Here's one more... At least some of his individual song reviews were spot on...
http://petesomething.blogspot.com/2010/07/puli-audio-review.html <http://petesomething.blogspot.com/2010/07/puli-audio-review.html> Dochey: This is the stand-out song in the album as it has this funky arrangement with the steady hip-hop beat(which is the same as "Gangasta Blues" from Slumdog Millionaire). Lady Kash & krissy don't have much to do but the hook, which is pretty neat. Shreya Ghoshal breezes off as expected. What I didn't get is the total character change from pallavi to charanam for Shreya's vocals. The pallavi vocals are more sensual but in charanam, a lot more importance was given to melody by loosing the sensual flavor of the pallavi, which seemed totally out of character. The tune is perfectly fine, I wish the sensual flavor was carried across the whole song. Amma Thalli: The first thing that strikes in this song is the female vocals, where the tempo is faster than the song's tempo. This is a great experiment by AR and works wonderful for the song. I didn't get the raga change from pallavi to charanam, but after repeated hearings and listening to the lyrics carefully, I realized what the intent was. This song actually explores the different shades of the girl pestering the guy. Hence the raga change. Compare the song mood/sequence to "Adavari Matalaku Ardhale Veeru le" song from Kushi. Maralante: This is typical AR stuff and has a very good tune which represents melancholy, and standing up to the challenge from it. The "maa telugu thalli" chorus was good but could have been executed better. It's a great feeling to hear "maa telugu thalli" wordings in AR's vocals. All in all a pretty standard AR number. Maham Maye: The hook is really catchy here and the pallavi is really good. Charanam has nothing to catch on to. Increasingly, AR songs are having this trend where in you just have to listen to what is going on at that point of the song without comparing it to any other part of the song, meaning you might not find much connection to pallavi and charanam but both are good in their own terms. This is a prime example of such a trend. Power Star: I hate the hook "Power Star" here, it's too clichéd, and there is nothing much to write about this song, it could have been so much better and explosive but just falls flat.It's just a subpar attempt in making a break out song. Nammakame: This is typical AR stuff and is very similar to "oo palan hare" from Lagaan. No experimentation or nothing new to hear in this one. Overall it's a below average album from AR, with some very good experiments without taking into account the bad pronunciation across all songs. I think the main culprit is the lyrics. There are a lot of places where the lyrics didn't fit the tune and hence the butchering of the language by the singers. It's very important for a lyricist to understand the tune, know what syllables would be right and at the same time convey the message that needs to be conveyed. Some how I feel post 90ties, direct telugu albums of AR, are not good nor bad, they're just plain weird. It would be great if someone successfully extracts the "telugudanam" in the tunes from AR, but unfortunately this is not the one, and I doubt if this album will get any future hearings from me after a while. --- In [email protected], Gopal Srinivasan <catchg...@...> wrote: > > http://life-n-coda.blogspot.com/2010/07/komaram-puli.html > > It's been a long time since Rahman played to the gallery. He tried it in > Blue and other recent ventures of his only to be caught between > experimentation and cacophony. With S.J. Suryah, Rahman did get back to the > balance that he used to maintain in his hay days of commercial cinema where > the songs regardless of the experimentation were always foot tapping and > catchy, pleasing everyone. Though the audacity of the director to don the > grease pant was frustrating, it was sheer pleasure to witness them on silver > screen with all the gloss and not the mellowed down situational ones where > the songs were pushed to the background. But with Komaram Puli we will get > to see Pawan Kalyan so the visual segment of the song will surely be > entertaining. And the songs? Lets get to them one at a time. > > Power star (Vijay Prakash, Tanvi Shah) > > Techno songs are always not easy on ears. With Rahman at fore we know with > the kind of experimentation (ring tones, car crash et all) it is bound to be > bizarre. It starts with the drums beating to the well known police theme in > Arabic influence fused with synthesized sounds