Yogi B and Dhanush does a Sachin-Sehwag blitzkrieg with Nada Na Raja , which opens the album of Velai Illa Pattathari-2 . Heavy on guitars and drums, this song — which has typical you-can-succeed-in-life lyric — works well to set the tone for Raghuvaran, a character that Tamil audiences quite fell in love with in the original instalment.
After such a heavy song comes the melodic Iraivanai Thandha Iraiviye . Composer-singer Sean Roldan takes off exactly where he left in his wonderful debut effort Power Paandi ; his usage of flute and sound arrangements are pretty much set in dreamy Ilaiyaraaja-land. Watch out for the anthemic-like chorus in the end.
From then on, the album tapers. Ucchatula is very much set in Anjala mode (“an oppaari song set in kuthu style”, as Dhanush himself refers to it) while the mundane Dooram Nillu seems to be just a musical setting for a face-off on-screen. The face-off here is between Dhanush and Kajol (who plays Vasundhara); it’s clear that the latter is of prime importance in this script. For, she gets something on the lines of an introduction number — titled The Empress Arrives — an instrumental piece that would perhaps sound better with the visuals.
The music of VIP-2 does have its moments, but they’re few far and between…and that might have a lot to do with the expectations after the rocking musical experience that the DnA (Dhanush and Anirudh) combination gave in the first part.
Listen to the music here: