Great Orchestration in interludes. Review on Kudaikkul Mazhai Songs

After watching the movie ?Kudaikkul Mazhai? I was surprised and stunned by the background score of Karthik Raja and decided to buy this album ?Kudaikkul Mazhai?. I watched the movie second time just for his background score. But the album doesn?t include all the BGM?s in the movie. Thank god at least it has two BGM tracks and one instrumental version of a song. Also it has 5 songs.

I like Karthik raja?s music though he is not commercially as successful as his brother Yuvan Shankar raja. I liked most of his previous albums ?Dum Dum Dum?, ?Ullasam?, ?Album?, ?Ullam Kollai poguthey?, ?Kadhala kadhala?. He is a unique composer but didn?t get much of right opportunity to expose all his talents.

Enna vendru solluvaen Singer: S.P.Balasubramaniam

A pathos melody with a Hindustani flavor. As usual SPB is at his emotive best. The song is a typical pathos like composition of Illayaraja in 80?s with usual tables and harmonium. But he has used some mild techno stuff and rhythm in the background to make a difference. The interludes with mild chords are good. An average number and worth listening for SPB?s voice.

Adiaye kiliyae Singer: Illayaraja

It is a short and sweet haunting melody from Karthik. With the vocals of Illayaraja it gets a new sound and soul. The main beat in the loop sounding like heavy water drops all through the song is good. The tune is so refreshing with a classical touch. The piano interludes are great. This song is my pick of the album. There is another instrumental version of this song in the CD in which group of violins replaces the vocal. It also sounds great.

Oru kottaikkul Singer: Ranjith, Sujatha, Suchithra, Antriya

This is another excellent song in the album that is not picturised in the film. The mood, the way the singers sing and the orchestrations make it chilling and thrilling to hear. The background is full of synthesized rhythms. The usage of horns, percussions and peculiar wind instruments with mild techno beats in fusion with violins playing the main tune in the first interlude is grand and great to hear. The second interlude is of higher tempo with percussions and gradually moves to Dhandiya beats with serious notes in the orchestration. Each line of the song is composed with care. Karthik raja masters in grand orchestration in this song especially in the interludes and with all singers doing their best this is another great number in this album.

Onnu rendu Singer: Hariharan, Tippu

I don?t know why this song is included two times in the CD one performed by Hariharan voice and the other by Tippu. Anyway both of them have tried to do something innovative in singing but failed miserably. It is high techno rock number. In the pallavi, the pitch of the voice rises in each line and when it reaches a maximum they are struggling and screaming and I couldn?t n understand a single word what they are singing. But when you are about to skip this song after hearing the first Para comes the first interlude, which makes you stop skipping and listen.

The first interlude is great with fusion of techno beats with tempo gradually increasing and the solo violins playing a classical stuff. And the second interludes had some excellent western sax piece. The song has great prelude and interludes with torturing vocal parts. The whistling piece sounding here and there is good. The prelude of this song is used as BGM for the entry of Krishnan?s character in the movie. Why the singers make so many modulations for each and every word may be sounding the Schizophrenic mind of the lead character.

Pada Pada ? Karthik

It is a very short number with again good prelude and ending with innovative keyboard rhythms. Karthik has sung it well. IT is used as a BGM for a scene in the movie. The songs and its tempo fit well to the situation.

Now coming to the instrumentals in the album

Kudaikkul Mazhai Theme (Dance with Saree)

This is the BGM for the scene in which Parthiban dances with a saree in the movie. Wow, 7 variations in the track, which plays only for two minutes. The orchestration is of international standards. The track starts melodiously with keyboard rhythms and piano accompanied by percussion later and suddenly strumming guitars takes over with percussions followed by a real choir and piano joins to the choir leaving the beats and then sounds choir without any instruments continued with Choir and mild violin playing the main tune and ends with violins playing the tune in the least tempo possible. The basic tune of the song is great worth setting as a ring tone in our mobiles.

Kudaikkul Mazhai Thalattu (Lullaby)

This track has excellent usage of Guitar. The chord progression is great. Illayaraja?s vocal with the chords mesmerizes you and it is soul stirring. A sad Hindustani alap by sriram (I am not sure) ends the track. The alap is simply soul stirring and sounds the pathos in the visual well. This track is used as the title music and for another interesting poetic visual in the movie.

I wish the album should also have included BGM?s in the following scenes

6) Delusional Schizophrenia

Some defects in his music

1) The audio quality is poor. He can go for a better sound engineer to improve the sound quality of his songs, sometimes the song fails due to this poor sound engineering also.

2) The doubling effect in voice. He is using this effect in his songs very often. The voices will be doubly layered and sounds like a chorus. It is a good experimentation but repeating it often is not good

3) Using high pitches. In most of his songs, the pitch range of the vocals gradually increases and reaches a very high range where any great singer will struggle to sing. It just sounds like screaming and one cannot understand even a single word in the lyrics at this pitch.

4) Combining above two, a unique technique that Karthik follows, the singer is made to sing in two extreme pitches and both of them are layered in parallel. So at a time you will hear the singer singing in high pitch in one layer and at low pitch in another layer. In some of the songs it sounds good but it fails to impress in many other. Karthik uses this technique also often.

Overall this album is worth for those who liked the movie and also can appreciate some good orchestrations in the songs.