If there is one thing that I hate in the songs of this film, it is the chorus mouthing mumbo jumbo. They are there in every song, and the mumbo jumbo gets totally trashier and meaningless as you listen along. It is tiresome. May be the songs are not meant to be listened one after another. Or listened to.
'En idhayam ithuvarai thutitthathillai, ippo thutikkirathe, en manasu ithuvarai paranthathillai, ippo parakkirathey..." is a lilting song, with feminine voices whooing in the background (angels, There are some delectable bits of guitar, supported by the 'hullaahi, hullaahi, hullaahille" of male voices which bring a special zest to the song: the slow paced ending that almost terminates each stanze of the song into speech is something that grabbed my attention.
"Everybody listen samba bamba ramba thumbathumba..." is a high voltage dance number: totally crazy in a way that is likely to catch on. The lyrics are not great, and there are enough aahaas and oohoos in the background to push the song along, which runs like real zippy. It has a telugu feel to it- which is what you would expect in a Prasad number. I think we will hear it a lot in the radio and tv, and in our homes, we will have to put up with this numba shrieked about by our kids.
"Eh naalu kaalu paaicchalile, rentu kannu meicchalile, ettu thisai koocchalile..." is a song, yes, you guessed it that is too loud for my liking. And there are some novel improvisations with instruments, but the song has a real old 1990s feel to it. It is a bizarre song, I don't know how to classify it. I am not enthusiastic about it, but who knows, it might well be the hit song of the film. Such is my taste.
From the beginning to the end of it, "Singam singam, he is thorai singam- Everybody listen, listen, make way for the king..." filled me with dread,. It brought to mind all the antics of Vijay, and the punch dialogues that we endure film after film. It is a odd quality in this film, not so odd may be, every song has the chorus joining in with some nonsensical jingle: in this song, they go, "gabbagabbagabba..."
"Oru vaartthai moliyaale ennai uruga vaitthai"- has guitars going like raccoons that were forced to go without food: "she stole my heart she stole my heart" is shouted like the heart was something that needed to be gotten rid of urgently, like it was maybe a hard case of piles. Again, may be it is just that I try too hard to be clever, but this song is total chaos. You can't figure what emotion is behind this sloganeering, could be they thought this is the way a peppy song should go. I hate it.
"Mussellamussellasanamsanam"- what kind of a chorus is this! Possibly Devi Prasad could think of no instrument that would make a sound like that, so he put a bunch of girls to go mussellamussella... And fittingly the song expires with a long drawn out slow whine, like a roistering cat that got its throat slit.
And there is another song like that, same tune, only slower and all guitary and groovy like they realised they needed a vinnai thaandi varuvaaya kind of number: this is a broken heart song. It is slow and moony, but the chorus is still here, they don't know where to go to, or what to do: they all go, "she stole my heart, she stole my heart"- as if in mockery of a case of piles that didn't quite go away.
I must appreciate your guts in listening to a new movie songs. The last thing I would ever want today is to sit and listen to a new movie music cd. 90% of them are horrible, and only about 5% of songs merit even a mention.
ReplyDeleteIt won't be long before we start hearing songs full of meaningless jumbos and mambos as it would give unlimited freedom to sound creators (today's music directors) without being challenged.
To absolve yourself of listening to Singam go and listen to Pramadavanam from His Highness Abdulla by Music Director Raveendran and sung by KJ Yesudas.
I agree to Balahji. But a song like Pramadavanam will not be good for a movie like singam. The movie is a masala and also the songs shud be. What u say.
ReplyDelete@Ratheesh
ReplyDeleteI agree with you- there are different genres of music, and it is our responsibility to learn to appreciate all them instead of trashing some because we happen not to like them. But the urge is difficult to resist :)