Anurag Kulkarni, Ramya Behara

8  Nagumomu Thaarale (Radhe Shyam) – Justin Prabhakaran|Krishna Kanth|Sid Sriram

9  Kothaga Ledhendi (Ranga Ranga Vaibhavanga) – Devi Sri Prasad|Shree Mani|Armaan Malik, Hari Priya

10 Natavara/Chiru Song (Ante Sundaraniki) – Vivek Sagar|Sanapati Bharadwaj Patrudu|Mano

11 Thokachukka (Modern Love Hyderabad) – M M Keeravani|M M Keeravani|M M Keeravani

12 Oh Sita (Sita Ramam) – Vishal Chandrashekhar|Ananth Sriram|SPB Charan, Ramya Behara

13 Antha Ishtam (Bheemla Nayak) – Thaman S|Ramajogayya Sastry|K S Chithra

14 Dhada Dhada (The Warriorr) – Devi Sri Prasad|Shree Mani|Haricharan

15 Komuram Bheemudo (RRR) – M M Keeravaani|Sudhala Ashok Teja|Kaala Bhairava

16 Nannaya Rasina (18 Pages) – Gopi Sunder|Shree Mani|Prudhvi Chandra, Sithara Krishnakumar

17 Kolu Kolu (Virata Parvam) – Suresh Bobbili|Chandrabose|Divya Malika, Suresh Bobbili

18 Amma Song (Oke Oka Jeevitham) – Jakes Bejoy|Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry|Sid Sriram

19 Nene Aa Nene (Sita Ramam) – Vishal Chandrashekhar|Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry|Hariharan, K S Chithra, Sinduri Vishal

20 Promo Song (Ante Sundaraniki) – Vivek Sagar|Ramajogayya Sastry|Shankar Mahadevan, Shweta Mohan

21 Avunanavaa (Ori Devuda) – Leon James|Ramajogayya Sastry|Sid Sriram

22 Ento Enteynto (Thank You) – Thaman S|Ananth Sriram|Jonita Gandhi

23 Snehame (Modern Love Hyderabad) – Kaala Bhairava|Kittu Vissapragada|Hymath Mohammed

24 Andala Raasi (Pakka Commercial) – Jakes Bejoy|Krishna Kanth|Saicharan Bhaskaruni, Ramya Behara

25 Automatic Dharwaja (Aa Ammayi Gurinchi Meeku Cheppali) – Vivek Sagar|Ramajogayya Sastry|Sahithi Chaganti

Kannada

Playlists:   Apple Music   |   Spotify   |   YouTube

This section has to start with Varaha Roopam for obvious reasons – regardless of the court ruling, I still maintain that there are undeniable similarities between this and Thaikkudam Bridge’s Navarasam – in my opinion, the makers of the movie could just have followed what the Soorarai Pottru team did not so long back with this song (incidentally also involving Thaikkudam), to begin with. In any case, what’s done is done. There is no denying the impact of Varaha Roopam on the movie itself, however, and as a result, had to be featured on this list as well. Like with the previous list, I have just compiled this based on the high profile movies and Kannada composers I know of and keenly follow.

1  Varaha Roopam (Kantara) – B Ajaneesh Loknath|Shashiraj Kavoor|Sai Vignesh

2  Naa Ninage Kavalugaara (James) – Charanraj|Chethan Kumar|Ankita Kundu, Sanjith Hegde

3  Lullaby Song (Vikrant Rona) – Anup Bhandari|Anup Bhandari|Vijay Prakash

4  Haage Aada Aalingana (Vijayanand) – Gopi Sunder|Dhananjay Ranjan|Vijay Prakash, Keerthana Vaidyanathan

5  O’Ga (777 Charlie) – Nobin Paul|Saiesh Poi Panandikar|Dhiti S Lotlikar

6  Sangaathi (Sakutumba Sametha) – Midhun Mukundan|Chandrajith Belliappa|Siri Ravikumar

7  Sakkare Putta (Head Bush) – Charanraj|Nagarjun Sharma|Meghana Bhat

8  Ee Seethege (Garuda) – Raghu Dixit|Bharath M Venkataswamy|Sruthi VS, Raghu Dixit

9  Singara Siriye (Kantara) – B Ajaneesh Loknath|Pramod Maravanthe|Vijay Prakash, Ananya Bhat, Nagraj Panar Valtur

10 Yes It’s You (One Cut Two Cut) – Nakul Abhyankar|Lavita Lobo|Benny Dayal (Find it very annoying that this song gets over in a minute!)

11 Rangamandira (Man of the Match) – Vasuki Vaibhav|V Manohar|Puneeth Rajkumar

12 Jr Monalisa (Harikathe Alla Girikathe) – Vasuki Vaibhav|Trilok Trivikrama|Vasuki Vaibhav

13 Ra Ra Rakkamma (Vikrant Rona) – Anup Bhandari|Anup Bhandari|Nakash Aziz, Sunidhi Chauhan

14 Monster Song (KGF 2) – Ravi Basrur|Adithi Sagar|Adithi Sagar

15 Gelathiye (Buddies) – Judah Sandhy|Gurutej Shetty|Aishwarya Rangarajan, Varun Ramachandran

16 Torture Song (777 Charlie) – Nobin Paul|Nagarjun Sharma|Vijay Prakash

17 Aa Kanasu (Sakutumba Sametha) – Midhun Mukundan|Nagarjun Sharma|Haricharan

18 Helalu Hoodare (Harikathe Alla Girikathe) – Vasuki Vaibhav|K Kalyan|Pradeep Kumar

19 Kanna Muchhale (Garuda) – Raghu Dixit|Dhananjaya|Sruthi VS, Nakul Abhyankar

20 Habibi Habibi (Head Bush) – Charanraj|Daali Dhananjaya|Vagu Mazan, Aishwarya Rangarajan

Marathi

Playlist:   Apple Music   |   Spotify   |   YouTube

This set was primarily driven by the very innovative AV Prafullachandra’s Godavari and Ajay Atul’s Chandramukhi, and in the process of compiling this I ended up discovering more gems from some of my favourite Marathi composers, thankfully enough for a sizeable playlist. One of the best finds was Rahul Deshpande’s magnum opus Me Vasantrao (a biopic of his grandfather Vasantrao Deshpande) that took me back to Katyar Kaljat Ghusli from a few years back, a project that Deshpande was incidentally part of as well. Like in Telugu, here too was a remake movie that featured an impressive soundtrack – Ved, which was a remake of Majili (incidentally a Telugu movie). There was also a promising Marathi debut for Malayali composer Shaan Rahman, with Roop Nagar ke Cheetey.

1  Kojagiri (Godavari) – AV Prafullachandra|Jitendra Joshi|Shreyas Puranik, Aanchal Tyagi

2  To Chand Rati (Chandramukhi) – Ajay Atul|Guru Thakur|Shreya Ghoshal

3  Sur Sangat (Me Vasantrao) – Rahul Deshpande|Traditional|Pt. Vijay Koparkar, Anjali Gaikwad, Saurabh Kadgaonkar

4  Tu Ani Mi (Zombivli) – AV Prafullachandra|Vaibhav Deshmukh|Nakul Abhyankar, Kasturi Wavare

5  Ogha Oghani (Autograph) – Hrishikesh Saurabh Jasraj|Abhishek Khankar|Jasraj Joshi, Aanandi Joshi

6  Besuri (Ved) – Ajay Atul|Ajay Atul|Vasundhara Vee

7  Khal Khal Goda (Godavari) – AV Prafullachandra|Jitendra Joshi|Rahul Deshpande

8  Thambli Kashi Kahani (Roop Nagar Ke Cheetey) – Shaan Rahman|Jai Atre|Sunidhi Chauhan

9  Chaal Ka Badalaleli (Medium Spicy) – Hrishikesh Saurabh Jasraj|Jitendra Joshi|Abhay Jodhpurkar

10 Tere Dar Se (Me Vasantrao) – Rahul Deshpande|Vaibhav Joshi|Himani Kapoor, Rahul Deshpande

11 Bai Ga (Chandramukhi) – Ajay Atul|Ajay Atul, Guru Thakur|Aarya Ambekar

12 Sukh Kalale (Ved) – Ajay Atul|Ajay Atul|Shreya Ghoshal

13 Takladu (Roop Nagar Ke Cheetey) – Shaan Rahman|Jai Atre|Narayani Gopan

14 Ka Pahije (Medium Spicy) – Hrishikesh Saurabh Jasraj|Jitendra Joshi|Jasraj Joshi

15 Angaat Aalaya (Zombivli) – Rohan Rohan|Prashant Madpuwar|Rohan Pradhan

Coke Studio Season 14

Playlist:   Apple Music   |   Spotify   |   YouTube

I had missed doing a roundup of the latest season of Coke Studio when it happened, so decided to cram in a “best of” list for that as well, since I did quite enjoy this season with its new look and style; the interest in the show had admittedly been waning a bit in recent seasons. Of course there weren’t a lot of songs this season, so six seemed like a fair number to choose from a set of 13. So below are my favourites from this season of Coke Studio, starting of course with Pasoori.

1 Pasoori – Ali Sethi x Shae Gill

2 Thagyaan – Zain Zohaib x Quratulain Balouch

3 Kaana Yaari – Kaifi Khalil x Eva B x Abdul Wahab Bugti

4 Peechay Hutt – Justin Bibis x Talal Qureshi x Hasan Raheem

5 Tu Jhoom – Naseebo Lal x Abida Parveen

6 Mehram – Asfar Hussain x Aroof Aftab

Songs and musician credits at the end (credits will be updated as I get hold of more info)

Having gotten used to the BGM version of Aga Naga from the first instalment of Ponniyin Selvan, the slight increase in tempo in the extended track took a bit of warming up to, but I am now totally besotted with this waltzy track. And one of the primary contributors to that love is the fantastic use of strings (Chennai Strings & Sunshine Orchestra). With just a smattering of percussion, it is the strings that drive the orchestration pretty much, marked by some lovely touches like the “tiptoeing” every time Shaktisree Gopalan sings Yaaradhu Yaaradhu, and the short violin solo from Sunshine Orchestra’s Vignesh towards the song’s closure. Writer Ilango Krishnan does a fine job of conveying princess Kundavai’s love for her land that exists in tandem with her affinity towards Vanthiyadevan – the short phrasing adds to the charm. In the opening verse the writer also uses the Anthaathi style of writing, where the closing phrase of one line becomes the opening phrase of the next line. Of course, all of this comes to life in Shaktisree’s voice – the singer is in sublime form here. Aazhi Mazhai Kanna comes from poet-saintess Andal’s Thiruppaavai series of poems dedicated to Perumal (Vishnu), analogising Andal’s devotion towards Perumal and Vaanathi’s feelings towards the protagonist. The original composition is in the raga varaali, but A R Rahman here goes for a more pleasant melody (shades of desh raaga I think?) – the only issue I have (which holds true for multiple tracks from this album) is that the track is done in under a minute and a half. It feels great to listen to Harini (possibly other singers involved too, uncredited on Spotify) over that duration though, singing for Rahman after ages. The bit nature of the song and the female chorus made me hark back to the lovely bit songs from Kaadhalan. Shankaracharya’s Sanskrit work Shivoham (from his Nirvana Shatakam) is another of the album’s short tracks. Rahman makes this an intense piece, akin to the likes of Shiva Thandava Stotram, seemingly setting it to Chakravakam raaga. An effective male chorus delivers this one, complemented by the chendamelam + edaykka combination that is a perfect choice for the song’s fervour.

