‘Red Road-u’Jil Jung Juk (Tamil)
Music: Vishal Chandrasekhar
Vishal Chandrasekhar has been around for some time but it is only with Jil Jung Juk (and the Telugu soundtrack, Krishna Gadi Veera Prema Gaadha ) does he seem to have picked up a unique sound. In the soundtrack’s best song, the curiously named, ‘Red road-u’ (amongst other curiously named songs such as Shoot The Kuruvi, Domer-u Lord-u and Shoot The Kili ), Vishal produces a crackling electro swing number that comes alive with Santhosh Narayanan and Sean Roldan’s vocals. The lyrics, by the film’s director Deeraj Vaidy, are completely zany and it goes wonderfully well with the tune’s manic energy.
‘Kaantha’
Uriyadi (Tamil)
Album: Masala Coffee
Kaantha is Masala Coffee band’s best known song, with over a million views on YouTube, in its original Malayalam version on Kappa TV . It’s an instantly likeable, captivating tune that the band builds brilliantly in an inspired mix of kazoo (by lead singer Sooraj Santhosh himself), Esraj (by Arshad Khan) and Joe Jacob’s scintillating drums. Now, the band transforms this essentially pooram song into a fantastic thathuvam song, on life and its many meanings . Regardless of what ‘Kaantha’ meant in the Malayalam original, the Tamil invocation—a pop-culture inside joke of sorts—is very clear... M. R. Radha’s cult dialogue from Ratha Kanneer .
‘Idukki’
Maheshinte Prathikaaram (Malayalam)
Music: Bijibal
‘Idukki’ is the kind of song that should ideally be adopted by Kerala Tourism. It actually mandates a music video with English subtitles. Rafeeq Ahammed’s lines and Bijibal’s serene, ambient music brings forth Idukki’s beauty lyrically and musically, with its laidback pace mirroring life in the region. The composer sings his own tune and does it so well, enjoying the nuanced lines, with fantastic backing vocals from Sangeetha Prabhu, Soumya Ramakrishnan and Shanthi.
‘Rara Ravera’
Krishna Gadi Veera Prema Gaadha (Telugu)
Music: Vishal Chandrasekhar
Vishal ropes in Hemachandra to sing ‘Rara Ravera’, as he embellishes it with a lilting, tune and heady, folksy orchestration that is high on rhythm. What sticks eventually is the instantly catchy hook that Vishal uses to great effect, repetitively, amidst an outburst of music. The folk sound comes in even better in the anupallavi and charanam that bridges back to pallavi really well.
‘Yappa Chappa’
Kanithan (Tamil)
Music: Sivamani
Given Sivamani’s specialty, ‘Yappa Chappa’ is a fantastic cornucopia of percussion sounds. The tune, that seems to be picking off catchy calypso style music, has a repetitive hook that sounds generic, but helps in making the song addictive. Composer Anirudh, who seems to be singing more for other composers these days, does a competent job, along with Kalpana. There’s also a lovely ghatam piece mid-way, in the second interlude, that layers wonderfully with a violin. The song’s lyrics, courtesy Madhan Karky, touch technology too, invoking the now-defunct Google Glass.
