There are different kinds of music directors in our indian film industry.
1.MDs with attitude Let us see the stardom These are music directors who want stardom and money real quick.they dont care about the quality of their songs nor any respect for art -For them all they need is fame -everything else is behind
2.MDs with attituce Let us se stardom through quality The difference between 1-2 is that these guys are passionate about their work -They want stardom but not at the expense of delivering low quality songs.
3.MDs with attitude Let it flow These are MDs who have care -free attitude. They do not care much about hits -FOr them the success lies in truly enjoying the composition and in experimntation -There are very few MDs- who are like a spring. They keep on composing music for the pure bliss. Their minds are soaked in music that they stop doing other activities. The concentration they have in music is next only to a saint ..WHen people listen to thir compositions , not only are they moved they start learning music inspired by it.
Illayraaja is definetely one such genius. Mumbai Express - When I first heard it was bi-lingual -the immediate thought I had wa s’- Raaja , for sure is not going to use Western classical or carnatic based raagas atleast directly. So what else is left Rock n Roll , POp , Rock , Hard Metal, European folk. Rockn roll is ok for a song but not for all the songs. European Folk , especilly Irish can be used - But I was skeptical as IRish folk won’t jell with Hindi Public. And raaja , somehow may not prefer pur epop or ROck. So what else is left !??????
JAZZ - the magical word .JAZZ is one of the musical genre where you have good space for melody and for rythm oriented songs. Infact we have been unconsciously hearing JAZZ songs for many years ....
1.Kurungu Kayil Maalai - Kamal Hassan , tippu Jazz differs from other genre in two ways. One is the Instruments and teh rythm and teh structure of the music is different ..There is more accent on the second beat and there is more silence. This song is funny and just feaks out like anything. Starts with a JAZZ guitar piece , with the trumphets following it. Illayraaj has cleverly hid this 80s flavor inside the JAZZ.The song has a beautiful Jazz Piano music serving like a Bass Guitar.
Tippu delivers the punch required for jazz -esp the stress on certain words adds beauty to this song. Kamal Hassan too has sung it excelently like a JAZZ singer .The rythm changes from Pallavi to the Anu pallavi to the charanam - We have three different rythms in one song !! The second interlude is just PURE JAZZ BLISS !!!!!The sax piece is just wonderful and the percussions by (sivamani?) is just amazing. The lyrics is very very funny..
Kurungu kayil maala
kuduthathu yaaru vela
thoduthu vechu naarum therathuda
On the whole it is mind Blowing !!!!!
2.Poo puthathu - Shreya , Kumar Saanu As I said before , it is the same Jazz , which can be used a amelody -Thats its beauty .Of course it would be difficult to use Jaz for war scenes .But for romance Jaz is just perfect. Here again , the Jazz Piano comes asn excellent harmony throughout the song . the sound recording in this movie is also cool .The Hungary orchestra has been used for the Jazz part and it was rumored that raaja recorded th songs in New york . Coming back to the song -it is avery cool melody .It would resemble Yuvan Shankar Raajas songs - This is because most of the songs of yuvan are Jazy .But if you give just Western classical orchestra , you will see that this isa regular IR song .the song grow son you after 3-4 times , especially in the charanam , these lines...
Iyarkai ...oooo....
Iyarkai nadathum velvi ethu
Vidaigal theria Kelvi ethu ’’
Sherya just melts herself in these lines .the interludes are again strongly Jazz with cool trendy Male humming. SOnu Nigam too has sung very well with good tamil diction , esp
Irulalil yengo nilavu vaara
ithamai nenjai varudi vara
Again Mind blowing !
3.yele Yele -Kamal Hassan Thi sis supposed to be akind of item song piturised on rakhi sawant .This song glorifies Mumbai , the hero and these two girls . Starts with a Hindustani kind of humming - with some voices in the background .I think it shows the slums of mumbai in background . Starts with these two , not too impressive , but somewhat catchy on repeated hearings .. Yele ne eothipoo Yele ..Nee orampoo Osutnthi Ostunthi Mumbai express .. Afer this lines, starts the Rock-Jazz music with electric guitars and clarinet- an intresting combination ....This song is bit vintage raaja type and fits very much like a title song . After repeated hearing , u start humming these lines ... I think this is one of the few songs where raaj has used electric rock guitar ...... Again we have different rythm for the pallavi and anu pallavi and charanam ..Just superb !!!! Still , this is cool song !!!
4.Theme music 1-5 Min When did we have a 5 min theme music ?I think very very few films have 5 min theme music.Starts with a perfect Lajja kin do ftheme music - When you are getting ready for a orchestral classical piece , raaja totally shifts gears and changes to Jazz - Jazz that we have seen in james Bond Movies .Now when you get ready for a James Bond kind of Jazzy stuff , it melts to a romantical jazz .Now when you get ready for romantical jazz , he melts to kind of Jugal Bandhi with Solo Violin , trumphet and Jazz Piano -After the jugal Bandhi comes the Nothing But WInd of experimentation -FInally the jazz piece goe sinto like the ’Maharajan odu’ song from Sathi leelavathi All I can say -This is Mind blowing again !!!
5.Theme music 2 - 4 min Starts with just slow rythm -typical Jazz rythm .SLow hallucinating kind of music .FIts in perfectly when somebody is kidnapping or hiding or moving to kill ..Again raaja shows a surprise by bringing in the romantic Jazz Piano piece -Like the calmness after a storm .A kind of Yanni feeling you get after listening to it .
6.Vande Matram I totally hate this - This song is just plain vande matram song - It appears that a kind of kidnapping occurs when the school boys sing the vande matram song and the boys sing the vande matram in abeserk way Serious insult to vande matram !!!!!
Except for Vaande Matram - It is just mind blowing JAZZ album !!!!