Sivaji album's beta release - ARR finally gets it right, courtesy Shankar
Regular readers of this blog know how big a fan of Thalaivar I am and in fact, the name of this blog was named after the real boss, Sivaji. I was feeling bad that I wasn't writing anything about the movie after naming the blog after it. But the real culprit was Shankar and not myself. Until now, the release date of the movie has not been officially announced and all we know as of now is the audio release date of April 4th.
But today morning, I start browsing and come across the news that AVM has released some promo CDs with 3 songs to a select group of people and some folks from among them have taken the burden to upload the songs to a site from where we could download them. The tension in the air was almost unbearable as I was downloading the songs. After almost 15 months of waiting, these 3 songs were the first feel of how The Boss has shaped out. Shankar had successfully quarantined us from any news about the movie for these 15 months and I have been hating him for that. But all those thoughts vanished as I started listening to the songs. Though it is not a moral thing to download stuff from the net, I went ahead & did it bcos I know for sure that I will buy the audio CD of the movie whenever it comes out. So, no feelings of guilt in this.
First thing to note is that I am not going to review the songs. Being the Thalaivar fanatic that I am, I can not 'review' the songs. Rather, I will go about appreciating the highlights of the songs and that is what this post is. I mean, when it comes to anything associated with Thalaivar, rational thinking and reasoning just disappear. You get so much involved in it that its is difficult for me to pass a measured judgment.
Before I start writing my thoughts on those 3 songs, I have to mention that IMHO there has not been a better album for a Thalaivar album since Annamalai got released around 15 years ago. And ARR frankly has been a major disappointment in that regard with his first 3 albums for Thalaivar - Muthu, Padaiyappa and Baba. Except for the awesome intro music for the Oruvan oruvan mudhalaali song, ARR has nothing to show for. To bring in a cricket analogy, scoring music for a Thalaivar movie is to be able to be playing a Sehwag innings. Though his technique is suspect, not all of his shots are just wild slogs. Basically, his innings is a good mixture of textbook cricket shots and some wild slogs too. Same is the case when it comes to scoring for Thalaivar's movies and frankly nobody has it done better ever since Deva gave us Annamalai. Vandhendaa paalkaaran is still my favorite Thalaivar intro song (may be the way it was picturized too had something to do with). There are 2 melodies in Annamalai - Annamalai annamalai, Rekkai katti parakkudhaiyya annamalai cycle and I still love listening to them. Then comes the Thalaivar thathuva songs in Vettri nichayam and Oru penn puraa. And the album signs off with the song for the masses - Kondaiyil thaazhampoo. What an album it was...
But the problem with ARR is that he is someone like Dravid who only knows to play classic shots and so when ARR tries his hand at composing a Thalaivar-style mass song, he completely messes it up (say, the En peru padaiyappa song or the more notorious Baba…cinema cinema song). He is basically caught in the middle of nowhere when it comes to scoring music for Thalaivar songs. But that definitely appears to have been changed with Sivaji. And I feel that the man behind that change is none other than Shankar. He is clearly the one who is calling all the shots and all these 3 songs have Shankar written all over them. But to me the hero of the album so far has been Vairamuthu. He has come up with some awesome lyrics in all the 3 songs.
Oru koodai sunlight - Typical Shankar song. This is the song that was shot in Spain with Thalaivar in all those funny costumes and get-ups. Highly techno song. Only sore point is the presence of the beats which we have become familiar with the karu karu vizhiligalaal song from PMC. There is no tune as such in this song. There is someone smiling at couple of places in the song. Wonder if its Thalaivar. No matter who actually smiled, I am already looking forward to Thalaivar flashing his magnetic smile on-screen. The lyrics in the song sing Thalaivar praises all through. So, here is how it goes:
ada ada ada asathudhu un style
nada nada nada nadapadhu un style
gada gada gada siripadhu un style
pada pada pada pesuvadhu un style
suda suda suda thoduvadhu un style
thada thada thada adhiradi un style
adikadi mudi kalaivadhu style
vara vara ellamay style....
I loved the way the stanza ended - vara vara ellaamey un style. Awesome. Thalaivar is the epitome of style. Everything the man does is style and what better way to put it than this way. And then the songs ends with these 2 lines:
hero hero heraadhi hero
staro staro nee superstaro
Whenever the mention of Superstar is made in the lyrics, I just get so excited and it is no different here.
Sahana saaral thoovudho - I don’t get this. Looks like neither does ARR. What in the world makes him use Udit Narayanan for Thalaivar. We already have a bad experience in Muthu. I can't understand how Shankar let this happen. There is this 60 year old man called SPB who could have done a great job with this song. But the good thing is that we do not have too much of Udit sodhappalgal in this song. Awesome melody. Better than the Vaaji vaaji song. This truly is a vintage ARR melody. Easily the best melody that ARR has composed for Thalaivar. ARR pitches in the interludes for the theem thana thana na bit. I loved the female voice in this song. Don't know who it is. Would have enjoyed and appreciated this more if somebody else had sung this instead of Udit.