Keerthana Vaidyanathan and Niranjana Ramanan, the two ladies who delivered the beautiful Paapam Seiyaathiru in Iravin Nizhal last year, get a similar assignment in Ponniyin Selvan – a song that, with its minimal arrangements, relies heavily on the singing, and they absolutely ace this one as well. Kudavaiyil Theerathanar’s Ilaiyor Soodaar is a lament, presumably picking up from where the first movie left off, with the supposed demise of Ponniyin Selvan. Rahman chooses an eerie silence to adorn this piece, and a fittingly dark raaga (my guess on this was between aahiri and thodi, but this thread concludes that it could be a rarely used raaga phenadhyuthi) to perfectly capture the mournful tone. At some point the mind strangely wandered off to Sigur Ros’s cover of Rains of Castamere in Game of Thrones! The composer interestingly goes for a completely different melody for this one in Hindi – a lighter, more soulful (and slightly longer) tune that is delivered by a wonderful-sounding Pooja Tiwary. Gulzar pens this track titled Mukti Do, and the arrangement remains minimal here too, the odd sarangi phrases being the only standout element. I think I still like the Tamil melody more, though. Ilango Krishnan models Chinnanjiru Nilave on Bharathiyar’s poems and therefore sets it to the same waltz-like meter (well, roopaka thaalam to use the Carnatic terminology). And the song comes in two versions, sung by Haricharan and Khatija Rahman, both quite different in their presentation – they do have one element in common though, the arrangements getting progressively turbulent (violins, the primary contributors to this) perhaps in keeping with the puyal (storm) analogy mentioned in the first stanza. Although Haricharan is brilliant in his rendition, this version carries a bit of familiarity about it and therefore it is the Marumurai (Reprise?) that I really enjoyed, despite its anachronistic sound. The piano refrain along with Khatija’s dreamy voice have quite the mesmerising effect. Finally, my current favourite – Veera Raaja Veera. What a song! Riffing off a traditional dhrupad piece in adana raaga (you can read more about the piece and hear the original piece on this thread), Rahman creates a classical flavoured piece mostly based on darbari kaanada raaga (or adana raaga, I cannot be sure), except for the little digression to a brief, seemingly hameer kalyani raaga based segment, around the midway mark. The use of vocals in this song is top notch; which isn’t a big surprise considering the three names leading the line – Shankar Mahadevan, K S Chithra and Harini, all sounding in fine fettle, but the chorus is equally brilliant, and as prominently employed as well. The orchestration is heavy on Hindustani classical instruments – pakhawaj, sarangi, sitar etc.; one of my favourite bits from the song is the sitar–sarangi duel around the 2:08 mark. The Hindustani flavour of the song also makes it a seamless fit in the Hindi version (sung by Arman Dehlvi, Shreya Ghoshal and Kavita Krishnamurthy), although the arrangements have been slightly modified. A wonderfully grand paean that should be a perfect accompaniment for the climactic coronation sequence. I really hope we get to this song in its entirety onscreen!

Ponniyin Selvan Part 2. A spectacular soundtrack from A R Rahman and Ilango Krishnan, whose only problem is its length. While the first part had a terrific set of songs as well, the sound was a bit more “commercial”. This one however has the composer fully embracing that period sound and producing a classically rich set of songs.

PS: Thanks a ton to the amazing @AakriPasta for once again acting as the Ponniyin Selvan subject matter expert and giving me tons of context around the songs. She has also written a piece on the soundtrack – given that she is a passionate ARR fan in addition to being a PS fan, it makes for a great read!

Music Aloud Rating: 4/5 (this might have been 4.5 had it not lasted just 20 minutes!)

Top Recos: Veera Raaja Veera, Aga Naga, Chinnanjiru Nilave (Marumurai), Ilaiyor Soodaar

Musician Credits

Song Title: Aga Naga
Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A.R.Rahman
Singer: Shakthisree Gopalan
Lyrics: Ilango Krishnan
Music Supervisor: Nakul Abhyankar
Project Manager: Karthik Sekaran
Score Transcription: Suprava Mukherjee

Musicians –
Chennai Strings & Sunshine OrchestraConducted by Jerry Vincent
Flute: Nikhil Ram
Tabla Tarang: Sai Shravanam
Veena: Haritha Raj
Solo violin : Vignesh ( Sunshine orchestra )
Additional Programming: Nakul Abhyankar, Srikant Krishna
Sound Engineers:
Panchathan Record inn
Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, TR Krishna Chetan, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh Jain
AM Studio
Pradeep Menon, Manoj Raman, Sathya Narayanan, Ainul, Sathish V Saravanan
Mixed by Pradeep Menon
Mastered by Suresh Permal
Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan
Musician Coordinator: Samidurai R, Velavan B, Abdul Haiyum, T M Faizudeen

Songs and complete musician credits at the end.

After that brief dip in her output at the start of the decade, it has been nice to see Sunidhi Chauhan’s Bollywood portfolio pick up again in recent months – imagine my delight spotting her name against four songs in Jubilee! Some of the album’s top songs too, that once again showcase the singer’s versatility. I was excited about Babuji Bhole Bhaale right from the time I heard a snippet of it in the show’s trailer, and it totally delivers on its promise. Evocative of the light-hearted songs with Western-influenced orchestration from the 50s (Tadbeer Se Bigdi Hui, Shola Jo Bhadke, even Sar Jo Tera Chakraye comes to mind for the quirkiness), Sunidhi is at her exuberant best in this one. Love what Amit Trivedi has done with the arrangement here – the horns punctuating every line with the short phrases, the characteristic breaking out of dholaks towards the end of the interludes etc. Not sure if the show takes place across multiple time periods, because Sunidhi’s other solo act, the spotlessly delivered Voh Tere Mere Ishq Ka, appears to be a nod to Khayyam’s ghazal-infused work from many years later (Dil Cheez Kya Hai, to pick one). As expected, the song features some fine use of tabla (Satyajit Jamsandekar), harmonium (Akhlak Warsi), sarangi (Dilshad Khan) and sitar (Bhagirath Bhatt). Papon joins Sunidhi for the flirtatious Nahin Ji Nahin (wonderfully written by Kausar Munir), a song that once again carries a strong European influence in its orchestration and is set to the waltz rhythm as well. Here too the composer uses the short phrasing of instrumental notes to great effect – the staccato use of accordion (Shubhash Parab), the violin-flute combination in the second and third stanzas for instance. Papon and Sunidhi trade verses throughout the song (the melody seems to carry shades of kalavati/valachi raaga I think?), and the call-response nature adds to the playful charm of the piece. In a soundtrack where Amit Trivedi pays tribute to multiple composers, the most on-the-nose ones belong to Shankar-Jaikishan. On listening to the accordion-led waltz that opened Itni Si Daastaan, the first song that came to mind was Jeena Yahaan, but given the romantic nature of the track and the period, the reference point is perhaps Dil Ki Nazar Se. Sunidhi’s male counterpart here, Mohammed Irfan, modulates his voice really well to sound almost like Mukesh.  Na Koyi Mera instantly brings memories of Ye Raat Bheegi Bheegi (but also seems to occasionally reference other SJ songs of the time). Papon is behind the mic for this one as well, alongside an equally proficient Vaishali Made (good to see her sing in Bollywood after long, Kalank was the last perhaps).

Dariyacha Raja begins with the Marathi folk track indicated by the title, before switching to the Shankar-Jaikishan folk zone, reminiscent of songs like Ramayya Vastavayya and Barsaat Mein Hum Mile. The riddle-filled Chandu Naacha – with Swanand Kirkire, and for a brief period, Amit Trivedi, posing musical questions answered by a kids’ chorus – is likely a nod to Ichak Dana. There seems to be something about Kirkire’s singing that works really well for such kiddie-style songs – remember the Picture Shuru ditty from Barfi. Interestingly this song probably makes Swanand Kirkire the person to have lent vocals in most number of Amit Trivedi’s retro themed soundtracks, having sung in Lootera and Qala before this. Udankhatole would appear to belong to an even earlier era, going by Kausar Munir’s lines (lot of Sanskrit-origin words) and the way Mohammed Irfan and Vaishali Made enunciate the words (great voice modulation by both the singers). The saxophone solo from I D Rao in the second interlude was an interesting touch. Itraati Chali also has a percussion template that indicates the same period as Udankhatole, but the other elements of the song sound a lot more contemporary – one of the rare instances in the album where you feel the composer’s own stamp making its appearance. This one too features Mohammed Irfan and Vaishali Made on vocals. Dil Jahaan Pe Le Chala, with that horsecart rhythm et al, has got to be an O P Nayyar tribute. Kausar Munir’s carpe diem-themed lines also made me think of Main Zindagi Ka Saath.. The song comes in two versions – sung by the composer himself and by Shahid Mallya, and between the two I prefer the latter; not just for the singing, but also for the lighter arrangements (on the percussion front) that suit the carefree mood of the song better. Love that short laugh with which Mallya ends the song – very Kishore Kumar of him! The soundtrack’s longest song goes to one of my favourite underrated singers of the industry – Devenderpal Singh. A singer whose portfolio is mostly made up of Amit Trivedi songs, the composer has employed Devender in some really soulful pieces – and Saare Ke Saare Akele is another beauty to add to that list. A song that feels like a nod to two glorious songs that SD Burman composed for Guru Dutt – Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaaye and Dekhi Zamaane Ki Yaari, both sung by Rafi. Lyrically it feels closer to the latter – there is even a kaagaz ke gul reference thrown in for good measure! Like both of those songs, this one too is set to a waltz rhythm, and this too is a slow burner, gradually building up intensity, layer upon layer, and finally bursting into a more upbeat choral outro. This is Devenderpal Singh’s show though – the man pours his heart out into this achingly beautiful melodic piece, with some fine support from the instruments that make their presence felt from time to time, the woodwinds and violins being the most effective among them.

Amit Trivedi has already built a great reputation at delivering retro-flavoured soundtracks. Jubilee further cements this rep – the composer manages to produce a wonderful tribute to some of the giants of yesteryear Hindi film music, almost entirely eschewing his personal brand in favour of that authenticity. An extremely enjoyable and accessible set of songs – it feels good to see the Amit Trivedi-Vikramaditya Motwane team come up with another cracker, after that blip in Bhavesh Joshi Superhero.

Music Aloud Rating: 4.5/5

Top Recos: Too many to list – but Saare Ke Saare first among equals  

Musician Credits

1 Babuji Bhole Bhaale

Composed by Amit Trivedi

Lyrics by Kausar Munir

Singer – Sunidhi Chauhan

Crew

Produced by Parikshit Sharma, Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer, AT Studios – Urmila Sutar

Recording Engineers at YRF Studios – Vijay Dayal, Chinmay Mestry

Mixed and Mastered by Shadab Rayeen @ New Edge

Assistant Engineers – Pukhraj & Anup

Manager, AT Studios – Shruti Shah

Live Sessions

Song Violin – Chandan Singh

Woodwinds – I D Rao

Dholak – Girish Vishwa & Hafeez Khan

Brass – Robin Fargose, Geet Vaz, Walter Dias, Zameer Shaikh

Percussion – Deepak Borkar

Mandolin – Tapas Roy

Backing Vocals: Jitendra Tupe, Madhura Paranjape, Rohan Patil, Archana

Gore, Deepti Rege, Aditi Prabhudesai, Janardan Dhatrak, Rucha Padhye,

Umesh Joshi, Vijay Dhuri

2 Dil Jahan Pe Le Chala (Amit Trivedi)

Composed by Amit Trivedi

Lyrics by Kausar Munir

Singer –Amit Trivedi

Crew

Produced by Sunny Subramanian, Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer, AT Studios – Urmila Sutar

Recording Engineers at YRF Studios – Vijay Dayal, Chinmay Mestry

Mixed and Mastered by Shadab Rayeen @ New Edge

Assistant Engineers – Pukhraj & Anup

Manager, AT Studios – Shruti Shah

Live Sessions

Song Violin – Chandan Singh

Woodwinds – I D Rao

Mandolin – Laxmikanth Sharma

Dholak- Girish Vishwa, Hafeez Khan

3 Nahin Ji Nahin

Composed by Amit Trivedi

Lyrics Kausar Munir

Singer/s Papon & Sunidhi Chauhan

Crew

Produced by Parikshit Sharma & Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer, AT Studios – Urmila Sutar

Recording Engineers at YRF Studios – Vijay Dayal, Chinmay Mestry

Mixed and Mastered by Shadab Rayeen @ New Edge

Assistant Engineers – Pukhraj & Anup

Manager, AT Studios – Shruti Shah, Aditya Hanchinal

Live Musicians

Song Violin – Chandan Singh

Mandolin – Laxmikanth Sharma

Accordion – Shubhash Parab

Woodwinds – I D Rao

Group Violin – Chandan Singh, S Rao, Mohan Goyal, Dharmendra Jawda, Jitendra

Jawda, Sanjay Verma, Dilshad Ahmed

4 Voh Tere Mere Ishq Ka

Composed by Amit Trivedi

Lyrics by Kausar Munir

Singer– Sunidhi Chauhan

Crew

Produced by Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer, AT Studios – Urmila Sutar

