Velai

Yuvan Shankar Raja

Released:

Sashikanth's Flat Thumb rating: Yuvan Shankar Raja's second album has a remarkable familiarity to it. But then whose doesn't.

Of the five numbers in the album, Oyvedu Nilave, a nice melody rendered by Hariharan and Bavatharani takes the cake. Kalathukku Gana, a "gaana song", sung by Nassar, Vijay and Prem Gee well.. is different. After a few hearings it grows on you and your finger hits the rewind button. Again and again and..........

Kunnuru Poochatti by Udit Narayan and Sujatha has a bhangra beat to it. Its catchy for a while, but soon gets tiring.

Achutha Achutha No tension Relax by Yuvan Shankar Raja and Prem Gee. You guessed it right. Another hyper-energy-high-pitched-top-of-the-voice number that flood the tamil charts these days. Lacks punch though.

The less said about Kanni Ponuu by Shalini the better.

My thumb stays flat.

Sashi

Krishna's Thumbs Up rating: Unlike many others, I kind of liked this album... There are of course the racy stuff and some unbearable tunes, but still overall I liked it... Yuvan Shankar Raja (Illayaraja's second son), the music composer for this film,  is just around twenty years old... And he is already into full fledged film composing... Amazing...

My pick of this album is Achutha Achutha - No Tension Relax...  If you listen to this number in an effort to find out where he has copied this one from (like many of us... ), then this song is not for you... Just give him the benefit of doubt and you will definitely enjoy this song...  The violin piece in the first interlude is very catchy...

Oyvedu Oyvedu Nilavae.... Have I, in any one of my past reviews, said that I didn't like any melodious number sung by Hariharan... Oyvedu nilavae cannot be an exception... One of the best songs of this album... Shades of chalanattai ragam pops up at many places... One gripe though... Why Bhavatharini??? A better singer would have given the required polish...

Kaalathukkaetha oru gaanaa... Very different from the usual songs... Well, how often does Nasser sing in movies... Yes!!! Nasser gets introduced as a singer... And he does seem to be a better singer than Prem Gee (third singer)... Atleast he tries to stay on Sruthi.... ;) And Vijay, as a singer, does his part pretty well... These three are the good songs of this movie...

I just couldn't bear the other two (Kanni Ponnu and Kunnooru poochatti) at all... Still, three out of five, does not make me cry...

Krish

Original Photograph (Velai): Audio cassette cover.
Photograph scanned and reworked by: Krishna