Vaaji vaaji Sivaaji - One of those rare ARR songs that is instantly likable. I wouldn't go as far as saying that this is a trademark ARR melody since the freshness is definitely missing. Charanams are rather average. But the plus side of this song is that ARR has got the Thalaivar factor right. This song will go down well with Thalaivar fans. Hariharan is perfect for this song. The aambal aambal...mouval mouval chorus is catchy. I am sure there will be a big research launched by Thalaivar fans as to what the words aambal and mouval mean :)
No matter how the songs are, we, the mighty army of Thalaivar fans, will lap it up and make the sure that the audio becomes the biggest hit in the history of Tamil cinema. I am sure that is going to happen with this album too. I have already listened to the songs almost 15 times. One thing is for sure though - the songs are sound so much better than the songs in Chandramukhi. There are reportedly 6 songs in the album and thus the SPB song and the song which Thalaivar has sung are still pending. Just can not wait for them to be released.
The Boss has started his reign ,starting with our ears, in style...
But today morning, I start browsing and come across the news that AVM has released some promo CDs with 3 songs to a select group of people and some folks from among them have taken the burden to upload the songs to a site from where we could download them. The tension in the air was almost unbearable as I was downloading the songs. After almost 15 months of waiting, these 3 songs were the first feel of how The Boss has shaped out. Shankar had successfully quarantined us from any news about the movie for these 15 months and I have been hating him for that. But all those thoughts vanished as I started listening to the songs. Though it is not a moral thing to download stuff from the net, I went ahead & did it bcos I know for sure that I will buy the audio CD of the movie whenever it comes out. So, no feelings of guilt in this.
First thing to note is that I am not going to review the songs. Being the Thalaivar fanatic that I am, I can not 'review' the songs. Rather, I will go about appreciating the highlights of the songs and that is what this post is. I mean, when it comes to anything associated with Thalaivar, rational thinking and reasoning just disappear. You get so much involved in it that its is difficult for me to pass a measured judgment.
Before I start writing my thoughts on those 3 songs, I have to mention that IMHO there has not been a better album for a Thalaivar album since Annamalai got released around 15 years ago. And ARR frankly has been a major disappointment in that regard with his first 3 albums for Thalaivar - Muthu, Padaiyappa and Baba. Except for the awesome intro music for the Oruvan oruvan mudhalaali song, ARR has nothing to show for. To bring in a cricket analogy, scoring music for a Thalaivar movie is to be able to be playing a Sehwag innings. Though his technique is suspect, not all of his shots are just wild slogs. Basically, his innings is a good mixture of textbook cricket shots and some wild slogs too. Same is the case when it comes to scoring for Thalaivar's movies and frankly nobody has it done better ever since Deva gave us Annamalai. Vandhendaa paalkaaran is still my favorite Thalaivar intro song (may be the way it was picturized too had something to do with). There are 2 melodies in Annamalai - Annamalai annamalai, Rekkai katti parakkudhaiyya annamalai cycle and I still love listening to them. Then comes the Thalaivar thathuva songs in Vettri nichayam and Oru penn puraa. And the album signs off with the song for the masses - Kondaiyil thaazhampoo. What an album it was...
But the problem with ARR is that he is someone like Dravid who only knows to play classic shots and so when ARR tries his hand at composing a Thalaivar-style mass song, he completely messes it up (say, the En peru padaiyappa song or the more notorious Baba…cinema cinema song). He is basically caught in the middle of nowhere when it comes to scoring music for Thalaivar songs. But that definitely appears to have been changed with Sivaji. And I feel that the man behind that change is none other than Shankar. He is clearly the one who is calling all the shots and all these 3 songs have Shankar written all over them. But to me the hero of the album so far has been Vairamuthu. He has come up with some awesome lyrics in all the 3 songs.
Oru koodai sunlight - Typical Shankar song. This is the song that was shot in Spain with Thalaivar in all those funny costumes and get-ups. Highly techno song. Only sore point is the presence of the beats which we have become familiar with the karu karu vizhiligalaal song from PMC. There is no tune as such in this song. There is someone smiling at couple of places in the song. Wonder if its Thalaivar. No matter who actually smiled, I am already looking forward to Thalaivar flashing his magnetic smile on-screen. The lyrics in the song sing Thalaivar praises all through. So, here is how it goes:
ada ada ada asathudhu un style
nada nada nada nadapadhu un style
gada gada gada siripadhu un style
pada pada pada pesuvadhu un style
suda suda suda thoduvadhu un style
thada thada thada adhiradi un style
adikadi mudi kalaivadhu style
vara vara ellamay style....