Recording Engineers @YRF studios – Vijay Dayal, Abhishek Khandelwal,

Dileep Nair

Mixed and Mastered by Shadab Rayeen @ New Edge

Assistant Engineers – Pukhraj & Anup

Manager, AT Studios – Shruti Shah, Aditya Hanchinal

Live Sessions

Tabla – Satyajit Jamsandekar

Side Rhythm – Deepak Borkar

Harmonium – Akhlak Warsi

Sitar – Bhagirath Bhatt

Sarangi – Dilshad Khan

Vibraphone – Dnyanesh Bhalchandra Deo

5 Na Koyi Mera

Composed by Amit Trivedi

Lyrics Kausar Munir

Singer/s Papon & Vaishali Made

Crew

Produced by Sunny Subramanian & Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer, AT Studios – Urmila Sutar

Recording Engineer at Ajivasan – Avadhoot Wadkar

Mixed and Mastered by Shadab Rayeen @ New Edge

Assistant Engineers – Pukhraj & Anup

Manager, AT Studios – Shruti Shah

Live Musicians

Woodwinds – I D Rao

Percussion & Rhythm – Deepak Borkar

Accordion – Satyajit Prabhu

Mandolin – Laxmikanth Sharma

Song Violin – Chandan Singh

Group Violin – Jitendra Thakur, Sandeep Thakur, Pradeep Thakur, Chandan Singh, Mohan Goyal, Sanjay Verma

6 Chandu Naacha

Composed by Amit Trivedi

Lyrics by Kausar Munir

Singers – Swanand Kirkire & Amit Trivedi

Crew

Produced by Sunny Subramanian, Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer, AT Studios – Urmila Sutar

Recording Engineers at YRF Studios – Vijay Dayal, Chinmay Mestry

Mixed and Mastered by Shadab Rayeen @ New Edge

Assistant Engineers – Pukhraj & Anup

Manager, AT Studios – Shruti Shah

Live Sessions

Song Violin – Chandan Singh

Accordion – Subhash Parab & Satyajeet Prabhu

Woodwinds – I D Rao

Mandolin – Tapas Roy

Backing Vocals – Rashi Harmalkar, Shahana Shome, Prapti Mitra,

Shubhayu Mukherjee, Mohit Gokhale, Harshvardhan Gore, Rohan

Vaidya, Isha Khandekar, Archana Gore

7 Udankhatole

Composed by Amit Trivedi

Lyrics by Kausar Munir

Singers – Mohammad Irfan , Vaishali Made

Crew

Produced by Parikshit Sharma, Satyajit Jamsandekar, Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer, AT Studios – Urmila Sutar

Recording Engineers @ YRF Studios – Vijay Dayal, Chinmay Mestry

Mixed and Mastered by Shadab Rayeen @ New Edge

Assistant Engineers – Pukhraj & Anup

Manager, AT Studios – Shruti Shah

Live Sessions

Song Violin – Chandan Singh

Mandolin – Laxmikanth Sharma

Woodwinds – I D Rao

Violin – Chandan Singh, S Rao, Mohan Goyal, Dharmendra Jawda,

Jitendra Jawda, Sanjay Verma, Dilshad Ahmed

Dholak – Girish Vishwa & Hafeez Khan

8 Dariyacha Raja

Composed by Amit Trivedi

Lyrics by Kausar Munir

Singers- Divya Kumar & Mohammad Irfan

Crew

Produced by Parikshit Sharma, Satyajit Jamsandekar, Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer, AT Studios – Urmila Sutar

Recording Engineers at YRF Studios – Vijay Dayal, Chinmay Mestry

Mixed and Mastered by Shadab Rayeen @ New Edge

Assistant Engineers – Pukhraj & Anup

Manager, AT Studios – Shruti Shah

Live Sessions

Song Violin – Chandan Singh

Woodwinds – I D Rao

Mandolin – Laxmikanth Sharma

Violin – Chandan Singh, S Rao, Mohan Goyal, Dharmendra Jawda,

Jitendra Jawda, Sanjay Verma, Dilshad Ahmed

Dholak- Girish Vishwa

Percussion – Deepak Borkar

Accordion – Satyajeet Prabhu

Santoor – Mangesh Jagtap

Backing Vocals – Umesh Joshi, Janardan Dhatrak, Rohan Patil, Vijay

Dhuri, Jitendra Tupe, Aditi Prabhudesai, Rucha Padhye, Archana Gore,

Madhura Paranjpe, Deepti Rege

9 Itni Si Hai Dastaan

Composed by Amit Trivedi

Lyrics Kausar Munir

Singer/s Mohammed Irfan & Sunidhi Chauhan

Crew

Produced by Parikshit Sharma, Satyajit Jamsandekar & Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer, AT Studios – Urmila Sutar

Recording Engineer at Ajivasan – Avadhoot Wadkar

Mixed and Mastered by Shadab Rayeen @ New Edge

Assistant Engineers – Pukhraj & Anup

Manager, AT Studios – Shruti Shah

Live Musicians

Percussion & Rhythm – Deepak Borkar

Accordion – Satyajit Prabhu

Mandolin – Laxmikanth Sharma

Song Violin – Chandan Singh

Violin – Jitendra Thakur, Sandeep Thakur, Pradeep Thakur, Chandan Singh, Mohan

Goyal, Sanjay Verma

10 Dil Jahan Pe Le Chala (Shahid Mallya)

Composed by Amit Trivedi

Lyrics by Kausar Munir

Singer – Shahid Mallya

Crew

Produced by Sunny Subramanian, Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer, AT Studios – Urmila Sutar

Recording Engineers at YRF Studios – Vijay Dayal, Chinmay Mestry

Mixed and Mastered by Shadab Rayeen @ New Edge

Assistant Engineers – Pukhraj & Anup

Manager, AT Studios – Shruti Shah

11 Itraati Chali

Composed By – Amit Trivedi

Lyrics – Kausar Munir

Singers – Mohammed Irfan & Vaishali Made

Produced By – Parikshit Sharma & Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer, AT Studios – Urmila Sutar

Mixed and Mastered by – Shadab Rayeen @ New Edge

Assistant Engineers – Pukhraj & Anup

Manager, AT Studios – Shruti Shah

12 Saare Ke Saare Akele

Composed by Amit Trivedi

Lyrics Kausar Munir

Singer Devender Pal Singh

Backing vocals – Umesh Joshi, Vijay Dhuri, Vivek Naik, Devendra Chitnis, Yash

Kulkarni, Pragati Joshi, Deepti Rege, Mrunmayee Dadke, Duhita Kunkavlekar, Seema Lele

Crew

Produced by Sunny Subramanian & Amit Trivedi

Sound Engineer, AT Studios – Urmila Sutar

Recording Engineer at Ajivasan – Avadhoot Wadkar

Mixed and Mastered by Shadab Rayeen @ New Edge

Assistant Engineers – Pukhraj & Anup

Manager, AT Studios – Shruti Shah

Live Musicians

Woodwind- I D Rao

Percussion & Rhythm – Deepak Borkar

Accordion – Satyajit Prabhu

Mandolin – Laxmikanth Sharma

Song Violin – Chandan Singh

Violin – Jitendra Thakur, Sandeep Thakur, Pradeep Thakur, Chandan Singh, Mohan

Goyal, Sanjay Verma

Songs and credits (to the extent available) at the end of the review. Also has information on which song belongs to which episode.

G V Prakash Kumar gets just the one song in Modern Love Chennai, for Krishnakumar Ramakumar’s Kaadhal Enbadhu Kannula Heart Irukkura Emoji. The composer totally makes his mark with that song though – Kukunnu is total earworm material! While the melody itself is quite catchy and delivered very well by the interesting pair of singers Vagu Mazan and Ramya Nambessan, there’s also some really quirky folk-electronic fusion happening in the backdrop – the remixed version of S Ballesh’s shehnai solo to mention a highlight (which made me revisit the old remix of Leke Pehla Pehla Pyaar by Raghav). Sean Roldan is in familiar turf with the folksy, flippant romantic number Jingrudha Dhanga. Given that this features in the Raju Murugan-directed Lalagunda Bommaigal, the analogous song that comes to mind is the one Roldan composed for Murugan’s Joker, Jasmine-u. Fun track delivered well by the composer himself and helped amply by Bakkiyam Shankar’s lines replete with colloquialisms and Chennai references. In his second song Uravu, Roldan does even better – a beautifully haunting melody that occasionally seems to venture into an Ilaiyaraja (who we will get to in much detail in a bit) zone. Love how Padmapriya Raghavan and Roldan play off each other, and the charming elements in the arrangement like the whistles and Ashwin Suresh’s guitar work. Yuvan Shankar Raja turns the clock back a few years with his two brilliantly immersive compositions. Yaayum Gnaayum, which appears to be the anthology’s title track, is an ode to love penned by Yugabharathi (who writes most of the album’s songs) and is a solo act by the sultry-sounding Shivani Paneerselvam. Very trippy work from Yuvan; that rhythm loop playing throughout the song refuses to leave my head! Peranbae (part of Balaji Sakthivel’s Imaigal) plays out like sufi fusion, and Shivani kicks off this one as well. Top notch arrangements once again; the only stumbling block is the composer’s own singing alongside Shivani.

And with that, the Ilaiyaraaja show begins! Three of the veteran composer’s 13(!) songs are part of Akshay Sundher’s Margazhi, and all three are written by the man himself. Nenjil Oru Minnal is a very sweet, very hummable waltz that sees some lovely use of guitars. Thendral is trademark Raja, evoking memories of Poongaatru Puthithaanadhu, not just for its melody but also the pulsating backdrop marked by the belated introduction of the tablas et al. I really wish the above two songs had been sung by someone other than Raja though, the quality of the two tracks really warranted top tier vocal performances. Endrum Endhan breaks your heart in two ways – one, for the poignant melody that it is – made even more so by Priya Mali’s rendition – and two, for the fact that it is over in 52 seconds!

The biggest and best chunk of songs come as part of the Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s episode quite fittingly named after an Ilaiyaraja classic, Ninaivo Our Paravai. Paavi Nenjae is one song where Raja’s delivery is a great fit – the composer seems to tweak his voice slightly to suit the retro jazz piece it is. Top melody, top orchestration, especially the horns! There are two songs where Raja tips his hat to composers from before his time. First is Aanaal that harks back to the 60s (curious to see how this appears in the show); specifically a nod to this Veda-Kannadasan-L R Eswari song, @soundtrackindia tells me. Ananya Bhat is excellent in her languid, Western-influenced singing – love how the word “aanaal” is used to signify the shift in perspective. And second is the instrumental piece Kaamaththup-Paal, that riffs off Edvard Grieg’s In The Hall Of the Mountain King. First of all, hats off for picking a piece with progressively increasing tempo and intensity as reference, drawing a perfect parallel with the sexual act that the song’s title appears to imply. And secondly, what a tribute piece from Raja! The composer’s proficiency with classical pieces is well-known, even while drawing from the reference track here, Raja makes it his own, expertly adding intricate layers as he builds the song up towards its crescendo. Thee Inbame is all about the use of violins, even as Christopher Stanley is singing his heart out. That six-note refrain playing throughout the song made me think of Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters. Sooriyan Thondrudhu Saamatthilae is a whirlwind that comes and goes before you realise it! A frenzied rock piece – another annoyingly short composition – that is rendered to a tee by Priya Mali. I have seen people quoting The Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black as a potential reference for this one; however the true magic in the song is the composer throwing in a Flight of the Bumblebee-esque contrapuntal piano solo! Shivani Paneerselvam, who really is the find of the album, gets two more tantalizingly short tracks. Kaala Visai is more retro jazz with some delightful use of guitars. And Thaen Mazhaiyo is just Shivani on her own. The absence of any instrument places the onus squarely on the melody and the singing, both of which are excellent. Finally there are three more instrumental pieces from the composer. Kannil Pattu Nenjai Thotta Minnal is the only one that doesn’t really make an impact, at least as an audio track. Uncertainty of the Future delivers exactly what it says on the label – a suspenseful, unsettling kind of tune. The Good Bye is the album’s longest track, and is another piece that sees some neat jazz incorporation. A large portion of the song is the piano and sax repeating a short but very likeable melodic phrase over and over, with a brief strings segment in the middle of it all.

The Modern Love franchise has produced some great music over its previous editions, but the Chennai one is the biggest and best of the lot by a country mile. All the musicians involved have done a fine job here, but none more so than the maestro Ilaiyaraaja. What a year he has been having! And glad to see the retro trend continuing in all glory. What I hope doesn’t become a trend though, is this bit song one!

