DON'T MISS OUT ON THESE 15 OF THE BEST HITS OF THE MONTH - MAY 2022 EDITION!

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Adiyea Raatchasiyea

MS Jones Rupert is one undeniable talent and that was something which became quite evident right through the lockdown. He has composed many songs and worked with D sathyaprakash and other singers too, all of which have been featured in this space. Here this is once again a very likable tune sung by Deepthi Suresh who too has been finally getting her claim won and singing solo and lead in Tamil. But it is a moment of joy to see MS Jones scoring for a movie album called ‘Mayan’. The male vocals belong to the composer himself and he does surprise me very pleasantly as I haven’t heard him sing much. The opening lines have a flavor of Raaga Abheri, in my opinion. I just love the guitars and the flow of the flute and violin in the background. Let us not forget the smashing rhythm programming. Deepthi really impresses with her humming that just melts you down. The stanza goes in line with expectations and then I was amazed how the notes shifted in “ eerainthu maatham enna sumantha” and credit grows to MS Rupert got that skill. The lines are penned by J Rajes Kanna and the mixing and mastering is done by V Raghav Srinivas.

En thaaye

Sanathan Shree Krishnan is probably under-rated, or maybe I am just assuming that. I have been regularly tracking him and his singles have always got to offer to any music lover. A few months ago he composed this wonderful number called “Vathikuchi Alavu aasai”, in almost AR Rahmanesque fashion. Now this is a song dedicated to the love for a Mother, and it has a style that you would never have guessed. While most Mother’s Day songs are slow, and filled with pathos, this guy creates a chirpy song and it feels better. This is a complete one-man show as Sanathan writes, composes, produces, programs and performs including mixing and mastering. Go ahead, listen, and dedicate to your mother right away! At times Santhan sings in a way that reminds me of Anirudh and that is totally a compliment.

Engey Needhi

It cannot be done; it just cannot be! Well that would be the answer to the following question “Can you keep Dhibu Ninan Thomas, out of the monthly list of best Tamil songs?” That is the amazing consistency with which Dhibu scores and he has been unstoppable recently. It is very nice to see him break into different genres as well, and so last month if it was a dance track, this time it is a really sad lullaby. The Piano playing slowly does the track of adding to the gravity. Ananya Bhat brings the right vocal texture to the table and she delivers it with perfection emoting brilliantly. The keys are played by Balaji Gopinath who is a fine young musician and all the orchestral arrangements are by Kalyani Nair. Once again it is welcome to see this wonderful musician work in an orchestra for composers other than Pradeep Kumar, her spouse.  The backing vocalists come to life in the interlude and they include Anjana Rajagopalana, Devu Mathew, Sindhuri S, Shobi Ashika C, and Shilvi Sharon and the way they sing, it just tears your heart open, so kudos to the delivery and the pathos reflected. Naveen Iyer’s flute is touching but the rhythms are just spectacular. The mixing is by Balu Thankachan and mastering is by Shadab Rayeen with Avinash Satish as the recording engineer. Yugabharathi is the lyricist.

Hey Magic Maname

Al Rufian’s song’ Noorayiram’ from the movie ‘Key Magic Maname’ was featured last month and now we have the title track which too is quite funky and catchy, it is a simple track if you look at the structure of it, so it majorly has a pallavi and anupallavi , without any charanam, and that goes on and repeats itself. Jerin C Raj is the music supervisor and does all the additional programming. Akshay Govind and Raihanah Shekar are the lead vocalists and they do a fabulous job, especially Akshay who sounds wonderful and convincing oozing style. Raihanah does a Vasundhara Das or a Malgudi Shuba with her vocals and she adds the oomph factor. The keyboards and rhythm programming is top notch, and the interlude has this solo on electric guitars by Sri Varthan. The best line is “thathi thavum muyalai pola nammai thottri kollum intha kadhal” both lyrically and note wise. Dipesh Sharma Batalvi does the mix and master and KK Senthil Prasath is on the recording. Vijay Ganapathy writes these wonderful words.