creating and eery feel > whispering `power star'. It's a cocktail of sorts after that, when the ream > of lyrics patronizing the `Yuva star' moves from the electronic feel to > folkish style, backed by the genre trademark `organ'. Any hero worship song > from Rahman is not complete with the "hai hai" sound and here it is combined > with "blue blue" cry, reminiscing us of the blue theme. The beauty of this > cocktail is that after getting the grasp and when the familiarity sinks in, > the peppy adulating lyrics and the intricate modulations especially whenever > Vijay intensifies the mood as he acclimates to the top scale, grabs our > attention. > > Amma thale (Naresh Iyer, Swetha Mohan) > > There is the celerity and then the melody. It seems to be repeating in > loops. So what is this song? Doesn't it sound like it was poorly tacked > together? If you stop right there, then you are going to miss something > special. As we take that notion away, the celerity becomes a breathless > travel into the nooks in whips, pacing our heart only to be soothed by the > melody. But the melody now doesn't remain only that; it becomes more of a > funny retaliation to the rambling antecedent and the fun increases with the > curt notes of the violin & trumpet. So what if the celerity is borrowed by > "thee kurugiya" song from Kangalal Kaithu Sei with heavy accent from > "markandeya" of New; when each complete note of that saranam layered using > different instruments, attention turns to the variation that Swetha brings > to the note joined later by Naresh. Though Naresh intensifies the tune to a > great level, the "na nana na" hampers the flow, only to be saved by the > faithful trumpet with which Naresh swiftly transforms the song into a > classical one at the coda. > > Maaralante (A.R.Rahman & KMMC Choir) > > Maaralante is a double treat in that it will become the anthem of > Andhravalas and as a song that will become the identity of Power star for > the rest of his life. What is with Rahman and patriotic songs? When he sings > them, even the average tune raises goosebumps and with lyrics which > highlight the importance of change, the impact is even higher acclimating to > greater heights when he touches the top note for rendering "maa telugu > thali" backed by the cherubic choir; reminding us the "mannipaya" of VTV > effect. Rahman takes the song to the next level when he increases the > tension using carefully arranged instrument in the other half of the song, > which when we thought was the best it could get to, knocks us out with the > superb placement of Chandrabose's punch line as the finale. > > Maham Mahamaye (Javed Ali, Suchitra) > > Sometimes we just have to hand it over to the guys behind the microphone and > let them enthrall us. Even though Maham Mahamaye seems to be Shankar > Mahadevanish, Javed Ali gets into the groove and comes up with a rendering > that is packed with passion and gusto. The consistently flat Suchitra is > beautified with disciplined singing that falls between zeal and childish > joy. The alternation between staccato and the melodic note of the pallavi > that the singers perform in the later part of the saranams, the majestic > symphony in violin and the confluence of these two towards the finale ends > the song in a content note. > > Dochy (Shreya Ghoshal, Lady Kash 'N' Krissy) > > Gangster blues seems to have become police blues for this club number. The > rustic & erotic mood initiated by Krissy carries over to Shreya Goshal which > she blends well with the wiggling setup of the notes leaving us in trance. > The way she renders lowering notes of "aashalatho anveshanatho aapai aapai > adigai" and then climbs higher only to touch down safely into our heart, > makes us forget that this is just an item number. The Arabic orchestration > with organ sneaking in between at equal intervals under the aegis of > synthesizers takes us to an elevated state; not to mention the firing sounds > and the prickling guitar that fills the entirety of the song. > > Namakame (Chitra, Madhushree, Harini) > > Should there be only one tune, when a lady is praying to the God? Why does > Rahman repeat the same tune be it in Lagaan, Swades, Jodha Akbar > (interestingly all Ashutosh Gowarikar films), Connections and now in Komram > Puli? Lack of novelty apart, the choice of different voice whenever there is > a change in the notes and different combinations of them makes the age old > song intriguing and when Chitra takes over with an alaap backed by mouth > organ like sounding trumpet we are sent back to the Duet days. >