Music Aloud Rating: 4.5/5

Top Recos: Too many to name!

Soundtrack Credits

Lalagunda Bommaigal:

Jingrudha Dhanga
Song composed, arranged and programmed by Sean Roldan
Lyrics : Bakkiyam Shankar
Singer : Sean Roldan
Additional vocals : Manoj Krishna
Additional Rhythms : Ashwin Suresh
Fully produced and recorded at Roldan Records
Mixed and Mastered by Toby Joseph

Uravu
Song composed,arranged and programmed by Sean Roldan
Lyrics : Yugabharathi
Singers : Sean Roldan, Padmapriya Raghavan
Acoustic and classical guitar : Ashwin Suresh
Fully produced and recorded at Roldan Records
Mixed and Mastered by Abin Paul

Title track:
Yaayum
Song Composed, Arranged and Produced by Yuvan Shankar Raja
Lyricist : Yugabharathi
Singer : Shivani Panneerselvam
Fully produced and recorded at U1 Records
Mixed and Mastered : Kumaraguruparan M.
ITunes Mastered at U1 Records by Kumaraguruparan M.

Imaigal:
Peranbae
Song Composed, arranged and produced by Yuvan Shankar Raja
Lyrics: Yugabharathi
Singers: Shivani Panneerselvam and Yuvan Shankar Raja
Flute and Wood Winds : K. L. Vijay
Fully produced and recorded at U1 Records
Mixed and Mastered by Kumaraguruparan M.
ITunes Mastered at U1 Records by Kumaraguruparan M.

Kaadhal Enbadhu Kannula Heart Irukkura Emoji:

Kukunnu
Song Composed by G.V. Prakash
Lyrics: Yugabharathi
Singer: Ramya Nambessan and Vagu Mazan
Programmed by : Bala Sarangan
Shehnai – S. Ballesh
Fully produced and recorded at Divine Labs Chennai
Mixed and Mastered by Jehovahson Alghar

Margazhi:

Nenjil Oru Minnal
Song Composed, arranged and programmed by Ilaiyaraaja
Lyrics: Ilaiyaraaja
Singer: Ilaiyaraaja
Fully produced and recorded at Ilaiyaraaja Studios
Mixed and Mastered at Ilaiyaraaja Studios

Thendral Pudhithu
Song Composed, arranged and programmed by Ilaiyaraaja
Lyrics: Ilaiyaraaja
Singer: Ilaiyaraaja
Fully produced and recorded at Ilaiyaraaja Studios
Mixed and Mastered at Ilaiyaraaja Studios

Endrum Endhan
Song Composed, arranged and programmed by Ilaiyaraaja
Lyrics: Ilaiyaraaja
Singer: Ilaiyaraaja
Singer: Priya Mali
Fully produced and recorded at Ilaiyaraaja Studios
Mixed and Mastered at Ilaiyaraaja Studios

Ninaivo Oru Paravai:

Paavi Nenjae
Song Composed, arranged and programmed by Ilaiyaraaja
Lyrics: Yugabharathi
Singer: Ilaiyaraaja
Fully produced and recorded at Ilaiyaraaja Studios
Song Mixed by Tapas Nayak, Aura Studio, Chennai
Song Mastered by Andy Bartow, Black Dog Mastering Studio, Florida

Thee Inbamae
Song Composed, arranged and programmed by Ilaiyaraaja
Lyrics: Yugabharathi
Singer: Christopher Stanley
Fully produced and recorded at Ilaiyaraaja Studios
Song Mixed by Tapas Nayak, Aura Studio Chennai
Song Mastered by Andy Bartow, Black Dog Mastering Studio, Florida

Aanaal
Song Composed, arranged and programmed by Ilaiyaraaja
Lyrics: Yugabharathi
Singer: Ananya Bhat
Fully produced and recorded at Ilaiyaraaja Studios
Song Mixed by Tapas Nayak, Aura Studio Chennai
Song Mastered by Andy Bartow, Black Dog Mastering Studio, Florida

Sooriyan Thondrudhu Saamatthilae
Song Composed, arranged and programmed by Ilaiyaraaja
Lyrics: Yugabharathi
Singer: Priya Mali
Fully produced and recorded at Ilaiyaraaja Studios
Song Mixed by Tapas Nayak, Aura Studio Chennai
Song Mastered by Andy Bartow, Black Dog Mastering Studio, Florida

Kaala Visai
Song Composed, arranged and programmed by Ilaiyaraaja
Lyrics: Yugabharathi
Singer: Shivani Panneerselvam
Fully produced and recorded at Ilaiyaraaja Studios
Song Mixed by Tapas Nayak, Aura Studio Chennai
Song Mastered by Andy Bartow, Black Dog Mastering Studio, Florida

Thaen Mazhaiyo
Song Composed, arranged and programmed by Ilaiyaraaja
Lyrics: Yugabharathi
Singer: Shivani Panneerselvam
Fully produced and recorded at Ilaiyaraaja Studios
Song Mixed by Tapas Nayak, Aura Studio Chennai
Song Mastered by Andy Bartow, Black Dog Mastering Studio, Florida

Kaamaththup-Paal
Song Composed by Ilaiyaraaja

Kannil Pattu Nenjai Thotta Minnal
Song Composed by Ilaiyaraaja

The Good Bye
Song Composed by Ilaiyaraaja

Uncertainty of the Future
Song Composed by Ilaiyaraaja

Songs and musician credits at the end.

A R Rahman has some iconic train-themed songs to his credit; songs where he has innovatively employed the rhythm of the locomotive. In Jigu Jigu Rail there isn’t much of that; the role of the train sound here is pretty much to bookend the track. However, there is something in the reggae rhythm (riddim?) that is evocative of the gentle chugging along of a train (I did find a fair few train-related reggae tracks on a cursory search, perhaps there is something in that choice?), and the video prominently features a toy train – although the highlight of the video is the composer trying his hand (and legs) at dancing! The inspirational track is part fun and part emotional, the Ellaam Maarum refrain in particular is soul-stirring. Fantastic use of bass (Keba Jeremiah I assume) and horns (Sunshine Brass), and of course the children’s chorus, that constitutes the aforementioned fun aspect of the song. I also liked how there is a synth melody underlining most of the song (made me revisit this bgm piece from Rhythm), sometimes independent of the main melody and thereby adding a nice touch to the proceedings. Also an inspirational song, but of a more assertive nature, exhorting women to rise up, is Kodi Parakura Kaalam. This one consists of three distinctive segments – first a helpless lament of sorts, beautifully delivered by Kalpana Raghavendar with some fine clarinet in tow (giving the segment a retro feel), before three more wonderful singers, Rakshita Suresh, Deepthi Suresh and Aparna Harikumar knock it out of the park with the punchy main section that features some great folk percussion and guitars. The percussion-led coda closes the song off at even higher energy levels. Great anthemic piece, and great writing by Yugabharathi. The album has one more equally well-executed all-female track in Utchanthala. A sombre, at times ominous sounding piece that took my mind back to Kaayam from Iravin Nizhal (the soundtrack itself feels to me like an extension of Iravin Nizhal’s soundscape sometimes). Deepthi Suresh, Sireesha Bhagavatula and Pavithra Chari deliver this one very effectively. Love that solo violin that makes an appearance in the final minute, later closing the song with a short violin+flute coda that feels like a nod to Promontory from The Last of the Mohicans. A R Ameen’s voice carries a Vishal Dadlani-esque edge in his fervent rendition of Veerane – he has really impressed in his recent singing ventures. But even with his singing and the song’s general vigour, it comes across as the relative weakling of the album.

Arivu and ARR’s first collaboration is quite a fitting choice for the movie’s theme/title track. Arivu’s own incisive writing and trademark delivery bring the attitude, and Rahman’s arrangements complement that perfectly; some deft touches in response to the lines, like the parai kicking in when Arivu sings vaazhvin osa adhu parai osa (The beat of the drum is the anthem of life) or the fanfare around the mannaa maamannaa phrase – I like how the titular phrase appears only towards the end of the song; kind of like a hero’s mass entry! Have to confess at this point that this is a track that has grown on me over time, I wasn’t too impressed with it on first hearing. On an aside, love that Arivu is wearing a shirt with Notorious BIG’s pic printed all over, in the lyric video. While Maamannan is a great album, one aspect that I found a bit missing here, compared to other Mari Selvaraj movie soundtracks with Santhosh Narayanan, is that raw intensity. Of course, it is likely that the setting of the movie itself is different from the previous ones, leading to this shift, but the one song where it does show up in brilliant fashion is Raasa Kannu. Rahman keeps the orchestration minimal here, and very folk – that 4-note string refrain that appears around the 1:16 mark and continues throughout the rest of the track has a mesmerising effect, even as Vadivelu’s powerful voice and the booming thavil phrases keep you tethered to reality. Vadivelu as choice of vocalist is a masterstroke, as he delivers Yugabharathi’s scorching words with the soulfulness that they deserve. The romantic Nenjame Nenjame comes as a soothing balm to the ear after the heaviness of the rest of the soundtrack. A gentle melody that the composer adorns with an equally tender arrangement – the use of percussion in particular is my favourite; vanishing during the interludes and reappearing with a new set of instruments in each stanza. There’s also the brief throwback-inducing appearance of the pan-flute, and the short bursts of piano phrases contributing to the song’s charm. And then the vocals. Vijay Yesudas and Shaktisree Gopalan are in excellent form here, but the composer also gets a ladies’ chorus to bring up a closing segment of over 1.5 minutes, singing a slight variation of the opening verse – lovely touch that. The melody interestingly has an Ilaiyaraja-esque feel to it at times, especially around that opening phrase.

Maamannan. A R Rahman‘s incredible run of form continues; that’s another winner just a couple of months since the last one, in Ponniyin Selvan 2. And this one features full length songs! In fact, it is more than just full length – 7 songs averaging almost 5 minutes per track. I cannot remember the last time we had a soundtrack with that kind of song duration. Would love for that norm to make a comeback!

Music Aloud Rating: 4/5

Top Recos: Too many to list!

Musician Credits

Song – Nenjame Nenjame

Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A.R.Rahman

Lyrics Yugabharathi

Singer Vijay Yesudas, Shakthisree Gopalan

Musicians

Additional Vocals Deepti Suresh, Aparna Harikumar, Vrusha Balu

Music Supervisor  A.H.Kaashif

Project Manager Karthik Sekaran

Vocal Supervision Suryansh, Sreekanth Hariharan, Sarath Santosh

Guitar – Sunil Milner

Bass – Prashanth Venkat

Flute – Nikhil Ram

Strings – Chennai Strings and Sunshine Orchestra

Conducted by Jerry Vincent

Additional Programming Santosh Dhayanidhi, Prashanth Venkat, Soumya Sejpal

Sound Engineers

Panchathan Record inn – Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Sathish V Saravanan

AM Studio – Pradeep Menon, Sathya Narayanan, Ainul Huq

Mixed & Mastered by Suresh Permal

Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan

Musician Coordinator Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum

Song – Kodi Parakura Kaalam

Song Composed, Produced, and Arranged by AR Rahman

Lyrics: Yugabharathi

Singers: Kalpana Raghavendar, Rakshita Suresh, Deepthi Suresh, Aparna Harikumar

Music Supervisor A.H.Kaashif

Project Manager Karthik Sekaran

Vocal Supervision Nakul Abhyankar, Suryansh, Sreekanth Hariharan

Musicians

Guitar – Keba Jeramiah

Percussion – Hariprasad, Kaamil Saif, Guberan

Rhythm Arrangement Kumaran Sivamani

Sound Engineers – Panchathan Record inn

Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Prashanth Venkat, Sathish V Saravanan

Mixed by Pradeep Menon

Mastered by Suresh permal

Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan

Musician Coordinator Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum

Song – Manna Maamanna

Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by AR Rahman

Rap written & Performed by Arivu

Musicians

Additional Vocals – Sreekanth Hariharan, Sarath Santosh, Aravind Srinivas

Music Supervisor – A.H.Kaashif

Project Manager – Karthik Sekaran

Vocal Supervision – Arjun Chandy, Prashanth Venkat

Musicians – Percussion – Hariprasad, Kaamil Saif

Sound Engineers – Panchathan Record inn – Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Sathish V Saravanan

