Milliblog Weeklies, Week 267 – February 16, 2025 – Milliblog!

Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly, new music playlist.
Week 267: YouTube | Spotify

Back after another week’s lackluster new music. So, 17 songs this week, though one of them are missing on Spotify – Vel Maaral by Chinmayi and Ashwin Vinayagamoorthy.

Ishq Mein – Nadaaniyan (Sachin-Jigar) – Hindi: A simple, lofty melody that gets everything right – singing by Sachet Tandon and Asees Kaur, and lines by Amitabh Bhattacharya.

Taaka Taaki – Pintu Ki Pappi (Dr. Nitz a.k.a Nitin ‘Nitz’ Arora) – Hindi: Composer Nitin concocts a captivating, plucky sound using what seems like a harmonium that works wonders with Sunidhi Chauhan’s fantastic singing. The background music literally jostles for attention with Sunidhi’s singing, but together, the combination is heady!

Rudra – Chhaava (A R Rahman) – Hindi: Did the makers of Chhaava and Rahman not include the song that was supposed to play over the Lezim dance at all (after the protests that alleged that a King dancing is an insult)? No song in the soundtrack seems to match the Lezim dance featured in the trailer! The soundtrack overall is a disappointment. The one song that stood out, not for the main melody or the singing (both of which were predictable), but for the background sound was Rudra. Rahman employs a twangy guitar’ish sound to amp up the song’s feel.

Uyir Pathikaama – Vaa Vaathiyaar (Santhosh Narayanan) – Tamil: Ahaa, the return of the funky Santhosh Narayanan! And he has Vijaynarain in tow as lead singer! The result is one heck of a cool song with Vivek’s wonderfully worded lines ending in ‘thi’!

Kannadi Poove – Retro (Santhosh Narayanan) – Tamil: Santhosh’s trademark violin is the highlight of the searing pathos number in Retro. His own voice adds a beautiful texture to the song, besides Vivek’s verse.

Maaya Maaya – Sabdham (Thaman S) – Tamil: Thaman’s work for director Arivazhagan’s Eeram (2009) was brilliant! While he did work with Thaman in both Vallinam and Aaraathu Sinam, he roped in Vishal Chandrasekhar for Kuttram 23 in 2017. His yet-to-be-released, long-pending ‘Borrder’ too had music by Sam CS. So, his returning to Thaman is significant. And it’s an Eeram-like return too. After Vijay Yesudas’s soulful opening, when the rhythm kicks in at the one+ minute mark, the song takes off on a new direction! Looking forward to the full soundtrack!

Theeyai – Kaadhal Enbadhu Podhu Udamai (Kannan Narayanan) – Tamil: The ‘Senthazhame’ ending took me to ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ (Toh sur bane hamara, and the many endings that iconic song had). There is also some MaragadhamaNi song that comes to my mind but I’m not able to place it. Uma Devi’s lyrics and Uthara Unnikrishnan’s singing add to the song’s wonderful melodic charm.

Aazhathil Olathil – Idi Mazha Kattu (Gowry Lekshmi) – Malayalam: An unusual, but highly engaging spoken-poetry style song that brings in a melodic line only after the first one-and-a-half minutes! Gowry Lekshmi’s composition, words, and singing are terrific, accentuated by Keba’s guitar!

Mazhavillazhakil – Narayaneente Moonnaanmakkal (Rahul Raj) – Malayalam: An excellent addition to the series of film songs with a faux-retro sound, the kind that use a perfectly modern sound but the tune is intentionally tweaked to make it sound like it from the 1950s/60s. Sriram.G’s singing takes care of the retro feel while Rahul Raj’s sound has enough punch as contrast. However, this one reminded me of Prashant Pillai’s outstanding ‘O Manuja’ a bit too much.

Baby Baby – Painkili (Justin Varghese) – Malayalam: After ‘Heart Attack’, Justin hits it out of the park once again with a similarly themed, incredibly funny song. The racy sound and the punchy singing by Lalitha Vijayakumar, Himna Hilari, and Hinitha Hilary make for a captivating listen. The music video, though, is a dizzying watch, with some video effect that shakes up everything… literally.

Idhu Modhalane Swagathana – Just Married (B. Ajaneesh Loknath) – Kannada: Singer Jaskaran Singh carries Ajaneesh’s soulful melody wonderfully. Ajaneesh creates a lovely contrast with the melody’s sad edge and the generally spritely rhythm that kicks in at the one-minute mark.

Uska Pata – Garvit-Priyansh (Indipop/Hindi): A generally ebullient song along the lines of Amaal Mallik’s Roy chartbuster ‘Sooraj Dooba Hain’ but with a slower and mellower rhythm. Pleasant listen, though.

Kanavukal – Gowry Lekshmi (Indipop/Malayalam): A powerful tune by Gowry, with a catchy rap-like pallavi and a gorgeous melodic link at the end of it! Gowry does everything brilliantly here, just like the song from Idi Mazha Kattu – singing, writing, and composing!

Vel Maaral – Chinmayi Sripada and Ashwin Vinayagamoorthy (Tamil/Indipop): Many singers have sung VaLLimalai Sri Sachidanandha Swamigal’s Vel Maaral, but almost all of them place more importance to the lines (as it should be, given their nature – it’s a prayer for Lord Murugan, after all) and the music is generally incidental or rhyme-like, to make it easy to follow or sing-along. But Chinmayi properly attempts a lush, melodic composition for the same lines while also retaining the sanctity of the lines. The prayer is already spellbinding in terms of the use of Tamil and Chinmayi’s composition and singing accentuate that effect even more here. The layering of the words is similar to AruNagirinaathar’s ‘Muthai Tharu Pathi Thirunagai’, but instead of treating it with a quick-succession rap-like nature, Chinmayi’s melody allows the closely-linked words to breathe and land. Her singing is exquisite too – a tough ask given the verse!

Pathway to Light, Chant in A, Journey Within – Triveni (Wouter Kellerman, Eru Matsumoto, Chandrika Tandon) – World Music: Much like Chinmayi’s effort in packaging Vel Maaral more melodically, Chandrika Tandon does something similar to Shanti Mantras from Upanishads like ‘Om Sahana Vavatu’ (from Krishna Yajurveda Taittiriya Upanishad) and ‘Poornamadah Poornamidam’, and Mahamrityunjaya Mantra, among others. The attempt here is less melodic and more musical, though. Along with South African flautist Wouter Kellerman and Japanese-origin cellist Eru Matsumoto, Chandrika works on an ambient envelope to place the mantras and allow them to seep into the listener calmy. The whole album is a calming listen, though these 3 songs are my favorites. A worthy Grammy winner (for Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album).

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