I loved the way the stanza ended - vara vara ellaamey un style. Awesome. Thalaivar is the epitome of style. Everything the man does is style and what better way to put it than this way. And then the songs ends with these 2 lines:
hero hero heraadhi hero
staro staro nee superstaro
Whenever the mention of Superstar is made in the lyrics, I just get so excited and it is no different here.
Sahana saaral thoovudho - I don’t get this. Looks like neither does ARR. What in the world makes him use Udit Narayanan for Thalaivar. We already have a bad experience in Muthu. I can't understand how Shankar let this happen. There is this 60 year old man called SPB who could have done a great job with this song. But the good thing is that we do not have too much of Udit sodhappalgal in this song. Awesome melody. Better than the Vaaji vaaji song. This truly is a vintage ARR melody. Easily the best melody that ARR has composed for Thalaivar. ARR pitches in the interludes for the theem thana thana na bit. I loved the female voice in this song. Don't know who it is. Would have enjoyed and appreciated this more if somebody else had sung this instead of Udit.
Vaaji vaaji Sivaaji - One of those rare ARR songs that is instantly likable. I wouldn't go as far as saying that this is a trademark ARR melody since the freshness is definitely missing. Charanams are rather average. But the plus side of this song is that ARR has got the Thalaivar factor right. This song will go down well with Thalaivar fans. Hariharan is perfect for this song. The aambal aambal...mouval mouval chorus is catchy. I am sure there will be a big research launched by Thalaivar fans as to what the words aambal and mouval mean :)
No matter how the songs are, we, the mighty army of Thalaivar fans, will lap it up and make the sure that the audio becomes the biggest hit in the history of Tamil cinema. I am sure that is going to happen with this album too. I have already listened to the songs almost 15 times. One thing is for sure though - the songs are sound so much better than the songs in Chandramukhi. There are reportedly 6 songs in the album and thus the SPB song and the song which Thalaivar has sung are still pending. Just can not wait for them to be released.
The Boss has started his reign ,starting with our ears, in style...
Labels: Audio review, Sivaji, Thalaivar
posted by Filbert at 3:59 PM
33 Comments:
Filbert, I felt that these are not the original songs.. Just to give some more hype, they had released these songs..
If these are real, then I hate Shakar and ARR for these songs.. We expected more than these
FYI...
Padayappa and Muthu are a far far better album than Annamalai...
ARR set the trend of theme music for thalaivar. Just imagine what would have been the appeal of thalaivar had that theme music not been there.
I am actually quite disappointed with 'Vaaji Vaaji' song, is not at par with anything Rahman composed for Shankar before... Sahana is very very good... Oru koodai rocks... i think the female singer in 'Sahana' is Chinmayi...
Filbert, these are correct songs only..becoz in an interview in kumudham, vairmuthu has talked abt this aambal and mouval....hasnt listened to the songs yet :)
I am actually quite disappointed with 'Vaaji Vaaji' song these looks like old style but oru koodai simply rocks
All Songs are superb after hearing as a Rajini's Fan
Oru koodai song will be super hit after seeing dance of 'Thalaivar'
Filbert,
Oru Koodai Sunlight is by Pa.Vijay. Not by Vairamuthu as u mentioned.
Sundar
Hey,
Can v also listen to the atleast one song.........how n where.pls let me know...
Karthik,
Hope by now you are convinced that these songs are for real. Except for Sahana saaral thovudho, the other 2 are nothing extra-ordinary. But I think that the songs thatareyet to be released are the ones which will be the most important songs of the album. Look at the people who have sung those 3 songs - SPB, ARR and our very own Thalaivar. So, I am sure the album will be a run-away blockbuster hit.
Theriyala Shah, I have always felt Annamalai to be Thlaivar's most complete album in the last decade. Muthu songs were a big hit back then bcos the whole world was expecting Thalaivar to reveal his political intentions through the songs. Padaiyappa was a typical Thalaivar album, though En peru padaiyappa will never match Vandhenda palkaaran for its energy and enthusiasm.
Agree with you, Suresh. Vaaji vaaji song is one ordinary melody and nothing like what you will expect from a Shankar movie. But we can be rest assured that the song will be a blockbuster hit :)
Bharani,
Comment ellaam appuramaa adikkalaam. Mudhal-lapoyi patta kelunga. You are right about how the songs being the correct ones since I too read that interview by Vairamuthu.
Agree Anon, Vaaji vaaji song is the only slight disappointment of the songs. Oru koodai literally rocks :)
Agree completely with your, Jeyepragash. Songs might disappoint some hardcore ARR fans but for Thalaivar fans, this is what we wanted. Fully satisfied :)
Thanks for the correction, Sundar. I thought all the songs in the album were by Vairamuthu.
