Rahman makes 1950s music in Tamil

From the day the music of Tamil film Jillunu Oru Kathal hit the stands, I have been listening to it constantly. I try listening to an A R Rahman album on loop because it usually takes several rounds of listening for the music to grow on me.

Rahman rarely composes music for Tamil films these days. The man who dominates the Tamil music scene is the youngest son of Ilayaraja, Yuvan Shankar Raja. Yuvan churns out albums at regular intervals -- without compromising on quality.

As I listened to the music of Jillunu Oru Kathal, the first thought that crossed my mind was that I was sitting at the Netru Indru Naale (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow) music programme once again but there were only the netru (yesterday's) songs.

Yes, the album has songs -- save two, perhaps -- that sounded like the songs of the 1950s and the 1960s, the era of rock 'n roll. Since I love songs from the 1950s, I enjoyed the album. It is a throwback to the olden days, not pathbreaking as most of his other work has been.

The album starts on a disappointing note -- Kummi aadi sung by Dr Siva Chidambaran, Swarnalatha, Naresh Iyer, Theni Kunjarammal and Vignesh.

Munbe vaa, by Shreya Ghosal and Naresh Iyer, is good, but similar to an old Hindi film song that I can't seem to put my finger on. The chorus reminded me of Rahman's Dil Se album.

But Shreya Ghosal has sung the melodious Munbe vaa beautifully.

Rahman himself has sung New York nagaram, which is very popular among youngsters. This is the only 'modern' song in the album.

After Munbe vaa, my personal favourite is the title track Jillendru oru kathal, sung by Tanvil. It is the first rock 'n roll song of the album. One can almost picture Jyothika, the heroine, in black and white with curly short hair and in a frilly frock, rocking to a band. This song is pure nostalgia, and Tanvil's voice has a vintage appeal.

In fact, the album is worth buying for these two songs alone!

Maza..maza.. maaza Raaja comes next. Yes, I am still listening to an album of the 1950s -- only the voices here do not belong to Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar, but to Shreya Ghosal and S P B Charan.

Machakari by Vasundhara Das and Shankar Mahadevan reminds me of a song in a Kamal Haasan film called Vikram. Those who do not remember the song will enjoy this one.

Marisam by Carolisa, Mohammad Aslam and Krishna is a typical high-pitched song of the 1950s sung quite well, especially by Carolisa.

The album ends with Rahman's New York nagaram.

But if I have a choice between Harris Jayaraj's Vettayadu Vilayadu, any of Yuvan's latest albums and this one, I would prefer Vettayadu Vilayadu.

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