Direction:
Cheran
Music:
Ilaiyaraja
Cheran has
earned a special place in peoples' heart
through his real-life like quality films. He
is back with his "Maayakannaadi", produced
by Panju Arunachalam. Any project under
Panju Arunachalam's banner has music by any
of the three Rajas. Maayakannaadi's music is
scored by Ilaiyaraja. It had been a long
time, since an Ilaiyraja's Tamil album got
released. Though Ilaiyaraja-Cheran
combination did not click in "Desiya Geetham",
this flick being produced by Panju
Arunachalam who introduced Raja, has high
expectations from music lovers.
Konjam konjam –
Karthik and Shreya
Maestro has
come up with this song on Cheran’s request
of a song with "basic love feel". A typical
Raja styled melody, beautifully rendered by
Shreya and Karthik. This is the first song
of Pa.Vijay in Raja's music and he has come
up with lyrics praising the mobile phone for
connecting people in love. De ja vu feeling
of many recent Raja songs is unavoidable.
Kaasu kaiyil –
Ilaiyaraja
There is
something in this man’s voice that, though
we have heard him singing umpteen numbers of
such songs right from 80s films. Muthulingam
has penned philosophical lyrics that go on
to say the importance of money in life.
Kaadhal indru
– Ilaiyaraja
Another
version of the previous song, with sarcastic
lyrics about the recent days’ love with
short expiry dates.
Oru Maayalogam
– Tippu, Manjari
The prelude is
set to bring the mood of visiting a "Maayalogam"
and Raja succeeds in it through his grand
orchestration. The tune, a cool and easy
flowing one is a slightly modified version
of a recent Telugu song by Raja himself.
Tippu sounds so monotonous nowadays with his
nasalized voice. The interludes are
impressive and the maestro proves that his
music is still contemporary through this
song with lyrics by Palanibharathi.
Yaelae enga vandha
– Ilaiyaraja
The situation
is such that, the hero visits a Cinema
studio with dreams of becoming a hero and
there begins this song written by Vaali. The
song beginning with 80s styled "Chigujaan
chigu chigujaan" chanting by Raja and the
arrangement sounds as if picked up from
recylcle bin of Raja’s recording studio.
Though the interludes are filled with energy
and toe tapping beats, effective
picturisation is needed to make the song
more appealing to the audience.
Ulagile Azhagi
– Vijay Yesudoss and Nandhitha
A soulful
melody that tickles the ears after listening
to all tympanic membrane-tearing crap songs
and remixes these days. Vijay Yesudoss has
improved a lot and sounds more like his
father in this song. Raja has come out with
gorgeous orchestration in the prelude and
interludes. Nandhitha’s voice sounds
amateurish and still she manages to do a
decent job in rendering this song.
Mu.Mehtha's poetic excellence is flashed in
the lyrics.
Though not up
to the expectations, Ilaiyaraja has come out
with a neat album with his trademark style
of melodious songs. With all other music
directors concentrating on the quality of
sound recording, still Raja's songs lack all
those clarity and quality. Listening to the
songs of "Maayakannaadi",
it is obvious that Raja is badly
in need of a good sound engineer.
*****
