Anegan - Album Review

Anegan album opens with the song, “Thanga Maari Oodhari”, a peppy number with some catchy lyrics in typical Madras slang (Calling it “Chennai slang” doesn’t give it the desired effect. As they say, Chennai is a city, Madras is an emotion!). The voice and rendition of “Marana Gaana” Viji & the rhythm of the thappattai makes sure that this song will soon be a chart topper!!

“Roja Kadale” that follows has the stamp of Harris Jayaraj written all over. This fast and zippy romantic number crooned by Shankar Mahadevan & Sunidhi Chauhan is the other hit song of this album. However, the very average lyrics penned by Vairamuthu in this song will shock/surprise you!!

To borrow a cricket parlance, Vairamuthu finds some kind “form” in the next song, “Aathadi Aathadi”, rendered by Bhavatharani & Tippu. The way this song sounds (especially the beginning) will definitely remind you of the song “Innum Koncha Neram” (Maryan). Though the overall paths both these songs traverse are similar, this song will differentiate itself for the usage of “Harrish” (pronounced Harry-ish) towards the end of the song!! For the uninitiated, “Harrish” is the set of incomprehensible phrases/words, not part of any language, that you regularly get to hear in Harris Jayaraj songs (remember “O Maha Zeeya” song in “Kakka Kakka”?). I was familiarized about “Harrish” by siger Mahathi in one of the interviews!!

“YOLO (You Only Live Once)” that follows, can at the best be described as a song that reminds you of many jingles (especially Kingfisher beer) with some rap thrown in-between!! Sung by a bunch of youngsters, this song has been penned by CS Amudhan, director of the first Tamil spoof, “Tamizh Padam”. A not-so-impressive song, but it might just catch the imagination of GenX!

Another mediocre song, “Thodu Vaanam” makes you wonder why such great talents like Vairamuthu, Hariharan and Shaktishree Gopalan were wasted. The only good portion of this song is the electric guitar interlude midway through the song.

The album’s last song, “Deivangal Ingae”, rendered by Sriram Parthasarathi is another forgettable song. From the feel of it, looks like it will only be used as a background score somewhere in the movie.

The first thing that came to my mind when I came to know that the audio of “Anegan” had been released was the song “Adiye Kolluthe”. Sometime last week, as I started my car in the morning to drive to work, the audio system started playing “Adiye Kolluthe” (Vaaranam Aayiram). It was such a pleasure listening to that song early in the morning, with the nip in the autumn air adding to the effect. The whole experience of listening to that song that day had such an indelible impact in my mind! “Anegan” comes nowhere near making such an impact. Except for a couple of songs, this album is disappointing! How I wish Harris Jayaraj was also an “Anegan”, many men (skills) inside one man!!

(Originally published in Facebook on 11th November 2014)

Kaththi

A popular beverage company, that also owns a popular snack brand, has been running a campaign the past few days, urging people to go home (visit their hometowns) and celebrate Diwali with their loved ones. Having celebrated the last couple of Diwalis with my entire family in Gurgaon, and missing them this year, I’ll be lying if I said this campaign didn’t affect me. Though I didn’t visit Chennai exactly this Diwali, watching Kaththi at a multiplex in Gurgaon, gave me a feeling of having visited Chennai!! Never before have I seen such whistles & claps for any Tamil hero, even Rajnikanth, in Gurgaon! Forget the hero; the response from the crowd was amazing when the name of the music director, Anirudh, appeared on the screen!! The heroine Samantha and the director, AR Murugadoss (who appears in a single scene) were also given rousing receptions by the audience!! Overall, the full house audiences in the multiplex made me feel as if I was watching the movie in Chennai!!

The movie’s storyline is about the much clichéd Doppelgangers (one a crook and another, a good Samaritan) swapping places. The movie opens with an interesting chase, and then just meanders along aimlessly, before getting you interested a good 15-20 minutes later. The movie’s plot will definitely remind you of the Vikram-starrer “Dhool”. Though the screenplay is reasonably brisk, it lacks sufficient twists and turns to stop you from comparing this film with “Dhool”. It is here that you feel a bit let down by the director Murugadoss! But, credit to him for having picturized the songs quite well, though they look completely out of place and hinder the pace of the movie! It looks as if a couple of brilliant music videos have been forcibly incorporated into the movie at inappropriate scenes!!

The heroine Samantha doesn’t have much work to do, except to dance with Vijay in the songs. Even the villain, played by Neil Nitin Mukesh, hasn’t been characterized strongly, like say, Vidyut Jamwal’s role in “Thuppaki”.

Special mention to an action sequence involving coins!!  has been conceived and executed brilliantly!!  Vijay fans are going to lap it up!!

Coming back to “Thuppaki”, it was a completely Murugadoss film that had Vijay in the lead role. But “Kaththi” is a Vijay film directed by Murugadoss!! Don’t miss if you are a Vijay fan. Else, you can wait for the television premiere!!

(Originially published in Facebook on 24th October 2014)