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Showing posts with the label Music

Romancing Love - The Sid Sriram way!

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Many wondered who this young lad was, from where and how did he land up in the Tamil film music scene and whether he would be a one-film wonder with his unique voice modulations and rendering effortlessly some tricky tunes, after his first number released 6 years back in the film Kadal, which was directed by ace Director Mani Ratnam and music composed by his protégé and confidante AR Rahman, whom he introduced 25 years back in his film Roja. The number “Adiye” was not only an instant hit with great top of mind recall but has also endeared the singer’s successive songs. In fact in the first half of 2019, there was a new song of Sid which was released online every 15 days or so, taking his total count of songs sung now to around 50 in three languages, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Personally, I have loved his songs all along and have attended a few of his Live concerts as well during which he exudes so much energy that the audience seem to enjoy – while many croon along with him

Raja, Rajadhi Rajan inda Raja!

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Chinathai, aval petra Rajave, Mullil thondriya chinna rosaave! While there are so many songs composed by Maestro Illayaraja who celebrates his 76th Birthday today, my most loved one eulogising the legend is this song from Thalapathy sung by KS Chitra.  My abundant love for film music to which I've been addicted for over 4 decades is only because of Illayaraja's songs which I have grown listening to, all my life. So much so, that during my growing up years I had to have some music in the background for me to even study! Nothing much has changed even today - there's always background music even when I am working on something very important, while travelling driving and even when going to sleep. Over the years, I have collected hundreds of cassettes and later CDs and had downloaded thousands of songs during the last 20 years. In the past few years though, I have stopped downloading and have been listening to Music on the Go through apps such as Raaga, Gaana, Saav

Viswasam - Film Review

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This is the fourth time Actor Ajith Kumar and Director Siva come together for Viswasam - in Tamil, Viswasam means loyalty. We celebrate their loyalty to each other too with this film. In all their past outings, it’s the protagonist safeguarding his loved ones - In Veeram, it’s his fiancee's family; in Vedalam it’s his stepsister, in Vivegam, it’s his pregnant wife and in Viswasam, it’s his daughter. What I appreciate the most of Siva is his portrayal of Ajith in each outing. He knows the actor’s strengths at the back of his head and pins the screenplay accordingly. But for Vivegam which was more a hollywood-type attempt with too much of foreign locales, Russian mafia and gun fights which Ajith’s hardcore fans couldn’t relate to, all the other films did reasonably well during their release. Viswasam has had a fantastic opening in B & C Centres, thanks to a meticulously planned Pongal release which was announced six months back by Director Siva and Sathyajothi Films.

Petta - Music Album Review

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Releasing “Singles” ahead of the main album release has been prevalent in Tamil Cinema for over 4-5 years although I don’t recall which was the first movie which did this. So Music Director and Film Director of Petta Anirudh and Karthik Subburaj released the first single “Marana Mass” on 3rd December which opened to a thunderous response and garnered 1 million views on YouTube in just 4 hours.  This was followed by another number “Ullaallaa” which released on 6 Dec., a peppy number with a bit of reggae and rock. Finally, the full music album was released on 9 Dec. 2018 at a grand gathering which was well attended by the Cast & Crew of the film including Superstar Rajinikanth and Kalanidhi Maran of Sun Pictures. Subsequently, Sony Music released the entire album on YouTube the same day at 9pm and finally Amazon Music released it on 10 Dec. 2018 at 6pm. Marana Mass is a peppy tune sung by Anirudh and a short yet interesting part sung by SPB, perhaps as the voi

Contemporary music of current times!

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Have always felt that I was lucky to have lived through the times of Illayaraja & AR Rahman, two musicians whom we have grown listening through the 80s, 90s and the Millenium. Both the composers have a very unique style of music creation that hasn’t been able to be challenged by the new crop of composers. Raja & Rahman are very niche in their own ways and no one can occupy their positions in Indian Music history that has seen thousands of musicians come & go. While Raja is considered as “God” of Music by his ardent fans spanning across age groups, Rahman’s music is very contemporary and he has been able to hold on to the interest levels of fans for 25 years from Roja to Kaatru Veliyidai (interestingly both are Mani Ratnam films!). I have been listening to music from a very young age and am also trained in classical music, Mridangam to be precise during my school days. Till date, I wake up in the morning listening to music and go to sleep doing the same -    Musi

Bairavaa - Film Review

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Managed to watch Bairavaa first show at Inox Mylapore. It was a full house with a majority of Actor Vijay's fans thronging from early morning to catch a glimpse of him. This was a much awaited release ahead of the more anticipated Surya's S3. Pongal releases have always been box office hits and Bairavaa is no exception. By the way, there are two heroes in the film - Actor Vijay and Music Director Santhosh Narayanan. First about Vijay. The film is an out and out mass masala with the actor clearly managing to stay ahead of his ardent fans expectations. Bairavaa is a collection agent who helps Banks collect loan dues. The opening act is one such with a mass fight sequence which brings applause right from the first row to the last followed by a top-rated song which talks about the ills of hoarding cash with heroic lyrics. Vijay positions himself as a do-gooder and is always the go to guy whenever something goes amiss. He meets his love interest in a wedding and an event th

Film Review – Remo

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I looked up to Dhanush during early 2000s. He had a unique demeanor. He was not the typical white-skinned or six-pack guy who would enthrall the first row to last row audience with his smashing fight sequences, romance sessions or emotional outbreaks. And today, he is one of the most sought after actor in Tamil and Hindi Cinema with huge openings at the Box Office every time his film releases. The next in line, I hope is Siva Karthikeyan. A young lad from small town Trichy who started doing comic performances on Tv, went on to have the largest movie cut-out in Tmail Nadu, just like his idol Superstar Rajnikanth. Yes, Siva made it to the top of the publicity screen outside Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai ahead of his latest release Remo right after the poster of Thalaivar for Kabali. This means a lot to him. I saw the film after three weeks of release at PVR at noon. The theatre was half full (I am being an optimist here!) which is not bad at all, given that pirated DVDs are out within 24h