Listening to an album of A R Rahman for the first time – There is nothing else that can match the excitement felt at that moment. 🙂 And as usual, Rahman doesn’t disappoint you this time too. All the songs are good. But, something seems to be missing in most of the songs. Sometimes on listening to a song for the first time, you get hooked to it instantly and would not want to move on to the next song at all. There seems to be no song that fits into this category even after listening to all the songs continuously for more than 7 hours now. So I guess it’s going to take quite some time for me to start liking the songs of ATM in the way I like the songs of Rahman.
kaeLaamal
I liked the song till Sriram Parthasarathy sings the line un paerum kokilam. The moment the next line, Saindhavi singing kokilam kokilam, followed, I realized this is going to be one song that wouldn’t feature in the list of my favourites for a long time. Music phrases or rather, the tunes that tend to sound a bit serious have never been my cup of tea. There is nothing extraordinary about the music of the charanams as well. In fact, the tune of the starting lines of the charanams starting with inimael inimael, kaNNai kaNNai is pretty ordinary. I liked the way the first charanam ends with irangi vara padigaLum undu followed by kaeLaamal. As for the singers, I liked Sriram’s singing more than Saindhavi’s. Maybe I should have stopped dissecting the song while I was listening to it. Then I might have liked it better.
ella pugazhum
This is another ordinary song. Despite Rahman himself singing this song, but for the opening lines of the song, I didn’t find anything special in this song. That too I find many parts of the song quite boring. To mention a few, the lines naaLai naaLai naaLai endru inRai izhakkaathe and the last line sung by Rahman. For quite some time to come, I think I will just press the forward button as soon as the song starts playing.
maduraikku
A typical Tamil folk song. Again not able to find anything special in it as of now though the song is good.
ponmagaL
A very good remix of the song. I liked it on listening to it the first time itself. Aslam’s voice sounds so good! After listening to a nice remix of an old song, I got reminded of all those times when wonderful remixes of old Hindi songs used to be released. Ah those golden days of Indipop!!
nee Marilyn Monroe
One of the best songs of this album. I have always liked peppy songs of Rahman and this one is no exception. The way Benny Dayal goes nee nee and then, the song starts with nee marilyn monroe gets you hooked.
vaLayapatti
Easily the best song of the album. 🙂 Everything from the opening line, ‘nee nadaswaram pola vandhaa’ to lines like ‘naan tiruvaiyaaru kutcheri’ to the swarams in my favourite raagams nilambari, saraswati and behag, nee paakkum bodhe patthikkudhe are superb! Do I even have to say anything about the male singer of this song? Naresh Iyer rocks as usual!!! 🙂
After listening to ATM songs continuously in my mobile for some 6 hours, I turned the random mode of the music player on and guess what song played? Pachchai nirame! 🙂 After listening to Pachchai nirame, the songs of ATM fade away in comparison. And that’s when I realized that a non-Rahmaniac will do the mistake of comparing most of recent Rahman’s songs with ones like Pachchai nirame and say that the standard of his music has gone down when that’s not the case at all. You just have to give a Rahman’s song the time needed so as to fully let the magic in it unfold completely. 🙂
Awaiting the magic in the music of ATM to unfold,
Aparna
P.S.: I wrote the first and last para yesterday. After listening to ATM songs till 3pm yesterday, I am listening to the songs again only today evening!
take a long drive or probably close your eye and listen to Kaelamal… its nothing spl but such a feel good song…am listening to it now late night with no one in the office now –
ellapughazhum – yeah i got the same feel !!
maduraikku was fantastic … i still think this song can be used to showcase the folksiness in a r rahman
ponmagal is not Rahman product !! Thottal Poo Malarum tops it !!
marlyn Monroe – Good – nothing spl – but a very good song – Lyrics should have been better – esp that mixie, chutney cricket wicket thing !! kadalkariyil Beach house irukku .. that charnam part is veryvery good !!
Valayapatti – yes good one with that karnatic Swaram in between – like this a lot … but again Lyrics could have been better …
Did you notice one of the lyrics are re hash of the line “Oru koodai Sunlight Oru Koodai moonlight”
“Suryanum Chandiranum saerndhadhu than Su -ndiran o” in Madhuraikku pogathey dee !!
to be simple – rahman has done very little experimentation in this and there is nothing much new !! but still2 3 songs are good for the time being !!
am waiting for Sakkarakatti !!
