விண்ணைத்தாண்டி வருவாயா - Music Review

Expectations were sky high (at least for me) since this is Rahman's first tamil album since Oscar and he teams up with Gautham for the first time. There was some pre-release talks and interviews from Rahman on his unconventional approach to songs on this album and you will realize what he was talking about after hearing the album.

Omana Pennae - Benny Dayal excels and once again came up with nice variations within a song that has some interesting and subtle musical notes like the nathaswaram in the background that comes and goes right through the song. Kalyani Menon's malayalam portion is mixed well in this heavy instrument dominated song.

Anbil Avan - Heavy use of synthesizers in this joyful number sung by Devan and Chinmayi definitely creates the happy mood. Chinmayi's intentional nassaly rendition with thick accent to sound western gels well with Devan's voice. The highlight of the song is the intelligent use of "Anantham Anantham.." instrumentals in the middle to go with the mood of the song.

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya - This song is unconventional and the use of electric guitars and keyboards make this song sound like an unplugged jazz. The music is quite loud in some places but Karthik's soulful singing with lots of expression is brilliant.

Hosanna - This is my favorite song of the album. Tune is so fresh and Vijay Prakash's voice blends very well with the orchestration that flows like a beautiful stream and Thamarai's lyrics is probably the best of the album. This song is one of those that you will remember and hum after hearing just once. A masterpiece that will become an instant hit with everyone.

Kannukul Kannai - This song starts of with a beautiful violin bit followed by Naresh Iyer 's beautiful voice. There are quite a few intelligent violin interludes right through this westernized song that has shades of Maramkothiye.

Mannipaaya - A melody rendered by Shreya Goshal and Rahman is very good to hear. The Thirukkural in christian style chorus is intelligent. Different styles and types of மன்னிப்பாயா sung by both singers gives you the real feel and mood of the song. This song brings காதல் ஒன்றல்லவா from Taj Anthem to my mind.

Aaromale - This is my another favorite from the album. This song starts slowly with a country style guitar music and hits you at full steam soon. The singer has typical mallu voice and accent and this song is a good fusion of western and south asian music and it is a very new style of song for Tamil films.

No set pallavi, charanam pattern for any of the songs, some interesting western/south asian and Tamil/Malayalam fusion, intelligent use of Thirukkural, marriage songs, nadhaswaram, guitar etc, this album has so many new and good things. It was a long wait to get a Rahman album in Tamil since Sakkarakatti, but it was worth a wait. Hope Gautham Menon does not disappoint with the movie.

Watching TV in India..

In US, we are stuck with just 2 satellite service providers and what we watch is pretty much determined/dictated by local channels (if you want to know more, just YouTube Family Guy FCC).

During my recent trip to India, I was pleasantly surprised to see so many satellite companies and choices for TV viewing. Tata Sky, Big TV, AirTel TV, Dish TV, Sun Direct.. the list goes on when it comes to satellite television in India. The problem though is the content in channels and how programming is rendered. Too many commercials and they come at inappropriate times. This is similar to சமையல் மாமா serving மோர் குழம்பு on top of your சாம்பார் சாதம் without your consent during marriage lunch. Too many things happening too quickly during the shows and you get a feeling that you are watching the actual program between the commercials, when it should be the other way around.

Watching cricket was awful since there is always a side bar or a pop up between every ball and tons of commercials between overs (most of the time you miss the first ball of the over). The worst part is there is no time for replays when a batsman is out, you have to watch it live, if not you just have to wait for quite a while.

What's with big hero movies dominating the TV channel commercials and programs. வேட்டைக்காரன் commercials and promos were popping every other second, between the programs and sometimes the talk show on movie itself was the program. I heard they did the same with ஆதவன் and படிக்காதவன்.

TV commercials used to be intelligent before, but was a huge let down recently. Except for a few, most of them were silly. Fill it, shut it Honda guy may look cute for some college girls, but he came across as a person who is naive to SMS. Why would an elephant not let the boy eat a banana when all he needs is one banana?

You can name a Tamil channel for every single alphabet and there is a Tamil serial on every girl name that you can think of. I saw a new role/title called "Head of Creatives" during the shows. I can see the hunger for new titles, but it is silly to call "Creative Head" as "Head of Creatives". We definitely need parental controls on TV serials and comedy channels that expose Vadivelu's back and portions of Vivek's crass comedy.

You can browse through all the channels without watching any and still spend about 30 minutes on TV. Is that not a huge plus?

Back from Vacation..

Phew.. after a hectic work schedule followed by an excellent five week vacation, I am back to my routine, more or less. Here's some of the items that I want to write about in the next few weeks:

- Commercials and TV watching in India
- So much of வேட்டைக்காரன் in Tamil channels, I want to write one line tweet jokes on the movie/promo, may be I should call it Tweetaikaaran
- Brilliant music once again from ARR in his latest album விண்ணைத்தாண்டி வருவாயா (some one tell Simbu to stop saying நான் ரொம்ப அழகா இருக்கேன் on every single interview about the movie, தாங்க முடியல)
- IPL auctions and Pakistan's outcry

Let me see how it goes next few days.. too much caffeine in the system.