Kaalathukkum nee venum

This is one AR Rahman romantic melody that reminds us of the ‘Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaya’ days of glory for the composer. He gets STR himself to sing and compared to the genre of songs that he sings usually this is a welcome change. STR does perform well without the pressure of singing along with an established rock-star like Rakshita Suresh who smashes the ball out of the park at every given instance. Keba Jeremiah plays the guitars all along and also the Charango. Kareem Kamalakar blows you away with an improvised Flute solo in the interlude along with Kiran. Nakul Abhyankar joins in on the backing vocals and the wonderful programming is done by him as well. The sound engineers are Suresh Perumal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh. I love the percussion and all that is thanks to the nicely done programming. The second interlude is more traditional and has glimpses of Raag Charukeshi. STR exhibits he does possess a wide vocal range but Rakshita’s singing is like a master-class and she truly deserves to sing so much more at least across all south Indian albums. The track is mixed by Krishna Chetan and mastered by Suresh Permal, with digital mastering by Riyasdeen Riyan. The musician co-ordinators are Samidurai R, Abdul Haiyum, Siddique, TM Faizudeen.

Karuppazhagi

It has been a while since we had this singer/composer from SE Asia score a Tamil number. The last time he did, it was a massive hit with Ajesh singing “Adiye Arakkiye”. In between there have been releases like “Senjittaley” in 2021 but finally we have a track which is as good as the 2020 single and this time he does the vocals himself. We are talking about the composer Satthia Nalliah and the female lead vocalist is none other than Rakshita Suresh and kudos to her for having appeared in two amazing songs this month. Satthia composes, sings and arranges and where he impresses the most is the use of a barrage of live instruments making it a beautiful experience to sit through the track. Sruthi Balamurali plays the flute while Karl Luis is on the guitar, but keep your ears ready for some stunning basslines by Derick McArthur. The rhythm programming along with the live rhythms will make you dance till you drop and that is all thanks to Vicky Balasubramanian and Karthik Vamsi, Kaviraj respectively. The song clearly has influences of Hindolam Ragam, with a beautiful Nadaswaram in the interlude. Rakshita’s vocals are soft and tender against the energetic Satthia’s and that works well. The strings are conducted by Thamizh Kumaran P with AM Rahmatullah on mixing and mastering. Raghadeepan and Oviya oommapathy are the lyricists. 

Kaathu Vaakula Rendu Kaadhal

The movie had some bad reviews but some of the songs in the album did really well, and in fact I can say that this was one of Anirudh’s better albums. We have featured Naan Pizhai and Rendu Kadhal already and this is the 3rd number to be reviewed among the best. The violins are brilliant and remind us of Maestro Ilaiyaraja’s “kala kalamaga vantha kadhalukku” from ‘Punnagai Mannan’. Just like Santhosh Narayanan roped in Anirudh for that super song “Bujji” song a couple of years ago, Anirudh returns the favor. The Piano is another excellent addition in the stanza that beautifully adds a to the song’s quality. The lyrics are definitely interesting and well written but as usual it is Anirudh’s voice and delivery that stand out especially the way he sings “sokka vaikkum azhagis a”

Maayam Seithaai Poovae

Pranav Giridharan is a composer who I have been following and apart from his talent he also is pretty consistent with getting good songs composed. I have featured him multiple times for his indie singles and movie projects as well. This one too is a fabulous number with Pranav going almost entirely solo. He has composed, arranged, programmed, produced, mixed played the rhythm and acoustic guitars and also done the keyboard and synth programming along with doing the harmonies. The guitars are solid right at the start. Pranav’s vocals are stylish and catchy and what immediately captivates me is the solo as well as the Violin quartet thanks to Shiva Prasad Perala. Even during the stanza you can hear the brilliant instrumental arrangements and we have Lalitha Ramakrishnan and Jay on backing vocals. Pradeep Menon and Arun Uma do the mastering and Manoj Prabhakar pens the lyrics. Sairam K also is part of the team and is involved in producing, mixing and recording the track. This is both a hummable love track as well as one that oozes massive instrumental quality

Neeyum Naanum

This month has been about very pleasant surprises, and this falls right in the center of that. I was just bamboozled by this song thanks to its overall tone, and singing obviously. Mangalam Sridhar is like a breath of fresh air, and that we have been waiting for, and there are many facets to her vocals which give me confidence to expect so much more in the future. In just one line she exhibits both calmness and control, as well as attitude and passion. I Krish as he is known, has done a remarkable job as he writes, composes, produces, arranged, mixes and masters for this track. I am thankful that my research and deep digging led to a track like this, otherwise it could all be lost in a pile of massive movie songs that we kept getting in May 2022. The keys, rhythm and Violin too are all programmed by Krish, and he also lends his voice in the track. This is just a simple number with not too many complications but the whole production is as good as any we would have heard in movies by A-list composers in Kollywood. Sannita Sujendran is responsible for the photography. The arrangements of the Keys, and the Violin, rhythm and harmonies all are pin-point perfect to create an aura of longing, misery and hope all at the same time.

