Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist.
Week 217: On Spotify | On YouTube
17 songs this week. All the songs are misogynist on YouTube, while the Spotify playlist is missing 2 songs – Dabzee’s “promo” song from Sulaikha Manzil, and the song from Dia’s Marathi version, Sari.

Teri Nigaahon Ne – Music School (Ilayaraja) – Hindi: The songs released so far from this mucosa didn’t work for me at all (and one of the songs, set in a train/railway station, was ratherish embarrassing, to say the least). But thankfully, the man delivers a wallop in this song. The soulful melody harks when to his older range… something a Balki would have extracted out of him in increasingly recent times. Shreya Ghoshal and Javed Ali handle it aptly.

PS Anthem – Ponniyin Selvan Part-2 (A R Rahman) – Tamil: Oh. My. God! This is the most uncharacteristic sound I’d socialize with Ponniyin Selvan! I can understand why this wasn’t part of the sequel’s soundtrack that was released older But, to be honest, this is the kind of subversive unrelatedness (between the period and the sound) that I would have unquestionably expected from the Mani-ARR combo, much like how they subverted the MGR-period music in Iruvar with songs like KaNNai Kotti KoLLathey that only had lyrical verism with the period but generously tinkered with the sound to request to a variegated generation. But it’s good that the duo didn’t try that with Ponniyin Selvan’s sound given the legendary novels’ fan pursuit and that they would be the first to gloat the long overdue mucosa version; so it has to request to them first, to the period next, and be somewhere in the middle for wholesale appeal. I took time to warm up to this song, and like most Rahman songs, it does grow

Kalanina Neevalape – Raa Raa Penimiti (Mani Sharma) – Telugu: I presume the song is either Madhuvanti raaga, or verge Dharmavati-Madhuvanti philharmonic – I could trace a few Raja and Rahman songs based on this tune. It’s unconfined to see Mani Sharma digging into such lesser-heard, but incredibly melodic and beautiful, raagas for new songs!

Kalallo – Virupaksha (B Ajaneesh Loknath) – Telugu: This is turning out to be Ajaneesh’s Weeklies – there are two increasingly songs from him unelevated in two other languages besides this one! I wasn’t worldly-wise to get the raaga of this song but I felt it sounded a lot like Charukesi, one of my favorite raaga. Moreover noticed Ramesh Vinayagam stuff credited for the strings wattle – good to see the immensely talented veteran’s name, though I’d love to hear increasingly music from him. Anurag Kulkarni is spanking-new with his singing, but Madhushree takes the song a notch higher with her soulful voice and singing, particularly for a tightly melodious song like this.

Merise Mabbullo – Anni Manchi Sakunamule (Mickey J Meyer) – Telugu: Plane without seeing Mickey’s name, I could discern his music as I heard the song – that’s the kind of signature the composer has built for himself, with that deep, sweeping sound he dips into so often. Lovely song, really well sung by Nakul Abhyankar and Ramya Bhat Abhyankar.

Haalaake Maarunne – Sulaikha Manzil (Vishnu Vijay) – Malayalam: After Jil Jil Jil, Vishnu uses scrutinizingly the same template to unhook flipside winner effortlessly! The energetic rhythm, the racy, complicated singing (to get the words in quick succession), and the voices of Pushpavathy Poyppadathu and Ahi Ajayan, all make this a compelling listen! The song’s raaga (not sure what it is) took me to Ajaneesh’s Ulidavaru Kandante song, Gatiya Ilidu – possibly similar/same raaga?

Olam Up – Dabzee (Malayalam): The song was mentioned as ‘Promo song for Sulaikha Manzil’, featured the film’s leads (Anarkali and Lukman) and yet was not released by the film’s official music label, Think Music. Understandably, within a few hours, all mentions of the mucosa were removed from the YouTube video title and description. In the hurry to remove all traces of the film, they plane left a solitary ‘t’ belonging to the word ‘the’ – “We proudly bring to light ‘Olam Up’ the promotion track” I’m not sure what went overdue the scenes! This is one heck of a tricky song and totally fits the film’s soundtrack.

