Legends are Back. Review on Vishwa Thulasi Songs

Tamil film music is going in a wrong path and also can be said as taking most dangerous path as lots of dappanguthu, fast numbers and the like find prominent place in every other album releasing today. And these days thee albums with such numbers are hot selling. As Javed Akthar said in a recent interview, both the audience and the movie makers are to be equally blamed for the present trend of music and movies. But in this situation comes an album with a breath of fresh air to remind us this is how a pure melody will sound?

The legends M.S.Viswanathan who ruled Tamil film music for more than a decade and Maestro Illayaraja who is still ruling the world of Tamil film music even after two decades join hands to make album for the movie “Vishwa Thulasi”. I am bit sad that even many of the hardcore fans of these music directors don’t know about such a music album has been released. There are so many reasons for why it went unnoticed. They are

~ The failure of the movie, the movie released this Diwali was a mere washout.

~ CD of the album is not yet released which further reduced its sales figure

How many gems of Illayaraja will go unnoticed like this? The same thing happened for his previous albums like “July Ganapathy”, “Pon Meghalai” etc.,

Though the album has not credited the songs to any of the composers in particular, from the style of composition, tune and orchestration we can easily recognize which songs are composed by whom. Both of them have delivered the songs in a style with which they are at their best. All the songs take us down the memory lane to the immortal melodies they composed in 70’s and 80’s. No synthesizers, no hard hitting beats and rhythms, no English words, double entendre’s, obscene lines in the lyrics, no screaming voices and with all no’s it has all the right elements to scintillate your senses and mesmerize your soul to the meaningful lyrics and simplicity in tune, orchestration and singing.

Track Listing

En manamae / Tippu, Poornima / Illayaraja

Aya kalaigalil/ Srinivas/ MSV

Illayaraja has given refreshing songs with all budding singers like Tippu, Karthik, Poornima and Chinmayi. Tippu has got three songs and he sounds very different in IR’s music and his voice has a different tone and freshness. Poornima with two songs is a fresh talent to look out for. Karthik and Chinmayi have got one song each but excel with their sweet voice and expressive song. The lyrics for the songs composed by Illayaraja are penned by him.

The best among the four songs is “En manamae”, the flute pieces, mild beats, soothing vocals with deft usage of Veena pieces make this number a sure winner. Second place goes to “Engu piranthathu” is a semi classical number with bass guitar in the background setting a unique rhythm to the song. The ending Veena piece along with the orchestration is so divine and haunting to listen to. “Kanavilavadhu” is a very brief number to comments on but has a nice tune. “Thulasi” is where Illayaraja proves that he is the numero uno when it comes to orchestration. This pathos song has got full length violin orchestration in the background all through the song which fills the emotions with ease. The tune is very simple and good.

MSV on the other hand has come up with nice melodies in his own style. His songs are mostly semi classical numbers with less importance to orchestration. The biggest strength of his songs is his singers and also simple tunes. He has chosen the best in the business for his songs.

SPB has done full justice to the songs “Kannamma” and “Nizhalin kathai ithu”. I can’t think of any other singing these songs to near perfect diction and so much emotion. Srinivas is the other singer who has proved why he is a special singer in the field with the songs “Aya kalaigalil” and “Mayakama”. His voice is simply soothing and mesmerizing. “Mayakamma” song is the best among MSV’s songs. It is a duet composed in 60’s style. Sujatha’s voice is so sweet in this number. But MSV could have avoided a bit of western beats, trumpet usage and all those alien stuffs in the song “Aya kalaigalil” which doesn’t synch well with the feel of the song. Sumathi Ram has written lyrics for all the songs composed by MSV and has come up with some good poetic lines.

On the whole, though it is not for the big names, one can go for the album for its quality. The melodies are refreshing and relaxing.