Nigazhe Sadhaa

Recently a very experienced music reviewer called Prashant Pillai as the most interesting composers around in India. That was apt because he never shies away from experimenting and tries to give something more than a run-of-the-mill to his fans and music lovers. I definitely liked this one more than the retro number that featured Gowtham Bharadwaj. The song is fresh and gives us a college or love anthem as against Prashant’s usually deep and heavy numbers. Sreekanth Hariharan does fabulously well in the vocal lead role, but I sense Pretti Pillai who usually kills it in Malayalam, probably felt less than comfortable in Tamil. The whole tonality was like that of a Harris Jayaraj number of the 2000s. Shreekish Sridhar is on the top of his job on guitars, and once the opening lines are over I loved the programming on the track which leads to some excellent rhythms and the lead vocalists in harmony. Prashant has composed, arranged and programmed with some nice words penned by Karthik Netha. Prashant also must be thankful for a very talented team of assistants in Sreerag Saji and Rakesh, and these guys have also done the additional programming. I The stanza has a line in fact which very much feels like “en veetai paar, ennai pidikkum” from “Om Shanti Shanti ” song by  Harris Jayaraj. Sai Prakash and Akshay K are the recording engineers with mixing and mastering by Vivek Thomas. There is a beautiful guitar solo as the interlude and the highlight of the song is clearly the rhythm that keeps the song so upbeat especially with the male chorus shouting “hey” in the background.

Ninaivugalil

Prasanth Mohan MP creates an absolute beauty here, and it has every element to ensure we have a stunner. The classical touch with most probably some Saranga Ragaa influence enhances the quality and bringing in two established singers makes for a delightful listening experience. Karthik and Keerthana Vaidyanathan are the lead vocalists with Divakrishna VJ as the lyricist. The most creative part of the song is the way the song’s tempo changes brilliantly in the stanza, in fact in the interlude itself. The Keys, and the guitars an electric violin all create layers that just beautify the song further. Sreerag is responsible for all the exceptional programming. The song oozes quality in every segment and that is hard to find these days, and watch-out even for the fine bass-lines. When I listen to the song and compare with another super famous number “ Kannale Kadhal Kavithai” by Maestro Ilaiyarja, I get the hint that maybe this one is set in Yaman Kalyani

Oru chinna paravai

NR Raghunanthan is one of those composers who quietly keeps coming up with the solid goods, and he is one who will never ever bow down to the pressure of the modern consumer, and hence will stick to scoring a melodious tune of a meddled hit. The song right from the beginning has traces of Reethigowla Raaga, I presume, and the sweet voice of Priyanka NK is heard with her solo humming. GV Prakash is the male lead vocalist and Yugabharathi is the lyricist. In-fact GV has not sounded so good and convincing in a long time and that is heartening to see. Kiran makes necessary flute solo interventions while Abin Sagar is the man on the acoustic and electric guitars. Karthik Iyer is on fire with a brilliant solo exhibition on the violin in the interlude. Priyanka is very comfortable and pleasing even at the higher scales as Aswin plays all the additional keys. The second interlude is a show of skill on the flute and all through this it is Napier Naveen on bass guitars while the really impressive percussions are thanks to Roshan Sebastian. Balu Thankachan does the mixing and mastering while Lijeshkumar has recorded the song.

Saayai

This is not a song but a beautiful piece, which made me stand up in ovation and it felt like a seasoned composer’s symphony. The music is by Cheran Ela who has already scored a beautiful song a few months ago called “Sidharipoga”. This is a song to cherish with your headphones on as the strings section, Keys all play in the background and take away all your attention. Cheran also is the vocalist but he probably does the right thing by being mild and subtle in his delivery. Jayachandran plays the solo Violin and eh also intervenes at perfect junctures. Sruthy Sasidharan joins on the backing vocals which emotionally hits the right notes during all the humming. Manikandan Ramanthan is the lyricist, Isaac Philip is the man behind the music production and he should be applauded for getting this brilliant output. Lokesh Vijayakumar is the recording engineer.

