Meghamalhar
Satyam Audios, Rs. 60.00
There's something romantic about the rain, something that connects rain and love. The sound of the thunder or just the scent of wet sand the rain simply downs you, your love. All the songs in this album are about this relationship.
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Poovachal Khader, Parvathy, Adarsh S. V. Nair and Rajesh Thirumala have penned these love-rain lyrics. The music, refreshing, is by Damodar Narayanan. Sreenivas, Shwetha, Najeem Arshad, Franko and Sreedevi breathe life into these songs.
The pick of the five songs is the one beginning ‘Mukilai…' rendered by Sreedevi, who is a post-graduate in music who has made her name as a dubbing artiste. The lyrics, tune and singing is straightforwardly melodious. The others songs that will demand repeated hearing are ‘Malharile…' (Najeem), and ‘Ananda mazhayil…,' both as a duet (Sreenivasan-Shweta) and solo by Shweta.
Damodar Narayanan has kept the basic tunes simple and hummable. He has used the BGM to create the ambience, the rain theme. You listen to the thunder, can feel its pitter-patter and get yourself drenched in the rain, in love.
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Also repeated are two songs, ‘Mukilai…' on the violin by Bhavya Lakshmi and ‘Malharile…' on the flute by Vishnu Vijay.
Maya Murali
Manorama Music, Rs. 125.00
Like the pied piper Kudamaloor Janardanan has been wooing fans worldwide with his mesmerising flute recitals and albums. His new album has nine pieces, innovative, traditional krithis, all of them punctuated by his inimitable style, fused together with an exciting backup of vocals and other instruments.
After a short opening piece which sets the tone, Janardanan explores the hues of Mohanam raga. The famous ‘Varaveena mrudupani…' is highlighted with a cascade of flourishes. Two famous Tyagaraja krithis, ‘Sara sara samaraika soora…' and ‘Sobhillu saptaswara…' in Kunthalavarali (wrongly spelt in the info card) and Jaganmohini respectively are embellished with sweeping flights of the flute. Irayimman Thampi's lullaby ‘Omanathinkal kidavo…' and Subramania Bharati's ‘Chinnam chiru kiliye…' have been played with a lot of emphasis on melody. Malavagowla with ‘thattu varisa' and ‘madhyasthayi varisa,' minor vocal exercises, a piece in Gamhiravani and the closing piece titled Bamboo Express complete this melodious album.
What disturbs is the wrongly numbered info card. Each piece has been titled but there is a bad jumble in the list. For the uninitiated who tends to follow the info for a better understanding and enjoyment of the music can be misled by the info on the card. So forget the info and simply drown in the music of the magical flute.