Mixed and Mastered by Nitish R kumar

Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan

Musician Coordinator Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum

Song Name – Jigu Jigu Rail

Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A R Rahman

Singer A R Rahman

Lyrics Yuga Bharathi

Kids Chorus S.T.Nishanth, J.Sarvesh, P.Pragadeesh, Neha Girish, R.Aadya, R.Diva Lakshmi

Additional Vocals – Khatija Rahman, Amina Rafiq, Sreekanth Hariharan, Sharath Santhosh, Deepthi Suresh, Sireesha Bhagavatula

Music Supervisor A.H.Kaashif

Project Manager Karthik Sekaran

Electric Guitars – Keba Jeremiah

Drums – Kumaran Sivamani

Sunshine Brass, Conducted by Lisa

Recorded by Vilva, Shridhar Ramesh

Additional Programming Prashanth Venkat, Suryansh

Rhythm Arrangement Kumaran Sivamani

Vocal Arrangement  Arjun Chandy

Vocal Supervision Suryansh, Sreekanth Hariharan

Sound Engineers, Panchathan Record inn

Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Sathish V Saravanan

Mixed by – Nitish R Kumar

Mastered by Suresh Permal

Apple Digital Master by Riyasdeen Riyan

Musician Coordinator Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum

Song – Raasa Kannu

Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A.R.Rahman

Lyrics – Yugabharathi

Singer – Vadivelu

Music Supervisor – AH Kaashif

Project Manager – Karthik Sekaran

Backing vocals – Sreekanth Hariharan

Orchestration – Suprava Mukherjee

Musicians

Chennai Strings & Sunshine Orchestra,

Conducted by Jerry Vincent

Supervised By Prashanth Venkat

String Instruments – SM Subhani

Music Editor Prashanth Venkat

Sound Engineers

Panchathan Record inn Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh, Sathish V Saravanan

AM Studios Pradeep Menon, Manoj Raman, Sathya Narayanan, Ainul Huk

Mixed and Mastered By Nitish R Kumar

Apple Digital Master and Dolby Atmos by Riyasdeen Riyan

Musician Coordinator Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum.

Song – Veerane

Song Composed, Produced and Arranged by A.R.Rahman

Lyrics Yuga Bharathi

Singer AR Ameen

Additional Vocals – Baala Boys, Sathya Prakash, Deepthi Suresh, Sireesha Bhagavatula

Musicians

Percussion – Hariprasad, Kaamil Saif, Karthick Vamsi

Sunshine Brass, Conducted by Lisa

Supervised by Vilva, Shridhar Ramesh

Rhythm Arrangement – Kumaran Sivamani

Additional Programming – Sarthak Kalyani

Music Supervisor – A.H.Kaashif

Project Manager -Karthik Sekaran

Vocal Supervision – Prashanth Venkat, Sreekanth Hariharan

Sound Engineers Panchathan Record inn – Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Sathish V Saravanan

Mixed and Mastered by – Nitish R kumar

Apple Digital Master by – Riyasdeen Riyan

Musician Coordinator – Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum

Another year-end, another roundup. 15th edition of this activity that has now become a Christmas tradition for me. This year, I put a bit more effort than usual, partly to make up a bit for the sparsity of posts through the year (apologies about that – I was more focussed on instagram content during the little spare time I had). Which, in case you aren’t following, is musicaloud.gram), but mainly because some of the year’s best music happened in the web series space so I felt it deserved its own category. As a result, this time there are nine lists (10 playlists, including the consolidated one), the most I have ever featured in my roundups. The rest of the drill remains the same – I continue with the top 30 format like I did last year, except with web series, Kannada, Marathi and Coke Studio which are shorter. The naming convention also remains “Song title (Movie/series title) – Music Director(s)|Lyricist(s)|Singer(s)” for most categories. The lists have been arranged in decreasing order of number of songs.

And for those who can’t be arsed to go through the entire post but wish to check out the songs nevertheless, here is a consolidated list on all three platforms for you to enjoy on shuffle! YouTube is the only one that contains all 222 songs. Spotify is 1 track short, and Apple Music 2.

All in One Playlist: Apple  |  Spotify  |  YouTube

The artwork this time comes from the awesomely creative @athulct so thanks a bunch to him for these!

Happy listening, and wish you all a wonderful 2024!

Bollywood

Playlist: Apple  |  Spotify  |  YouTube

With Bollywood it was pretty much the same story as recent years – the occasional good songs but an entire album being great was a rare occurrence. A lot of my favourites from the year happened in the final quarter, courtesy primarily of messrs Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa who delivered some terrific music in their three projects (Dono, The Archies, Sam Bahadur). Among the rest, Pritam produced some entertaining music across his three big ticket projects, although by his own standards the albums were a bit underwhelming, especially Dunki. The hitherto infallible combo of Amit Trivedi and Anurag Kashyap finally faltered in Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat – Trivedi did however score a belter in Jubilee, which appears later in this post under web series. The hiphop trend that peaked post Gully Boy seems to have died down a bit, but what did make a comeback this year was long soundtracks – there were a fair few of them.

1  Itni Si Baat (Sam Bahadur) – Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy|Gulzar|Shreya Ghoshal, Sonu Nigam
2  In Raahon Mein (The Archies) – Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy|Javed Akhtar|Arijit Singh
3  Show Me The Thumka (Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar) – Pritam|Amitabh Bhattacharya|Sunidhi Chauhan, Shashwat Singh
4  Duniya (Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat) – Amit Trivedi|Shellee|Abhay Jodhpurkar
5  Chaleya (Jawan) – Anirudh Ravichander|Kumaar|Arijit Singh, Shilpa Rao
6  Kudmayi (Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani) – Pritam|Amitabh Bhattacharya|Sachet Tandon
7  Raangla (Dono) – Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy|Irshad Kamil|Shankar Mahadevan, Pratibha Singh Baghel
8  Nouka Doobi (Lost) – Shantanu Moitra|Swanand Kirkire|Shreya Ghoshal
9  Main Parwaana (Pippa) – A R Rahman|Shellee|Arijit Singh
10 Pehle Bhi Main (Animal) – Vishal Mishra|Raj Shekhar|Vishal Mishra
11 Yeh Nazar (I Love You) – Shor Police|Hussain Haidry|Adnan Sami
12 Phir Aur Kya Chahiye (Zara Hatke Zara Bachke) – Sachin-Jigar|Amitabh Bhattacharya|Arijit Singh
13 Plum Pudding (The Archies) – Ankur Tewari, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy|Shibani Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar|Ankur Tewari, Shibani Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar
14 Phir Se Aaj (Mast Mein Rehne Ka) – Anurag Saikia|Vijay Maurya|Mohan Kannan
15 Hori Mein (Gulmohar) – Siddhartha Khosla, Alan Demoss|Shellee|Kavita Seth
16 What Jhumka? (Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani) – Pritam|Amitabh Bhattacharya|Arijit Singh, Jonita Gandhi
17 Tanhai (Khufiya) – Vishal Bhardwaj|Gulzar|Sunidhi Chauhan/Kiran+Nivi
18 Chal Ve Watna (Dunki) – Pritam|Irshad Kamil|Arijit Singh
19 I Wanna See You Dance (Kho Gaye Hum Kahaan) – Sachin-Jigar|Ankur Tewari|Saba Azad
20 Tu Jo Hai (Kadak Singh) – Shantanu Moitra|Tanveer Ghazi Shreya Ghoshal
21 Khoya Tu Kahaan (Blind) – Shor Police|Shloke Lal|Vishal Dadlani
22 Nikar Chalo Re (Kathal – A Jackfruit Mystery) – Ram Sampath|Ashok Mishra|Sona Mohapatra
23 Jamal Kudu (Animal) – Traditional Iranian Bandari music reinterpreted by Harshavardhan Rameshwar
24 Tere Pyaar Mein (Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar) – Pritam|Amitabh Bhattacharya|Arijit Singh, Nikhita Gandhi
25 Dil Dariya (Shiv Shastri Balboa) – Alokananda Dasgupta|Rajeshwari Dasgupta Ghose|Nayantara Bhatkal
26 Khamma Ghani (Dono) – Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy|Irshad Kamil|Shreya Ghoshal, Shivam Mahadevan
27 Asymmetrical (The Archies) – Aditi “Dot” Saigal|Aditi “Dot” Saigal|Aditi “Dot” Saigal, Tejas
28 Kabhi Kabhi Zindagi (Mast Mein Rehne Ka) – Shailendra Barve|Vijay Maurya|Vijay Prakash
29 Dhak Dhak (Dhak Dhak) – Rishi Dutta|Baba Bulleh Shah, Kundan Vidyarthi|Sunidhi Chauhan, Jatinder Singh
30 Jaan Da (Tejas) – Shashwat Sachdev|Kumaar|Shreya Ghoshal

Malayalam

Vishnu Vijay created some brilliantly groovy tunes in Thallumaala last year. His follow-up this year in Sulaikha Manzil felt a bit too derivative of the former, being based in similar genres etc. Instead we had Sushin Shyam producing a banger with Romaancham – this one was more electronic and hiphop than folk-based, but extremely effective all the same. The year belonged to Govind Vasantha though, the composer was very busy in the industry (and in Tamil as well) and delivered with terrific consistency! Sam CS was another composer who made his presence felt prominently across Malayalam and Tamil. At this point I need to mention an album that I have excluded from the ranking, because the songs were all recreations. I refer to Bijibal and Rex Vijayan’s work in Neelavelicham which I absolutely loved. There was very little chance that fans of the original classic were going to view this album sans a comparison with the original, but I felt that what the composers did here was really respectful of Baburaj’s work, and they got the singer choices pretty spot on as well. So a hat tip to them for the work. Folk influence in Malayalam film music continued unabated this year as well. In fact composers ventured into new territories within the genre this time; there was a Maappila Ramayanam adaptatation (Laama Laama – Bhagavan Dasante Ramarajyam) and a song that seemed to draw inspiration from Thullal Paattu (Pandaaradangaan – Adi) among others. There was also a posthumous album release – Section 306 IPC composed by Kaithapram Vishwanathan; tomorrow is his second death anniversary.

Playlist: Apple  |  Spotify  |  YouTube

1  Aadharaanjali (Romaancham) – Sushin Shyam|Vinayak Sasikumar|Sushin Shyam,  Madhuvanti Narayanan
2  Snehadweepile (Little Miss Rawther) – Govind Vasantha|Anwar Ali|Pradeep Kumar, Chinmayi
3  Neela Nilave (RDX) – Sam CS|Manu Manjith|Kapil Kapilan/Shweta Mohan
4  Haalaake Maarunne (Sulaikha Manzil) – Vishnu Vijay|Mu.Ri|Ahi Ajayan, Pushpavathy
5  Puthuthaayorith (Iratta) – Jakes Bejoy|Mu.Ri|Shahabaz Aman
6  Thone Mohangal (Adi) – Govind Vasantha|Sharfu|Govind Vasantha, Haniya Nafisa
7  Paalmanam (Christy) – Govind Vasantha|Vinayak Sasikumar|Kapil Kapilan, Keerthana Vaidyanathan
8  Laama Laama (Bhagavan Dasante Ramarajyam) – Vishnu Sivasankar|Ganesh Malayath|Sooraj Santhosh
9  Premakkathu Paattu (Kadina Kadoramee Andakadaham) – Govind Vasantha|Mu.Ri|Fathima Jahaan
10 Thathana Thathana (Madhura Manohara Moham) – Hesham Abdul Wahab|BK Harinarayanan|Chithra, Bhadra Rajin, Aavani Malhar
11 En Kaadal Nadiye (Otta) – M Jayachandran|Vairamuthu|Shankar Mahadevan, Shreya Ghoshal
12 Thalatherichavar (Romaancham) – Sushin Shyam|Vinayak Sasikumar|Zia Ul Haq, MC Couper
13 Karimizhi Niraye (Janaki Jaane) – Kailas|Manu Manjith|K S Harishanker, Sithara Krishnakumar
14 Thinkal Poovin (Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum) – Justin Prabhakaran|Manu Manjith|Anne Amie
15 Sathiyunarunnu (Section 306 IPC) Kaithapram Vishwanathan|Kaithapram| P Jayachandran, Indulekha Warrier
16 Ennile Iruntha (Vela) – Sam CS|Sam CS|Maalavika Sundar
17 Ra Ra Rajasika (Little Miss Rawther) – Govind Vasantha|Titto P Thankachen|Sithara Krishnakumar
18 Aanandam (B 32 Muthal 44 Vare) – Sudeep Palanad|Shruthi Sharanyam|Sudeep Palanad, Bhadra Rajin, Sreedevi Thekkedath
19 Aalumee Naalam (Theru) – Neha Nair-Yakzan Pereira|Hareesh Mohanan|Sangeeth
20 Aakasha Paalazhiyil (Lovefully Yours Veda) – Rahul Raj|Rathi Sivaraman|Shweta Mohan
21 Arikeyonnu Kandoru Neram (Vellari Pattanam) – Sachin Shankar Mannoth|Vinayak Sasikumar|Nithya Mammen, K S Harishanker
22 Kadalu Theendum (Poovan) – Midhun Mukundan|Suhail Koya|Midhun Mukundan
23 Aathmaave Po (Romaancham) – Sushin Shyam|Vinayak Sasikumar|Sushin Shyam
24 Oro Shwaasavum (Christy) – Govind Vasantha|Anwar Ali|Govind Vasantha
25 La Koodaaram (Ntikkakkakkoru Premandaarnnu) – Paul Mathews|Vinayak Sasikumar|Paul Mathews
26 Nizhale Nee (Ennaalum Ente Aliya) – William Francis|Swathi Das|Narayani Gopan
27 Ellaarum (Khali Purse of Billionaires) – Prakash Alex|Anil Lal|Vidhyadharan Master, Sujatha
28 Kaathal Marangal (Pranaya Vilasam) – Shaan Rahman|Suhail Koya|Sreejish Subramanian, Nanda J Devan
29 Kalaapakkaara (King of Kotha) – Jakes Bejoy|Joe Paul|Shreya Ghoshal,Benny Dayal, Jakes Bejoy
30 Naalppathu Kazhiye (Pazhanjan Pranayam) – Satish Raghunathan|BK Harinarayanan|Vaikom Vijayalakshmi

