Milliblog Weeklies, Week 270 – March 23, 2025 – Milliblog!

Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly, new music playlist.
Week 270: YouTube | Spotify

A short playlist with only 8 songs, this week. Eight is my usual threshold to decide whether to have a Weeklies playlist or not, so this week passes the threshold 🙂

Urugudhu Urugudhu – Ace (Justin Prabhakaran) – Tamil: Oh, how I missed Justin Prabhakaran’s music! The last I recall hearing his new music was in October 2024 – Adiye Alangaari, from Thandakaaranyam. With Urugudhu, the man confidently hits it out of the park. The way he crafts the melody, with Kapil Kapilan and Shreya Ghoshal singing their respective opening lines, then using the call-and-response structure at ‘Alaathi sugam – athenna ragam’ and then launching into that outburst of a chorus… this is exquisite stuff! In the music video, full marks to the film’s director for choosing a brilliantly appropriate point to showcase his name!

Kanimaa – Retro (Santhosh Narayanan) – Tamil: What a joyous, fun song! Given the 1993 timeline for the song (film), Santhosh infuses sounds that scream ‘Ilayaraja’, but then proceeds with a gaana-type tune and sound that is his own trademark. That he dances brilliantly too to his own rhythm is a pleasant surprise 🙂 That ‘Aathi, Sandhana Katta’ hook is going to be a permanent fixture in many weddings in Tamil Nadu soon, along with the dance step!

Hope – Test (Shakthisree Gopalan) – Tamil: While Shakthisree’s debut film song from this film released last week (Arena), it didn’t work for me as much this one does. And this one is absolutely fantastic! Shakthisree demonstrates phenomenal music sense in the background score that steadily thrums with life and energy. The melody is nuanced and beautiful, with her vocals adding so much layer to it. For some reason that I’m unable to explain, the musical style overall reminded me of the kind of music being made by Neha S Nair & Yakzan Gary Pereira, as a duo.

Idhayaa – Idhayam Murali (Thaman S) – Tamil: I would have been really, really pleased to hear Ilayaraja score for a film titled ‘Idhayam Murali’, revisiting his own music in a different way after 34 years, but I understand present-day musical rankings, preferences, and compulsions. To give credit to Thaman, Idhayaa is a breezy, lovely listen, though sounding a bit more like Harris Jayaraj’s music than Thaman’s. The choice of Vishal Mishra as the singer is the song’s clear ace!

Everyday – Alappuzha Gymkhana (Vishnu Vijay) – Malayalam: Vishnu effortlessly channels his Premalu-style music yet again! And in Sanjtih Hegde’s vocals, how can it go wrong? It doesn’t. The simple, captivating tune, the ‘Tana na na’ chorus, the children’s chorus… everything simply clicks wonderfully. The one thing that mildly bothers me is the song’s duration – under 3 minutes, but still longer than the short, mere 2+ minute Idhayaa, above! Shorter songs seem to be the norm these days. From cutting longer songs to fit shorter reels online, to making songs short themselves, our films songs to be evolving in response to shorter attention spans.

Lovely’s Dream, Bubble Poomottukal, and Craziness – Lovely (Vishnu Vijay) – Malayalam: This week’s truly Vishnu Vijay’s week! Besides that song from Alappuzha Gymkhana, he has 3 delightful songs from this film too (though it credits Bijibal too for the music, I guess his songs may release eventually too)! Lovely’s Dream, sung by Shakthisree Gopalan, and Bubble Poomottukal, sung by Kapil Kapilan, should ideally be listened back-to-back. They have the same tune, but the former is in English, and the latter, in Malayalam. Vishnu retains largely the same music, but gets some amazing nuances out of his singers in the respective versions. In Craziness, Vishnu explores some glitzy soundscapes, and a melody that intricately fuses KS Harisankar’s lead vocals along with the backing vocals and chorus.

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