Maestro Ilaiyaraja New Albums 2011 - Hello Jaihind / Sri Rama Rajyam

[suresh]

Sri Rama Rajyam - Just to see SPB & Chitra in the album credits of a Raaja film is in itself a sweet surprise. Rest is icing on the cake. SRR, as my namesake has so precisely laid out in his review before, didn't quite hit me like the broodingly surreal "Thandavakkone" did, but nevertheless, looks guaranteed to become the big commercial success that has been eluding Raaja for quite sometime now. Fantastic vocals right down to Shwetha; 'Jagadanandha Karaka' and 'Sree Rama Lera' clearly my highlights, this is Raaja at his commercial best where the whole production is so watertight, not one note out of place. I only hope that the God on whom this movie is premised on, compensates for the scary casting (Balayya & Nayan! Bapuji, what were you thinking?) and the not so great luck for mythologicals of late.

But "Thandavakkone" is clearly the thunderbolt from the blue. I can't understand Raaja's untiring effort to makeover Madhu B into a versatile, genre-hopping singer, but since I've kind of now begun to expect the album's weakest song from him, 'Kula Deivam' didn't deviate from the pattern. I find 'Aanukkulley' trite and predictable, given its pedestrian lyrics, boring rhythms, saved only by Haricharan's presence. But what a triple whammy Raaja delivers with 'Kattu Vazhi', 'Ennappol/Unnappol' and 'Neeral Udal Kazhuvi'! Outstanding singing (surely must rank among Tippu, Sriram P and Manickavinayagam's top 3), lyrics and orchestration combine to give us three songs that are so rich with musical ideas, wannabe MDs can milk dozens of hits from each one of them. Raaja's grainy vocal texture during the plaintive "Shambo Siva Siva", the way the charanams effortlessly glide towards the pallavi in these songs, the precision with which the soundscape has been designed to convey the mood and tenor of the film - even if the movie becomes yet another 'also-ran', this album is one for the serious film music lover's archives.