Tamil

Tamil had the best year among the industries I tracked this time, particularly with the veteran Ilaiyaraja rolling back the years and creating some spectacular songs across multiple albums. His best work, Modern Love Chennai, will appear under web series of course, but he had more than enough quality elsewhere to make a prominent presence even in this list. Close on his heels was the other industry veteran, A R Rahman. Among the rest, my favourite was Sean Roldan, although some of his work came in web series and the debut edition of Coke Studio Tamil. Anirudh had two more big projects this year (apart from the Hindi one), I really wish he takes on something smaller for a change, there’s just too much of the same things in these kind of movies. And another wish directed towards the industry in general – please let the playback singers sing all your songs, that is what they are there for.

Playlist: Apple  |  Spotify  |  YouTube

1  Veera Raaja Veera (Ponniyin Selvan 2) – Traditional Dagarvani Dhrupad/A.R.Rahman|Ilango Krishnan|Shankar Mahadevan, Chithra, Harini
2  Annai Thanthai (Are You Ok Baby?) – Ilaiyaraaja|Ilaiyaraaja|Shweta Mohan
3  Arutperunjothi (Viduthalai Part 1) –  Ilaiyaraaja|Ilaiyaraaja|Ilaiyaraaja
4  Nenjame Nenjame (Maamannan) – A R Rahman|Yugabharathi|Shaktisree Gopalan|Vijay Yesudas
5  Kangal Edho (Chithha) – Dhibu Ninan Thomas|Yugabharathi|Pradeep Kumar, Karthika Vaidyanathan
6  Imaithidathe (Yaadhum Oore Yaavarum Kelir) – Nivas K Prasanna|Mohan Rajan|Malvi Sundaresan
7  Vaa Vaathi (Vaathi) – GV Prakash Kumar|Poetu Dhanush|Shweta Mohan
8  Anbenum (Leo) – Anirudh Ravichander|Vishnu Edavan|Anirudh, Lothika
9  Pa Pappa (Kondraal Paavam) – Sam CS|Kabilan|Chinmayi
10 Yaavum Yaavumey (Tamilarasan) – Ilaiyaraaja|ARP. Jayaraam|VV Prasanna, Vibhavari Apte Joshi
11 Raasa Kannu (Maamannan) – A R Rahman|Yugabharathi|Vadivelu
12 Rathamaarey (Jailer) – Anirudh Ravichander|Vignesh Shivan|Vishal Mishra
13 Yedhudhaan Inga (Lucky Man) – Sean Roldan|Balaji Venugopal|Sanjay Subrahmanyan
14 Ulagai Vella Pogiraai (Annapoorani) – Thaman|Vivek|Harini
15 Oyyaram (Jigarthanda DoubleX) – Santhosh Narayanan|Vivek|Meenakshi Elayaraja, Meenakshi Santhosh, Aditya Ravindran, Santhosh Narayanan
16 Nira (Takkar) – Nivas K Prasanna|Ku Karthik|Sid Sriram, Malvi Sundaresan, Gautham Vasudev Menon
17 Malarthan Vizhundhadhu (Aneethi) – GV Prakash Kumar|Karthik Netha|Ravi G,  Hesham Abdul Wahab
18 Athana Per Mathiyila (Raavana Kottam) – Justin Prabhakaran|Karthik Netha|Yazin Nizar, Vandana Srinivasan
19 Chinnanjiru Nilave Marumurai (Ponniyin Selvan 2) – A R Rahman|Ilango Krishnan|Khatija Rahman
20 Kaattumalli (Viduthalai Part 1) – Ilaiyaraaja|Ilaiyaraaja|Ilaiyaraaja, Ananya Bhat
21 Badass (Leo) – Anirudh Ravichander|Vishnu Edavan|Anirudh
22 Nee Singam Dhaan (Pathu Thala) – A R Rahman|Vivek|Sid Sriram
23 Jimikki Ponnu (Varisu) – Thaman|Vivek|Anirudh, Jonita Gandhi
24 Vaan Megam (Vasantha Mullai) – Rajesh Murugesan|Vivek|Shaktisree Gopalan, Vijay Yesudas
25 Seemakaariye (Saba Nayagan) – Leon James|Karthik Netha|Sanjith Hegde
26 Po (Good Night) – Sean Roldan|Mohan Rajan|Sean Roldan
27 Swagathaanjali (Chandramukhi 2) – M M Keeravani|Chaitanya Prasad|Sreenidhi Tirumala
28 Aathma Nesar (Yaadhum Oore Yaavarum Kelir) – Nivas K Prasanna|Mohan Rajan|Malvi Sundaresan
29 Un Idhazhgalinaal (Margazhi Thingal) – Ilaiyaraaja|Ilaiyaraaja|Ananya Bhat
30 En Vaazhvin Thoorigai (Raid) – Sam CS|Mohan Rajan|Maalavika Sundar

Telugu

After bagging his biggest break as a composer with the Malayalam movie Hridayam last year, Hesham Abdul Wahab turned his sights to Telugu in 2023, and was easily the industry’s composer of the year with the music he produced, even if some of them carried shades of his work in Hridayam. It wasn’t just Hesham who came to Telugu this year from Malayalam, the Side A-Side B release format that Hridayam brought back last year got picked up here too (and in Kannada, but more on that later) with the movie Keedaa Cola, which had music by one of my industry favourites, Vivek Sagar. Sagar sadly didn’t have anything else this year, nor did another favourite, Vishal Chandrashekhar. Multiple other composers made their presence felt with the one or two soundtracks they did, however – Ilaiyaraja again, Vijai Bulganin, Mani Sharma, Santhosh Narayanan and Gopi Sunder to name a few.

Playlist: Apple  |  Spotify  |  YouTube

1  Na Roja Nuvve (Kushi) – Hesham Abdul Wahab|Shiva Nirvana|Hesham Abdul Wahab
2  Madhura Gathamaa (Shaakuntalam) – Mani Sharma|Sri Mani|Armaan Malik, Shreya Ghoshal
3  Pattana O Pattu (Keedaa Cola) – Vivek Sagar|Bharadwaj Gali|Sri Krishna, Malavika
4 Samayama (Hi Nanna) – Hesham Abdul Wahab|Anantha Sriram|Anurag Kulkarni, Sithara Krishnakumar
5  Nannu Nannu Ga (Ranga Maarthaanda) – Ilaiyaraaja|Sirivennela Sitaramasastri|Gayatri (Ranjani-Gayatri)
6  Deva Raaja (Baby) – Vijai Bulganin|Kalyan Chakravarthi Tripuraneni|Arya Dhayal
7  Sooreede (Salaar) – Ravi Basrur|Krishna Kanth|Harini Ivaturi
8  Yevarini Yevaritho (Das Ka Dhamki) – Leon James|Purnachary|Haricharan
9  Chamkeela Angeelesi (Dasara) – Santhosh Narayanan|Kasarla Shyam|Dhee
10 Evo Saraagaalu (Music School) – Ilaiyaraaja|Rehman|Javed Ali, Shreya Ghoshal
11 Hatatthuga (Manu Charitra) – Gopi Sunder|Sira Sri|LV Revanth
12 Kalallo (Virupaksha) – B Ajaneesh Loknath|Anantha Sriram|Anurag Kulkarni, Madhushree
13 Dooke Chinuka (Miss Shetty Mr Polishetty) – Radhan|Anantha Sriram|Abby V
14 Naa Tholi (Month of Madhu) – Achu Rajamani|Krishna Kanth|Haricharan, Aditi Bhavaraju
15 Mass Mogudu (Veera Simha Reddy) – Thaman|Ramajogayya Shastry|Ramya Behara, Mano
16 Sita Kalyanam (Anni Manchi Sakanamule) – Mickey J Meyer|Chaitra Ambadipudi, Kaala Bhairava
17 Ammaadi (Hi Nanna) – Hesham Abdul Wahab|Krishna Kanth|Shakthisree Gopalan
18 Timeless Love (Custody) – Ilaiyaraaja|Ramajogayya Shastry|Kapil Kapilan
19 Rushivanamlona (Shaakuntalam) – Mani Sharma|Sri Mani|Sid Sriram, Chinmayi
20 Yema Andham (Spark) – Hesham Abdul Wahab|Anantha Sriram|Sid Sriram
21 Yedhaki Oka Gaayam (Kushi) – Hesham Abdul Wahab|Shiva Nirvana|Hesham Abdul Wahab, Divya S Menon
22 Ammadi Gummadi (Butta Bomma) – Sweekar Agasthi|Kasarla Shyam|Anurag Kulkarni, Nutana Mohan
23 Premisthunna (Baby) – Vijai Bulganin|Suresh Banisetti|P V N S Rohit
24 Okkasaari Putti (Bro) – Thaman|Kasarla Shyam|Ravi G
25 Ichesukuntale (Tiger Nageswara Rao) – GV Prakash Kumar|Bhaskarabhatia|Sinduri Vishal
26 Dipiri Dipiri (Keedaa Cola) – Vivek Sagar|Bharadwaj Gali|Hanuman
27 O Dollar Pillaga (Das Ka Dhamki) – Leon James|Purnachary|Deepak Blue, Mangli
28 Holare Hola (Samajavaragamana) – Gopi Sunder|Sri Mani|J V Sudhanshu, Sony Komanduri
29 Sridevi Chiranjeevi (Waltair Veerayya) – Devi Sri Prasad|Devi Sri Prasad|Jaspreet Jasz, Sameera Bharadwaj
30 Gandarabai (Skanda) – Thaman|Anantha Sriram|Nakash Aziz, Soujanya Bhagavathula

Indian Indie/Pop

As usual, my picks from whatever indie/indipop songs I managed to catch this year. The Coke Studio ones are in a separate category, and I might end up creating a more extensive list for Kappa TV’s Music Mojo at some point since they have once again been producing quality music after a long gap – for now I have just included a couple of my favourites here. I realise that the first entry in this list is not really an indie or a pop song, but I did not want to create one specifically for classical/fusion songs, plus this will be a special one since I was lucky to catch this one live as well, in what was possibly Shakti’s last live tour, earlier this year.

