Milliblog Weeklies, Week 271 – April 6, 2025 – Milliblog!

Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly, new music playlist.
Week 271: YouTube | Spotify

Hum Aapke Bina – Sikandar (Pritam) – Hindi: While the overall soundtrack by Pritam in Sikandar is underwhelming, this one song salvages things, and that too mainly because of Arijit Singh.

Edhira? Pudhira? – Once More (Hesham Abdul Wahab) – Tamil: What a delightful, unobtrusive melody! When Aavani Malhar’s humming arrives in the first interlude, it took me to the early days of A R Rahman when he used to score such simple, beautiful songs. Sathyaprakash thoroughly relishes his singing, and it shows! The lyrics too, by Vignesh Srikanth, stand out with sharp lines like, ‘Buddharin arayil, attarin maNamaa?’, mixing not only two different religions, but also themes (abstinence vs. indulgence)!

Please Yenna Appadi Paakadhey – Bad Girl (Amit Trivedi) – Tamil: Is this Amit Trivedi’s actual Tamil debut, if you discount his earlier, ‘Paris Paris’, the Tamil remake of ‘Queen’ that never released. Considering the controversy around this movie, I hope at least this film releases and doesn’t stop with the soundtrack. The song is very-Amit, but fits the Tamil scheme of things perfectly. The techno-pop sound works brilliantly, and the brass is trademark Amit. Maalavika Manoj’s singing helps immensely.

Blud Is On His Way – PR04 (Sai Abhyankkar) – Tamil: Woohoo! Sai Abhyankkar’s long-awaited Tamil film debut (for a Pradeep Ranganathan starrer, no less, who is riding high on the success of two of his so-far-released films)! No, this is just teaser music, and not a song yet, but even this showcases something adequately exciting!

Kalyana Kalavaram – Love Marriage (Sean Roldan) – Tamil: Joyously foot-tapping, and with all the funky nuances you’d expect in a Sean Roldan song! The man gets the lyrics too right, with fun lines like, ‘Ennoda nesam Delhi vara pesum’ 🙂

Nayaaldhi – Arjun Son Of Vyjayanthi (Ajaneesh Loknath) – Telugu: Composing an obviously, dance-heavy masala song needs more imaginaton these days given how competitive that segment is in our films, across languages. Devi Sri Prasad gets this right more often, but Ajaneesh is a close second. This is a hugely competent effort with all the necessary danc’y phrases working very well, along with ebullient singing by Nakash Aziz.

Shilpi Yevaro – Single (Vishal Chandrasekhar) – Telugu: I’d love to say that this is Vishal’s trademark, but thankfully, I think he’s moving away in slightly newer directions – I was reminded more of Gopi Sundar’s Telugu repertoire when I heard this song. It’s a gorgeous song, make no mistake, with a captivating tune and flamboyant musical backdrop. Excellent singing by Yazin Nizar.

Yedho Yejanmalodo – Shashtipoorthi (Ilayaraja) – Telugu: A classic Ilayaraja melody! And it harks back to his KeLadi KaNmaNi classic, particularly in the violin phrases, ‘Mannil Indha Kaadhal Indri’ – a raaga (Keeravani) connection, I presume. Ananya Bhat does her work well, and the melody simply flows beautifully. And the lyrics are by M.M.Keeravani!

Maa Andhaala Siri – Paradha (Gopi Sundar) – Telugu: I can almost imagine Vijay Devarakonda dancing to this song! This is Gopi’s usual template for that actor (and director Parasuram) and when you hear the ‘Koti kavachaalalle’ detour, you know what I’m talking about! It’s a joyous sound and Gopi brings his A-game, along with fantastic singing by Srikrishna Vishnubhotla and Ramya Behra.

In The Night – Firefly (Charan Raj MR) – Kannada: What Charan starts off a classic Western musical turns into a lovely fusion featuring Nadaswaram in the interludes! The overall feel remains that off the musical and Kapil Kapilan is fantastic with his solo vocals. The work of Cochin Strings, particularly as the song is ending, is particularly noteworthy.

Settagalla – KD (Arjun Janya) – Kannada: Arjun Janya brings the classic 80s ‘big’ Hindi film song sound in every way – grand brass in the background, chorus singers (all foreigners!), and a punchy tune sing with full-throated verve by Mika! Instantly catchy and thoroughly enjoyable!

Panduranga – Devmanus (Rohan Rohan) – Marathi: A haunting, goosebumps inducing bhajan that Sonu Nigam completely aces! The bhajan, as is usual, has a mesmerizing effect and Sonu’s singing, along with the chorus, gets the feel brilliantly right.

Sivanar – Sid Sriram (Tamil/Indipop): A searing, incredibly affecting rendition and packaging of AruNagirinathar’s Thiruppugazh verse, which was composed by Delhi Sri AS Raghavan. But Sid infuses that simple tune with phenomenal energy. At 2:40, when he starts off the ‘Muruga’ callout, the music peaks with him, and takes the song to a scintillating new high! This is the Lord Murugan equivalent of what you’d also see as the Lord Vithoba version right above!

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