Soorathenga

How does he manage to do it every time? It is very difficult to remake a movie and get it to be equally good as the original. It is even more difficult because unlike in the screenplay, you cannot copy the music and just make new singers perform vocally. Ghibran has done this now or more than once, just check out the music of the album “Maara” which managed to be as good if not better than Gopi Sundar’s “Charlie”. Now once again we have Ghibran scoring for Google Kuttappa’, and he rises despite the original ‘Android Kunjappan Ver 5.25’ having some memorable music by Bijibal. Ghibran’s trusted right hand man Gold Devaraj who is his music assistant and supervisor is the lead vocalist for the track. It starts off like your regular ‘kuthu’ song and Gold does justice vocally and you will fall in love straight away with the stringed instrument, and SM Subhani plays all of them. Deepthi Suresh provides a nice charming solo humming as an interlude and what follows as the stanza is something I never predicted. The genre shifted, and it sounded so pleasant compared to the dance EDM sounds in the pallavi. The second and third changes to the stanza clearly took me to “Kalai near poonguyil” by Maestro Ilaiyaraja. Dr. V Sritharan is the music supervisor with Harry Nair working on all additional song arrangements. Andria Miranda and Britto David are the producers with Chandresekharan TK on recording and editing. The track is wonderfully mixed and mastered by Abin Pushpakaran with lyrics by Viveka.

Thedal Thevai

Ashika Arunachalam sings, writes and composes this indie number which is a pleasant song that blows gently like the cool breeze on a very sultry day and comes out of nowhere. The words have a deeper sense of what life’s purpose is all about. The  song has enough portions and doesn’t follow a traditional setup like a pallavi, anupallavi and charanam. The Harmonica sound is welcome and the it is all guitar laden with Ashika’s very sweet vocals. There is an introduction of harmonies in more than few instances where the humming add a wonderful layer. Akhilesh AR must be credited for with the music production and arrangements which elevate the song. The last bit on the rap is written in tamil by MC Sam Valluvar, while it is performed by Deepti Reddy, and the she also writes her own English rap lyrics. The backing vocals belong to Rama Priya Yegasivanathan. The mixing and mastering is done by Chandrasekaran TK. If at all I have a complaint it would be that the rap probably needed to be a little more energetic and upbeat. The video is filmed by Siddarth Ravikant with direction and editing by Balaji Prasad. Rekhaa at Scribbled Stains does the title art and design

Theera Kadhale

Santhosh Balaji has been featured here for a fantastic single called ‘Maayaavi’ few monmths ago and maybe this one tops that too. Sam Vishal impresses with his Sid Sriramesque voice. The synths and programming is excellent and so is the fantastic vocal arrangements on the chorus involving Kavitha ilango, Hema, Bhagyashri & Harshitha Ramesh. Wait for some magic on bass guitars with Mani showcasing what it is to be a bassist and takes us to Ilaiyaraja days and the Sunshine Orchestra does provide some exhilarating strings section support which is arranged by Santhosh himself along with VK Kannan.  There are elements in the song which maybe influence by Raag Naatai. Sam Sundar plays the guitars and he gets an opportunity in the stanza. As the female chorus happens, Sam Vishal’s aalap is quite nicely executed and mixed in the background and the award-winning Sai Shravanam is the man behind the mixing and mastering. Akshay Kumar does the rhythm programming with recording engineers being Sathya and Pradeep. The producers are H.K. Ravoofa & Prathima Cuppala under the label MM Originals.

Vaazh

Umashankar Kannaiyan reached out to me a month ago, regarding his new single ‘Vaazh’. As I listenined to it without any bias or agenda, the song was the perfect companion for an evening walk along the beach. It was not just about the melody or the singing, which were both undoubtedly magnificent. The lyrics touched me deeply as it talked about Mother Earth and the way we need to treat and protect her. The song is set in Maand Raaga and it reminded me of “oru Naal pothuma” sung by the legendary Balamuralikrishna. It is not just the similarity in the melody but the words telling me, if one day is enough to save this Planet. Revathy Kumar delivers a magical rendition and the way she emotes and sings the aalaps with immaculate ease. The rhythm programming is exemplary as it tries to modernize the melody with Umashankar composing, arranging and producing. There will be similarities to “Sowkiyama’ and ‘Anjali Anjali’ by AR Rahman but none of it can take away credit from this pleasant song. Arun VT is the lyricist and the lyrical video is directed by Umashankar himself.