Gruham
Horror films are battles half-won with adequate focus on the sound; Gruham’s story was indeed a seamless blend of haunting sound design and a solid music score. The use of the eerie silences, screeching sounds went beyond conventional jumpscares, adequate importance was placed to little elements that formed part of sequences — the furniture, the nature, the psychological mindplay of the characters and also doing away with them where necessary — helped build the tension in the story with great precision. Also thanks to a well-researched complex science versus myth backdrop that gave enough for composer Girishh Gopalakrishnan and sound designer Vishnu Govind to sink their teeth into.
Arjun Reddy
For a film so brutally raw and honest, Arjun Reddy got its aura from its music as much as the swag of Vijay Deverakonda. With a heavy metal undertone matching up to the extremities and mood swings of its lead character, the use of semi-classical and jazzy touches in the album, the references to Cheri Cheri Lady, Tony Bennett’s Rags To Riches , Si Señor’s Control Machete were the topping the film used to a great effect in the film’s crucial junctures. The sound design took cue from the nature — the winds, the rains, the flow of water on the beaches and what not! That the film had great consistency in its score is surprising given it had two composers Harshavardhan Rameshwar and Radhan, who were involved with film in different junctures of its making.
Ghazi
A film set in the submarine featuring a star, Ghazi didn’t do much to make us feel it was a song-less narrative. A music score by K (Krishna Kumar) revolved around atmospheric subtleties, the scope to experiment being little but for an occasional torpedo and the sounds of the water flow. The delicate balance between the inner conflicts of the characters, their heightened patriotism around the seabed gave moments with enough juice for the score to ring in a holistic appeal. An appreciable departure from the ‘on-the-face’ approach with sound, the unique sound aesthetics contributed to its unconventional plot as well.
Baahubali 2
Technically refined instrumentation to back a familiar score, Baahubali 2 ’s visual grandeur was adequately matched by its exaggerated, larger than life and yet well-utilised music. Not only did MM Keeravani used the dramatic plot to his advantage, equally appreciable was his judicious use of the classical, folk elements with the percussion instruments, the shehnai and the veena. The music wasn’t pathbreaking in any sense; but Keeravani’s experience within a film’s commercial scope couldn’t have complemented SS Rajamouli’s imagination any better . The true impact of Sanjay Goswami’s sound design came to the fore with the intermission block — the superiority of Amarendra Baahubali regardless of his position was depicted in one firm stroke.
Khakee
Karthi in Dheeran Adhigaram Ondru Movie Stills
Among the rare composers to infuse an infectious contemporariness within the mainstream space to his albums and the background score, Ghibran’s rustic musical exterior is among the top reasons behind the spine-chilling impact of Karthi’s actioner Khakee . This is a film on the move and what better scope than music to showcase its pace. His instrumentation had sounds that mirrored the Rajasthani belt to the hilt, the emotional hangover of the cops and animalistic nature of the Bawaria gangs had Ghibran reflecting exhaustion, intensity, wildness at once through his music.
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