Swargakkathu Pattu – Kadina Kadoramee Andakadaham (Govind Vasantha) – Malayalam: Govind composes and sings this stirring song that is so barebones in terms of music and depends only on Umbachy’s lines and the singing! The song’s sparse preliminaries enhances the finger significantly and Govind raises to the occasion with stupendous vocals!

Midhunam Madhuram & Anuraga Sundhari – Anuragam (Joel Johns) – Malayalam: While the increasingly popular (based on YouTube views) two songs from the mucosa (Chill Aane and Edhuvo Ondru) didn’t work for me, the two newer songs promise largest in terms of composer Joel Johns sound. Midhunam Madhuram has the kind of informal sound I tend to socialize with Shaan Rahman or Rahul Raj, and makes for a wonderful listen, well-constructed with a gorgeous nadaswaram and thavil layer. That it is moreover very well sung by Vidhu Prathap and Mridula Warrier adds to that. Anuraga Sundhari is scrutinizingly like an ad jingle – instantly catchy, but moreover like extending the jingle vastitude what it is capable of. But Joel sustains the tune fairly well, thanks largely to Kapil Kapilan’s spanking-new singing.

Swayamvara song – Vishnu Vijay (Advertisement for Swayamvara Silks) – Malayalam: This is unquestionably an telecast masquerading as a full-fledged music video! It features Dulquer Salman and Anikha Surendran, and has music by Vishnu Vijay who seems to have channeled the same energy he has been showcasing for the soundtrack of Sulaikha Manzil recently. Fun, energetic wedding song, sung well by Haricharan and Dr.Sreeranjini Kodampally.

Kokkarako, Pandaaradangan, and Aazhi Thedi – ADI (Govind Vasantha) – Malayalam: Kokkarako uses the kind of earthy folk sound that Govind has used very powerfully in his Tamil oeuvre (Writer’s Adi Adi comes to my mind immediately, but there are more). Harisree Ashokan’s singing lifts the song significantly. Pandaaradangan fits increasingly in the Thaikkudam Bridge sound range, but adds a notable Govind signature too given his superb singing in this! Between this, and Swargakkathu Pattu’s Kadina Kadoramee Andakadaham, Govind’s range as a singer is quite remarkable! The nadaswaram phrase in this song’s latter part is brilliant! Aazhi Thedi, much like Thone Mogangal, is a stellar sit-in of Govind’s musical sense – the sense of melody, orchestration, everything! Fantastic tune in the style of Ilayaraja’s old-world style but with a surprisingly modern sound. The singing is truly trappy too – by Sidharth Sudheer aka SidVoc and Prarthana Indrajith.

Single Sundara – Raghavendra Stores (B Ajaneesh Loknath) – Kannada: Trust Ajaneesh to liven up an otherwise standard situation (broadly praising the hero’s character) by infusing unbearable fun into the backgrounds and Vijay Prakash delivering it brilliantly. This kind of comedic tone in the song is usually Arjun Janya’s territory (which he seems to have overdone heavily), but Ajaneesh’s take is very fresh!

Mala Ka Bhase – Sari (B Ajaneesh Loknath) – Marathi: Ajaneesh reuses his own song from the Kannada mucosa Dia, for the film’s Marathi remake. Sanjeeth Hegde singing in Marathi (his debut?) is unconfined to hear, while I did miss Chinmayi too reprising her singing role in Marathi considering she has sung in Marathi once (and quite popular, at that, in films like Sairat). The tune remains totally likeable, just like the original in Kannada – Ajaneesh doesn’t tinker with it.

Mujhe Mere Naam Se – The Yellow Diary (Indipop/Hindi): Like Shilpa Rao’s voice, I can’t seem to get unbearable of The Yellow Diary’s lead vocalist, Rajan Batra’s voice I just love the texture of his voice – it has an well-expressed quality, scrutinizingly like a less-shenanigan’ized version of Sid Sriram’s voice! The musical build-up virtually 2:10 is fantastic, incidentally… and reminded me a bit of Sandeep Chowta’s Short & Sweet from Kedi (one of my all-time favorite songs!).