Playlist: Apple  |  Spotify  |  YouTube

1  Mohanam (This Moment) – Shakti
2  Bhaavam – Job Kurian
3  Rooh Jaga Doon – Arijit Singh
4  Jharokha (Par) – Vidhya Gopal
5  Walk Away – Mali
6  Fursat (Songs of Trance 2) – Amit Trivedi, Siddharth-Garima, Rupali Moghe
7  Cheli (ft. Jimmy Francis John & Shravan Sridhar) – Keethan
8  Vaari Vaari – Shekhar Ravjiani, Avinash Chouhan, Shreya Ghoshal
9  Malabari Banger – Joker, MRH, SA & Dabzee
10 Dear Sahana (Sidharth) – Sid Sriram
11 Rail Pogum Idam – Vijaynarain
12 Iru Manam – Kalyani Nair, Vidhya Vijay, The Indian Choral Ensemble
13 Anuraaga Nadhiye (Kappa Originals) – Vipin Lal, BK Harinarayanan, Bineetha Ranjith Music Company
14 Giddh – Thaikkudam Bridge
15 Reza Reza – Shiraz Uppal, Neeti Mohan
16 A Thousand Stars – Jayanthi Kumaresh, Prashant Techno
17 Sakhi Neelambari – Athul Anand, Harish Sivaramakrishnan
18 Numaani – Faridkot, IP Singh, Shilpa Rao, Rajarshi Sanyal
19 Lafz Bheege Hain (Lafz Bheege Hain) – Paras Nath, Pratibha Singh Baghel
20 Moon Tides (Wrong Side Out) – Raagamuffin
21 Kaamil – Salim Sulaiman, Paradox, ISHH
22 Breathe – Kamakshi Khanna
23 Toote Chhaate – Nihira Joshi, Rhythm Shaw, Alok Ranjan Sirvastava
24 Kasam Se (Only Just Begun) – Armaan Malik, Amaal Mallik 
25 Bhoo Bandham – Nakul Abhyankar, Mangli, Vijay Prakash
26 Kyun Roothi Ho – Hanita Bhambhri, Vayu
27 Pa Pe Po… (Kappa Originals) – Amrutam Gamay
28 Tere Baare Mein – Santanu Ghatak, Yashika Sikka, Darpan Suthar
29 Bairi Birhaa (Songs of Trance 2) – Amit Trivedi, Geet Sagar, Varsha Singh Dhanoa
30 Monot Pore – Taba Chake

Web Series

So yes, two of the year’s best works – Modern Love Chennai, spearheaded by Ilaiyaraaja, and Jubilee which had Amit Trivedi paying tribute to some legendary composers, both in the web series space, and both incidentally carrying a predominantly retro sound. This list is all Hindi and Tamil, as those are the only languages I managed to track, but you will notice an impressive lineup even in this, aside of the two names already mentioned – Vishal Bhardwaj, Sachin-Jigar, Santhosh Narayanan, Govind Vasantha, Alokananda Dasgupta etc. I have primarily gone for vocal tracks, but there was some great BGM work as well this year.

Playlist: Apple  |  Spotify  |  YouTube

1  Aanaal (Modern Love Chennai) – Ilaiyaraaja|Yugabharathi|Ananya Bhat
2  Saare Ke Saare Akele (Jubilee) – Amit Trivedi|Kausar Munir|Devendrapal Singh
3  Saath (Faadu) – Santhosh Narayanan|Kausar Munir|Amira Gill, Haricharan, Sathya Prakash
4  Cargaalamey (Sweet Kaaram Coffee) – Govind Vasantha|Nixy|Sathya Prakash, Keerthana Vaidyanathan
5  Dhundh (Charlie Chopra) – Vishal Bhardwaj|Vishal Bhardwaj|Papon
6  Lori (The Jengaburu Curse) Alokananda Dasgupta|Rajeshwari Dasgupta|Ronkini Gupta
7  Stardust (Jee Karda) – Sachin Jigar|IP Singh|Rashmeet Kaur, Mellow D
8  Kaala Visai (Modern Love Chennai) – Ilaiyaraaja|Yugabharathi|Shivani Panneerselvam
9  Wo Adhoore Khwab (Do Gubbare) – Saurabh Bhalerao|Sunil Sukhtankar|Himani Kapoor
10 Nahin Ji Nahin (Jubilee) – Amit Trivedi|Kausar Munir|Sunidhi Chauhan, Papon
11 Edar Odar (Chamak) – Jagir Singh, Late Shri Ulfat Bajwa, Manna Singh
12 Lullaby (Kaala Paani) – Rachita Arora|Madhan Karky|Shashaa Tirupati
13 Tune Hi (PI Meena) – Amit Chatterjee|Shloke Lal|Kinjal Chattopadhyay
14 Bharam (Guns and Gulaabs) – Aman Pant|Akhil Tiwari|Aman Pant
15 Teri Yeh Zindagi (Do Gubbare) – Saurabh Bhalerao||Sahil Charaya
16 Theme Song (Scoop) – Achint
17 Paavi Nenjae (Modern Love Chennai) – Ilaiyaraaja|Yugabharathi|Ilaiyaraaja
18 Aasmaan (Farzi) – Tanishk Bagchi|Raghav Meatle|Raghav Meatle, Anumita Nadesan
19 Thirunaal (Sweet Kaaram Coffee) – Govind Vasantha|Nixy|Kapil Kapilan, Keerthana Vaidyanathan, Aditya Rao
20 Uravu (Modern Love Chennai) – Sean Roldan|Yugabharathi|Padmapriya Raghavan, Sean Roldan
21 Ammiye (Jee Karda) – Sachin-Jigar|IP Singh|Simran Choudhary
22 Jee Ki Gathariya (Charlie Chopra) – Vishal Bhardwaj|Vishal Bhardwaj|Rekha Bhardwaj
23 Haseen Mushkilein (Faadu) – Santhosh Narayanan|Kausar Munir|Aditya Ravindran
24 Khairaat/Reprise (Chamak) – Kanwar Grewal, Manna Singh, Vari Rai
25 Voh Tere Mere Ishq Ka (Jubilee) – Amit Trivedi|Kausar Munir|Sunidhi Chauhan

Kannada

The side A-side B format that I mentioned previously in Telugu, came into Kannada as well, with what was, to me, one of 2023’s best soundtracks across the country – Charanraj’s Sapta Saagaradaache Ello. Apart from that, this list is a compilation of songs from other Kannada composers I like. Ajaneesh Loknath, Judah Sandhy, Arjun Janya, Midhun Mukundan all had a good year (Ajaneesh and Midhun even had a few good songs in other languages). Bindhumalini, who REALLY should be composing more often, came back after a five year hiatus with Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy’s directorial debut Aachar & Co.

Playlist: Apple  |  Spotify  |  YouTube

1  Title Track (Sapta Saagaradaache Ello – Side A) – Charanraj MR|Dhananjay Ranjan|Kapil Kapilan
2  Sapthaswara (Aachar & Co) – Bindhumalini|Avinash Belakalla|Varijashree Venugopal, Nakul Abhyankar, Bindhumalini
3  Aaradhipe (Toby) – Midhun Mukundan|Prithvi|Siddhartha Belmannu
4  Olave Olave (Sapta Saagaradaache Ello – Side B) – Charanraj MR|B R Suvarna Sharma|Srilakshmi Belmannu
5  Manada Mele (Marichi) – Judah Sandhy|Pramod Maravanthe|Pancham Jeeva
6  Muddu Rakshasi (Vaamana) – B Ajaneesh Loknath|V Nagendra Prasad|Vijay Prakash, Harshika Devanath
7  Gold Fish (Baanadariyalli) – Arjun Janya|Kaviraj|Aishwarya Rangarajan
8  Namaami Namaami (Kabzaa) – Ravi Basrur|Santhosh Venky|Aishwarya Rangarajan
9  Doori Laali (Tatsama Tadbhava) – Vasuki Vaibhav|Vasuki Vaibhav|Sunidhi Ganesh
10 Chandane Chanda (Inamdar) – Nakul Abhyankar|Pramod Maravanthe|Ramya Bhat
11 Preethisuve (Kousalya Supraja Rama) – Arjun Janya|Jayanth Kaikini|Sonu Nigam
12 Kadalanu (Sapta Saagaradaache Ello – Side A) – Charanraj MR|Nagarjuna Sharma|Srilakshmi Belmannu
13 Mellage (Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye) – Midhun Mukundan|Prithvi|Madhuri Seshadri, Sunidhi Ganesh
14 Arre Idu Entha Bhavane (Gurudev Hoysala) – B Ajaneesh Loknath|Yogaraj Bhat|Haricharan
15 Maathaado Gombe (Shivaji Surathkal 2) – Judah Sandhy|Pramod Maravanthe|Siddhartha Belmannu
16 Bad Manners (Bad Manners) – Charanraj MR|Dhananjay Ranjan|Usha Uthup
17 Boys Sarigilla (Hostel Hudugaru Bekagiddare) – B Ajaneesh Loknath|Trilok Trivikrama|B Ajaneesh Loknath
18 Dhare Neeneedidaasare (Sapta Saagaradaache Ello – Side B) – Charanraj MR|Rakshit Shetty|KS Harishankar
19 Suryakanthi (Tagaru Palya) – Vasuki Vaibhav|Daali Dhananjaya|Madhuri Seshadri
20 Single Sundara (Raghavendra Stores) – B Ajaneesh Loknath|Nagarjuna Sharma|Vijay Prakash, Naveen Sajju

Marathi

Like the previous list, Marathi too is concentrated on a handful of soundtracks from the few Marathi composers whose work I admire. Top of that list is one of the most exciting composers in the country, A V Prafullachandra, who smashed it with the two movies he did, one of which was Nagraj Manjule-written Ghar Banduk Biryani. Two other highlights of Marathi were the return of Gulraj Singh after a long time, and singer Anweshaa turning composer, both to really impressive results. Hrishikesh-Saurabh-Jasraj don’t appear to have had any album this year, although Saurabh Bhalerao from the trio had a Hindi web series that I have featured.

Playlist: Apple  |  Spotify |  YouTube

1  Gun Gun (Ghar Banduk Biryani) – A V Prafullachandra|Vaibhav Deshmukh|Kavita Raam, Ashish Kulkarni
2  Baharla Ha Madhumas (Maharashtra Shaheer) – Ajay-Atul|Guru Thakur|Shreya Ghoshal, Ajay Gogavale
3  Chalalo (Pahije Jatiche) – Anweshaa|Uma V Kulkarni|Abhay Jodhpurkar
4  Man Taara (Unaad) – Gulraj Singh|Kshitij Patwardhan|Gulraj Singh, Shashaa Tirupati
5  Darav Darav/Reprise (Naal 2) – A V Prafullachandra|Vaibhav Deshmukh|Jayesh Khare, Master Avan, Padmanabh Gaikwad
6  Khara To (Shyamchi Aai) – Ashok Patki|Sane Guruji|Mahesh Kale
7  Tu BE Aan Mi BE (Jaggu Ani Juliet) – Ajay-Atul|Guru Thakur|Armaan Malik, Shalmali Kholgade
8  Ghar Banduk Biryani (Ghar Banduk Biryani) – A V Prafullachandra|Vaibhav Deshmukh|Mohit Chauhan
9  Kshan Kaalche (Unaad) – Gulraj Singh|Guru Thakur|Nandini Srikar
10 Godi Hi Dostichi (Naal 2) – A V Prafullachandra|Vaibhav Deshmukh|Gauri Gosavi
11 Gau Nako Kisna (Maharashtra Shaheer) – Ajay-Atul|Guru Thakur|Jayesh Khare, Ajay Gogavale
12 Kadhi Na Tula (Jaggu Ani Juliet) – Ajay-Atul|Guru Thakur|Sid Sriram
13 Aai Tuzhi Angai (Shyamchi Aai) – Ashok Patki|Saket Kanetkar|Devika Panshikar
14 Duniyadaari (Pahije Jatiche) – Anweshaa|Sant Kabir, Uma V Kulkarni|Anweshaa, Hrishikesh Ranade
15 Mariya (Ghar Banduk Biryani) – A V Prafullachandra|A V Prafullachandra|A V Prafullachandra

Coke Studio

And finally, Coke Studio. This year there wasn’t a Coke Studio Pakistan, but instead we had three other editions of Coke Studio – Coke Studio Bangla, which has been catching the attention since late last year and continued to deliver great music in 2023, and the two variants within India – Coke Studio Bharat and Coke Studio Tamil. The gap between the song releases has been a bit of a buzzkill in all of these cases, but there was some quality music in offer across the three shows. I have snuck in a Coke Studio Bangla song from last year as well – Bulbuli – because I missed including it last year and I love the track.