ARR rocks ma.. u havent the english rap.. sema super.. top gear song and music.. wait for the music
Hey
That was a good review. Even I checked'em out after reading this post. Your description of each song was perfect!
Good Job!
-deekshanya
go to website yamtam.com to listen to sivaji songs
Filby, did u read the response from Shafeeq, ARR's associate for Itwofs Karthik's (p)review?
Hello Anon,
I am waiting for the final product, particularly the Thalaivar intro rap song. If these songs could interest me so much, I wonder what the finished products would do :)
Thanks for the comment, Deekshanya and welcome to the blog :) Its good to see that you too share the same thoughts on the songs. Some have felt that the Vaaji vaaji song is not upto the mark but I feel that that is exactly what Thalaivar fans will love. It will be a bigger hit than the Sahara pookkal song.
Yes Senthil, I did read that comment. If that is indeed true, then I guess we don't need to blame ARR for choosing Udit again. And same about the Oru koodai song - it definitely does look like an unfinished product (though I have to say that I am enjoying every bit of it). Can't wait for April 4th :))
The album falls way short of the expectations. A R Rehman as not shown his full potential.
Oru Kudai is not a Highly techno song at all ! I need to point out the difference between a techno song and hiphop/r & B/New Style which is what has A R R has handled in this song. Techno is a form of electronic dance music and sub-genres into Ambient and Trance.A good example of a tamil techno song is Fanaa from Aayudha Ezhuthu. Rahman has been experimenting techno for a very long time and one of his earliest track is Then Merka Paruva from Karuthamma. Music genre (or subgenre) could be defined by the techniques, styles and context. In Tamil film music we don't usually stick to or even like to listen to a specific type of music. Thus our music directors always try and mix classical indian raagas but blend it to create fusion. Every music director has his own recipe. Illairaja preferred using measuring cups and played it safe by relying on his haunting and mesmerizing tunes. A R R brought in a new style of mixing and went beyond the safe limits. He went on experimenting new beats and sounds as well keeping his melodies and raagas alive. So before you write your so called review know your facts. Understand the basics. And once you do that then certainly feel free to write out your mind. And I have not mentioned anything about what you feel about Deva’s Annamalai songs and all other Rajini’s songs because that’s your opinion about your likes and dislikes. Everyone has a most favorite and least favorite. I can respect that. Peace
well said shaan.. if this guy likes annamalai till date i can understand that he is still in old age. one cant do music for crappy guys like these. i pity him. ARR rocks..
hey man filbert.. u better tune ur ears. i pity u!
you like annamalai till date. grow up man.. sivaji songs rock! waiting for the full album release
Shan,
Thanks for your elaborate and detailed comment on what a techno song means. I used the word 'techno' in a very layman's point of view (You go and ask anybody out there on the road to describe what their feeling is about the Oru koodai song is and I am sure 9 out of 10 people would use the word techno to describe it) and I am definitely a layman when it comes to understaning the genres of music. And I definitely can see the sarcasm in your comment about how you respect my opinion about Annamalai's songs - I am as typical a Thalaivar fan that you can get and I speak for so many of them when I say that.
Thanks for your very decent and respectful comments :) But I figure this is my blog and I write what I feel. And you are most welcome to stay away from it.
Oru Koodai sunlight song will be the top hit song of this year..for sure..and Vaaji ..vaaji song also..fantastic. But Oru koodai sun light..semaaaaa techno machiii...carla sterola pottu..ECR rodla oru ride vuttomnaaa...summa...girrunnnuuu...vruchagam
pichikkuthu...Discotheque, Pubbula irunthu..tea kadai varaikku..Oru koodai sunlight sema hittaahum..maachaan.
You like Annamalai songs?!!! Your appreciation of music is really weird. In fact after reading some of your posts, I found that I don't agree with your movie reviews as well.
Agree Sundar. Oru koodai sunlight will catch up big time after the movie is released. Even with the unfinished song that this is, folks have lapped the song up. It is a great song to be heard while driving the car and definitely on dance floors
From a traditionalist musician's pov, 2 Sivaji songs are incredibly good compositions.
Sahara - Vijay Yesudas - great pathos, strict comp.
Sahana - Chinmayi & Udit - upbeat romantic tune with same strict comp.
For these two songs alone, you can give a Nobel to ARR. Incredible tunes.
Ofcourse rest is usual tamil industry junk. 50 years from now, after I'm dead & buried, people will still listen to Sahara & Sahana. Ofcourse nobody will touch Annamalai Thambimalai Autokaran Scooterkaran or such garbage :)
nice. my work
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