This is a reply to Mr. Hari’s post titled ‘Why Choose Shankar-Ehsaan-loy?’

Hello Mr. Hari,

As an ardent fan of Kamalhaasan, I do support Mr. Arasan’s comments on why Kamalhaasan should work more with the local talents.

I too accept that Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is one of the best musicians in Bollywood. This trio had delivered fabulous hits in Hindi movies and sold millions of albums as you had stated in your statistics. But their stardom is limited to Bollywood.

Unfortunately the Bollywood music doesn’t fit into our southern musical taste. The north Indian Musicians don’t know the pulse of an average movie fans from South India. New comers in Southern Industry like Vasantha Balan, Vijay Antony, S.S.Kumaran, etc. have churned out beautiful hits in Tamil Cinema.

If you consider ‘Aalavandaan’ songs as super hit, you definitely lack musical sense. If you rate, ‘siri siri siri…’ song as super hit then what would you call the other Ilayaraja / A.R. Rahman’s songs? Aalavandaan songs are just average.

2,00,000 copies of ‘Aalavandaan’ album could have been sold in just 8 hours, not for Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy but for the hype created by ‘Aalavandaan’ and for the legend Kamalhaasan. I don’t think an ordinary movie buff from the interior of Tamilnadu know even Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (that too prior to the release of ‘Dil Chaahtha Hai’). So you cannot credit the musical trio from Bollywood for selling 2,00,000 copies in just 8 hours.

Even I was very disappointed when Kamalhaasan signed Himesh Reshammiah for his magnum opus ‘Dasavatharam’. Hope you will agree that the songs are not fit to be called as the grand ‘Dasavatharam’ songs.

I don’t undermine the popularity and skills of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy or Himesh Reshammiah. They are too good and their music is awesome but only in Hindi movies and they cannot satisfy an ordinary fan from Tamilnadu.

Like Mr. Arasan and other millions of Kamalhaasan fans, I too feel that Kamalhaasan is not giving importance to quality songs in his movies. I request the legend Kamalhaasan to appreciate the local talents and satisfy your millions of local Tamilnadu fans.