Playlist: Apple  |  Spotify  |  YouTube

1  Bulbuli (Coke Studio Bangla) – Ritu Raj x Nandita
2  Khalasi (Coke Studio Bharat) – Aditya Gadhvi x Achint
3  Urudhi (Coke Studio Tamil) – Sanjay Subrahmanyam x Arifulla Shah Rafaee
4  Geejaga Hakki (Coke Studio Bharat) – Sanjith Hegde x Charan Raj
5  Anondodhara (Coke Studio Bangla) – Adity Mohsin x Bappa Mazumder
6  Nodir Kul (Coke Studio Bangla) – Idris x Ripon x Arnob
7  Vendum (Coke Studio Tamil) – Sean Roldan x Meenakshi Elayaraja
8  Taqdeer (Coke Studio Bharat) – Donn Bhat x Rashmeet Kaur x Prabh Deep x Sakur Khan
9  Kan Moodudho (Coke Studio Tamil) – John Pradeep JL x Chinmayi
10 Shondhatara (Coke Studio Bangla) – Arnob x Sunidhi x Adit
11 Sagavaasi (Coke Studio Tamil) – Arivu x Khatija Rahman
12 Murir Tin (Coke Studio Bangla) – Riad X Pollob X Towfique

The post Music Aloud Playback – Best Indian Songs of 2023! first appeared on Music Aloud.

Songs and complete credits at the end (It is nice to see complete and properly annotated credits for the songs, with proper lyrical subtitles etc. Just an example of people who actually care about film songs putting them up for public consumption)

While working on my annual roundup for 2023 late last year, I noticed All India Rank among the 2023 movies listed in wiki, and was disappointed to see no songs associated with a movie directed by Varun Grover of all people. So it was really a happy surprise to notice the first single from the movie come out a few days back, and a full soundtrack soon after that. Which brings us to this review. The movie obviously released in cinemas on Friday, and one of the points common across reviews has been how this movie succeeds in evoking that 90s nostalgia. And this is mostly true of the movie’s songs as well. While introducing Noodle Sa Dil, Grover put out an amusing tweet about how they wanted to adapt Biddu-Alisha Chinai’s Made In India but ended up making it a tribute song due to budgetary reasons. And the song indeed a solid tribute, armed with a wonderfully done animation video that is full of 90s references, and Aditi Paul modulating her voice well to suit the era. Musically, however, debutant composers Mayukh-Mainak seem to draw more from a slightly older era of disco – Biddu’s own Nazia Hassan track Boom Boom was one of the songs that kept playing in my head as I listened to this one. Thoroughly enjoyed this one though, and not sure if Varun intended this, but apart from being a smart simile for the romantic entanglement, I found “noodle” quite a fitting choice of word for a movie that presumably portrays a lot of hostel life. Sab Achchi Baatein Hai has the lyricist in top form in his putdown of the idealism in our textbooks. The fact that one of the lead singers is Bodhisattva Sharma (Araham Khan, the other singer), the movie’s main man, lends well to the informal setting in which the song appears to be delivered.Quite liked the country-ish segues the composers take the song through from time to time. A hat tip also to the lovely flute phrases from Paras Nath. The rap track Choice Hi Nahi by Sumit Roy (who also supplies additional lyrics here) has some hard hitting (and very relatable) words, but musically there isn’t much that stands out here.

Varun’s intro for Theher Zara said that since this is a “sukoon aur thehraav ka geet”, it required a voice that makes us stop and introspect. And the makers do indeed the perfect choice in Vishal Bhardwaj. In the process of recording the veteran though, the composers also seem to have gotten influenced by VB’s repertoire, making Theher Zara sound more like a Vishal Bhardwaj song than a Mayank-Mayukh song. Good composition nevertheless, ID Rao’s sax/clarinet solos being another prominent element in the backdrop contributing effectively to the sukoon factor. My current favourite from the album is Haq Hai, particularly for the brilliantly amusing metaphors that the writer crafts out of engineering entrance fundas! Not to take anything away from the composers’ efforts of course, they produce an immensely hummable folkish tune to go with Grover’s words, and the ever dependable Shahid Mallya to deliver it – the singer seems to have made his voice a bit more nasal, which is a great touch here. Tapas Roy and Rickraj Nath’s work on the plucked strings also deserves a mention. Bringing up the rear of the album is surprisingly a guest composition, a 2021 indie song by Chitrangada Satarupa. While Not A Dream was most likely not composed for this movie, it still is a nice fit thematically. And a nice song too, a pensive melody rendered neatly by the singer-songwriter.

All India Rank. A commendable debut for Mayukh-Mainak, helped hugely by Varun Grover’s words. Even if the songs do not always land, full marks for staying true to the theme of the movie throughout.

Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5

Top Recos: Haq Hai, Theher Zara, Noodle Sa Dil

Soundtrack Credits

All songs* composed and arranged by: Mayukh-Mainak
All songs* mixed and mastered by: Rupjit Das
Audio recording engineers: Rupjit Das, Mrinal Kanti Das
Lyrics* by: Varun Grover
Recording Studio: Playhead, Mumbai

(* except Not A Dream)

Sab Achhi Baatein Hain

Singers: Araham Khan, Bodhisattva Sharma
Chorus: Nachiket Lele, Chaitanya Mauli, Shubham Kabra, Arhaan Hussain
Guitars (Acoustic & Bass): Rickraj Nath
Strokes (Banjo, Mandolin & Dotara): Tapas Roy
Flute: Paras Nath
Percussion: Arun N. Solanki
Percussion: Bhaskarjyote Das

Choice Hi Nahin Hai

Singer and Additional Lyrics: Sumit Roy
Track coproduced by: “Roy”/RollsRoys
Keyboard programming: Mayukh – Mainak
Sorolin: Abhijit Mazumdar
Harmonium: Mainak

Noodle Sa Dil

Singer: Aditi Paul
Backing Vocals: Aditi Paul, Shreya Banik Biswas
Keyboard programming: Brince Bora
Guitar: Rickraj Nath

Thehar Zara

Singer: Vishal Bhardwaj
Guitars (Acoustic, Electric, and Bass): Rickraj Nath
Rhythm programmer: Sobuj Mukherjee
Clarinet, Sax: ID Rao
Voice recorded by: Debarpito Saha (Satya Studio)

Haq Hai

Singer: Shahid Mallya
Chorus: Shahid Mallya, Saheb Biswas
Guitars (Acoustic, Electric, & Bass): Rickraj Nath
Strokes (Ektara, Saaz, Mandolin): Tapas Roy
Ravanhatta: Abhijit Mazumdar
Percussions (Dholak, Bongo & Hi Percs) : Bhaskarjyote Das

Not a Dream

Written, composed, and sung by: Chitrangada Satarupa
Arranged and produced by: SambitC
Guitar, percussion, piano, bass and backing vocals by: SambitC
Vocal arrangements by: Isheeta Chakrvarthy
Mixed and mastered by: Adhiraj Singh

The post All India Rank – Music Review (Bollywood) first appeared on Music Aloud.

Songs and complete soundtrack credits at the end.

If I were to rank my favourite musical instruments, one of the top entries would definitely be reserved for the African kora. An instrument that imparts an incredibly calming vibe, and therefore is often part of songs tend to be in that zone as well (remember this song from Raavan/Raavanan?). It is also an instrument that is unfortunately rarely employed in Indian music, so I have to rely on world music, or catching the instrument live (like this street performance I stumbled upon the other day). It was therefore that my ears perked up when I first listened to Sajni and heard strains of what sounded like kora kicking off the song. Got hold of the credits, and indeed it is Senegalese musician Vieux Cissokho at work. Cissokho and Bennett Sullivan on the mandolin (both instruments nicely complementing each other) dominate the backdrop of this wistful tune, even as Arijit Singh delivers the goods on the vocal front with practised ease. My favourite lines from the soundtrack appear in Doubtwa –Divyanidhi Sharma’s (also the movie’s additional dialogue writer) quirky mix of English and rustic phrases form the soul of this lively track where composer Ram Sampath smartly crafts an intriguing-yet-frivolous kind of a piece (love the use of horns!). And he could not have gotten a better candidate than Sukhwinder Singh (in fact the composer gets his choice of vocalists absolutely spot on for all four tracks) to sing this one – listening to the singer here made me think of songs in similar settings he has sung in the past, especially for Vishal Bhardwaj.

Nearly 11 years after he did a Beda Paar in Fukrey, Ram Sampath creates a second song under the same title – this time with lyricist Prashant Pandey – in Laapataa Ladies. And I am happy to report that this one has turned out way better than the older track, with its engaging folk melody delivered wonderfully by Sona Mohapatra and a zesty arrangement highlighted by the gabgubi, harmonium and mandolin. The album’s longest and best song goes to Shreya Ghoshal, who is unsurprisingly terrific on her part. The fact that this one is set to a seven beat cycle and is written by Swanand Kirkire brings to mind a song from the same team for Satyamev Jayate way back in 2012, O Ri Chiraiyya. While the similarity between the two songs pretty much ends with the abovementioned aspects, Dheeme Dheeme is as heart-tugging as O Ri Chiraiyya. Cracker of a tune which the composer treats gently, with very understated instrumentation – which reflects in the way Pratikhya Sharma’s backing vocals are employed as well. And the bonus – like kora in Sajni, here it is the harp, played by Lara Somogyi, accentuating the song’s soothing vibes. Love how the final minute is primarily an improv bit from Shreya to see out the song – nice touch that.

After a long break post Raees, it is good to see Ram Sampath compose for two movies in as many years. In Laapataa Ladies he also gets back with Aamir Khan Productions, a production house with which the man has had most success. And here too he comes up with a well-realised soundtrack, although I do wish it had more songs and that three of the four songs weren’t half-size. Nevertheless, hope to see the composer as active, if not more active, in the coming months!

Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5

Top Recos: It’s just 4 songs lasting under 13 minutes, go listen to the whole thing!

Soundtrack Credits

Song name : Beda Paar
Composed By : Ram Sampath
Lyricist : Prashant Pandey
Singer : Sona Mohapatra
Music Arranged & Produced by :  Ram Sampath & John Paul
Music Supervisor : Vrashal Chavan
Recorded & Mixed at Omgrown Music, Mumbai by Amey Wadibhasme
Mastered by Gethin John at Hafod Mastering
Backing Vocals : Shehnaaz Khan
Additional Arrangements : Nalin Vinayak

Song name : Doubtwa
Composed By : Ram Sampath
Lyricist : Divyanidhi Sharma
Singer : Sukhwinder Singh
Music Arranged & Produced by : Ram Sampath
Music Supervisor : Vrashal Chavan
Recorded & Mixed at Omgrown Music, Mumbai by Amey Wadibhasme
Mastered by Gethin John at Hafod Mastering
Backing Vocals : Alvin Presley & Ram Sampath
Additional Arrangements : Nalin Vinayak

Song name : Sajni
Composed By : Ram Sampath
Lyricist : Prashant Pandey
Singer : Arijit Singh
Music Arranged & Produced by : Ram Sampath
Music Supervisor : Vrashal Chavan
Recorded & Mixed at Omgrown Music, Mumbai by Amey Wadibhasme
Mastered by Gethin John at Hafod Mastering
Vocal Recordist : Sukanto Singha
Vocal Editor : Prithviraj Sarkar
Kora played by Vieux Cissokho
Mandolin & Dobro played by Bennett Sullivan

Song name : Dheeme Dheeme
Composed By : Ram Sampath
Lyricist : Swanand Kirkire
Singer : Shreya Ghoshal
Music Arranged & Produced by : Ram Sampath & Arabinda Neog  
Music Supervisor : Vrashal Chavan
Recorded & Mixed at Omgrown Music, Mumbai by Amey Wadibhasme
Mastered by Gethin John at Hafod Mastering
Backing Vocals : Pratikhya Sarma
Violin & Viola played by Kailash Patra
Recorded at Neo Sound By Pranjal Borah & at A-Ray Studio by Monor Kotha
Harp played by Lara Somogyi
Additional Arrangements : Nalin Vinayak

Score credits

Music Composed By : Ram Sampath
Music Arranged & Produced By : Ram Sampath
Music Supervisor : Vrashal Chavan
Additional Arrangements : Nalin Vinayak & John Paul
Recorded, Mixed & Mastered at Omgrown Music, Mumbai by Amey Wadibhasme

The post Laapataa Ladies – Music Review (Bollywood Soundtrack) first appeared on Music Aloud.