At the first hearing, I really hated this album - too much ARR infleunce , similar chord progressions , layering of instruments , percussions .....But as Suresh has suggested I decided to hear it few more times to appreciate any beauty ...I should appreciate Suresh for identifying debut composers ( whether I like it or not is different ) ...keep it up man !!!!
Somehow I feel , the music is not flowing naturally ....Only the music which strikes a MD sponatenously will stand and will be natural ...If a composer composes with a sole idea of getting fame and not enjoying the process of creation , we will be left with plastic music ..Definitely useful for a short time , but then it is plastic and it has to be thrown away ........I don’t know what type of composer JS is and it is too early to say all these ....
It is my gut feeling that most modern composers copy ARR’s style ..But then ARR, I believe develops the melody first in natural way and it is only in the orchestration he takes lot of time ...ARR worked his life out to bring out a revolution in the sounds and that established his identity ..Other composers just pick up what he has done and just compose their songs ...Good , but not healthy ...
I can very well say , this is the pattern of all modern day composers , except Vidyasagar , Bharadwaj , , Karthik raaja , Ramesh Vinayagam .....Any song start with a loop or a pecussion , mix the Jazz FLute and if necessary Sitar and back it with strings and use come elctronic sounds if necessary ..Thats it .....Since one concentrates more on Sound , the composition goes behind and souns comes first ...Yuvan Shankar Raaj did start with that but then he went to country , Rock , Pop etc and developed his identity ...
1.Ivanthaano - Sunitha Sarathy
Essentially a fast paced song . The songs bangs on with a electrical guitar piece and this layer is throughout in the whole album ...The interludes , layer of electric guitar is very much similar to Uirin Uyrie song from kaaka Kakka , only in style .The song has amazing sound quality which is very much characterstic of all ARRs .....Essentially , i don’t see much depth in the orchestration or any beauty in this song ..
2.Kadhal - Beat
Starts with a lOrd Of Rings kind of Theme music .This is one nice feel good track , though I should say it is heavily inspired from the Lord of the Rings Track for the first half ..It essentially blends nicely to a male humming Kadhaal word ......The background guitar layer in the second half suits the mood well ..The final flute piece with the strings background as harmony is good too ....As again it is too much resembles ARR themes ..The chord progressions again seem to similar to ARR or HJ ....That is the only sor e point in this , otherwise it is good ....
3.Thottu Thottu - Hariharan , Harini , Sudhakar
This song follows the very similar approach of having the pallavi ( first two lines ) backed with a rythmic beats and the next two lines with no harmony ......The melody line in this song is good ....The first interlude is very much similar to ARR , with SItar and flute overlapping each other ..The MD could have taken a better way of having interlude here , ...
But the breath of fresh air comes in the charanam where the music changes very much and there is minimum orchestration .....The second charanam is backed with a string harmony in the second line , which is really good ...
I can say I like this song for charanam ...
4.Kiri Kiru - Karthik , Shalini
This is a very different song ..Eseentially , seems to be a seducing song ..The prelude is very much inspired from Parthaale Paravassam song ......The female humming and the ’THOL’ instrument usage is intresting ....This song, I can say does not fall into the category of ARR , until the interlude comes :(
The charanam has the same pattern of a line followed by a femal humming , which is intresting ..As in the previous song , the charanam has a good melody line ...The second interlude too is very much inspired from the Paarthale Paravasam song ...
5.Poovum Pudikuthu -Karthik , Tippu , SHalini
A fast paced song with Micheal Jackson kind of percussion instrument .....The fast paced song changes to a slow melodic line by female singer ....But again very much characterstic of HJ or ARR ..But definitely nice to hear .....
6.Puru kuudu - Suresh Peters , Shalini , Tippu
A techno dappanguthu song blended witha different genre of music ....Carnatic , Hindustani music everything comes in ..Suddenly I hear the Vicco Ad song in that !!! A highly situational song ....This is not a dance number but one will enjoy it very much if there is a good visuals .......Lyrics are quite catchy , very much depicting the bachelor life and different kinds of peopel living in Bachelor lodge ...
7.Thandakatti Karuppayee-
Starts with a village folk song , with no Harmony - A nice variety in this ....ANother Village Techno Dappnguthu ....You can compare this song with Mari Mazha song with Techno beats ..the songs belnds to a nadaswaram interlude and strings ......Ok Song , too much ARR influence ...
8.Unnakenna Irupen - Hariharan
Harihran kind of melody ...Something which we have seen in many movies ...This song melody has a Illayraaja touch to it , esp thatw hich we have seen in Vaithegi Kathiranthaal , though the orchestration is very much ARR type .. The solo violin interlude is very much refreshing and the charanam is also very good ...The flute piece in the second interlude is good ....
WIll it do what Minnale did for Harris Jeyaraj ..Well , i will say it just short of it ....But this will definetely be a hit ...
But while I appreciate ARR music very much, I do not apprciate if somebody does not have any induviduality and follows the same pattern of ARR ..JS is definitely heavily inspired by ARR’s sound Engineering , usage of instruments , melody line ...I wish JS finds some liberty and manifests his own induviduality in the coming movies ......
..Yes , the songs are going to be a hit , but not all songs that are good become hits and not all songs that become hit are good ...
But I wish, JS sees this fact ...Every composer has lot of pressure to deviate from what he wants to deliver and what he is forced to .......Even IR in his first few movies followed MSV style , then went in his own way ..Every composer needs time , luck , liberty to do that !!!!
I recommend this album as it follows a hit path , if not different !!!