🙂 . nice nice nice,.
not a aahaa oho album i felt.but definitely not run of the mill.
i second ur views on kelamal song. the kokilam part was an overdose.
but nadhaswaram – dont you think it is too much inspired from the avalukenna song from sillunu..
maduraiku will suit vijay and shud be a runaway hit..
Good one Aparna …
While I loved this album right from the word go, while I agree that this is not a Alaipayuthe or a Sangamam and while I agree that Rahman as we have come to expect might be missing and while I also believe that with time, it will only grow – what I emphatically do believe and feel is that we cannot hold him responsible for this – whether to compose a class album that few will appreciate (Bose, Meenaxi, Mangal Pandey et al) or compose something that goes with the movie theme ..the hero’s image …and ultimately ..what sells. I am sure Rahman is caught in that warp ….can’t blame him. We really can’t. While this leaves us thirsty …while this leaves a feeling of incompleteness – the magic remains unparalleled.
Even his worst of compsitions (if there are any that we can pick and choose) are way better than th best that probably the “others” compose 🙂
-A
Hi aparna,
I was very eager to see this post..At last it came on the blog..Nice review..This album is a disappointment for ARR fans..If a person who doesn’t know that these are composed by ARR, for sure he will guess that these are scored vidyasagar/Yuvan..But anyway i dont feel sad as it is for vijay and this kind of music is itself a big thing for his fans.
The opening voice in “PonMagal..” is absolutely rocking..
Regards
Rukesh D
Me too got the same opinion…except for one or two, rest are pretty ordinary
i take back all the comments of disappointment on ATM. I am completely Hooked to the songs. – Its growing !!
ARR’s music has to be discovered. You keep listening quite a number of times with the belief that there’s lot to discover. Then you invent reasons why you like them with the solid trust you have in his music.
So far “?? ??????? ?????” tops the list. Just hear the energy in: “Hey saturday night partyikku pogalam variyaa…” Who’ll not say, “Oh yeah!”. 🙂
ARR’s music has to be discovered. You keep listening quite a number of times with the belief that there’s lot to discover. Then you invent reasons why you like them with the solid trust you have in his music.
So far “Nee Marilyn Monroe” tops the list. Just hear the energy in: “Hey saturday night partyikku pogalam variyaa…” Who’ll not say, “Oh yeah!”. 🙂
Hey Aparna,
Nice review.. I would love to hear your opinion now that it must be 2-3 days of you listening to the songs…
I am hooked now after 10-20 listens…
Suresh
Sreekrishnan,
It may be a long time before I consider kaeLaamal a feel good song.
I don’t know why many want to compare ponmagaL with thottal poo malarum. ponmagaL is the real remix with no change made to the actual tune and lyrics. thottal poo malarum is a new composition of Rahman – he composed a new tune to fit in the lyrics of the song. I won’t even call it a remix.
Oh I didn’t notice that lyrics rehash 🙂
Am waiting for Jodha Akbar more than Sakkarakatti!
>Hooked to the songs. – Its growing !!
Great to hear that! 🙂
Adiya,
What’s nice nice nice? 🙂
Aravind,
>but definitely not run of the mill.
How can Rahman’s be run of the mill? 😉
>inspired from the avalukenna song
I don’t feel so. Anyway I like avaLukkenna more than vaLayapatti
Anil,
Thanks.
That was a nice comment 🙂 I agree with you completely.
Rukesh,
Thanks.
>This album is a disappointment for ARR fans..If a person who doesn’t know that these are composed by ARR, for sure he will guess that these are scored vidyasagar/Yuvan..
I don’t agree with this. This is not a bad album. All the songs are pretty good.
Sami,
Hmmm
Ranjhith,
So true! 🙂
Suresh,
Welcome to my blog. Thanks. My opinion has not changed till now 🙂
kaelamal is not that bad actually,
saindhavi was required to sing using her upper throat,
and it worked for her,
the songs are good, better, musch better compared to other latest movies,
ellapugazhum was mediaocre, but gotta agree with u,
nee nadhaswaram rounds up this album,
hats off to ARR!
Arjun,
Welcome to my blog 🙂