[Pic www.Indiaglitz.com]
Mumbai express, as per various chatters and the buzz going around the industry and among many Kamals fans, it seems Mumbai Express is a comedy movie about a disorientated family [and I say based on the songs, it is a family of big-band musicians], some have speculated this to be an adult comedy. Some of my pals speculated Malcolm in the middle or The Simpsons, I really don’t care, I just want to laugh and will go for both the movies. Coming back to the review, I have already reviewed Chandramuki in my earlier Blogs. Now let us take the express train.I finally got to hear the songs from Mumbai express. Music by “Ilayaraja”, who incidentally should be getting out his much awaited Thrivasagam in Symphony now renamed to Thrivusagam Oratorio for Tamil new years day. Tamil music today targets the youngsters who seem to crave for crazy fast paced grooves and songs; hence most current day movie makers will go for a composer who caters to their needs. But it is no surprise to me when Kamal recalled his musical favorite for this movie. On the first go, Kamal’s trust in this esteemed composer does not go waste. Let me assure you that I am not over estimating anything here. I am known to be very skeptical when it comes to Ilayaraja. Why? Basically I cannot take mediocre stuff from a composer of his standards.
Let us move on, First song that caught my ears tight, was “Yelae Nee Yetipoo”, this has the word Mumbai express hence the Title song. This song starts with lots of dialogues in Hindi in the background. The Kamal’s voice opens with an upbeat feeling. Hope you remember “oram poo oram poo rukumani vandi varudhu”, just the opening made me to recollect that song, however in this song you will really find sweet music and very tight drum programming. Lady voice joins in with some cute accented singing. The sax part in the middle drips more essence to an already pepped up vocal parts. The “Saranam” is the best why? The spacing of the lead tune with the crunching guitar parts is simply awesome. This is unusual for Raja to compose like this after late 90s. In this song they explain Mumbai!, the second BGM is filled with dialogues seemed too long and dragging, they should have edited this part, Instead I would like to hear more music.
In simple words, Yelae Nee Yetipoo rules, I am sure this song is going to kick ass in days to come. Apart from the melody lines, the sounds and programming in this song is worth a mention. Whew! Go hear it now.
After this song the next one follows with a musical bang. This time the composer choose swinging jazz for a song that titled ”Kurangu kail malai”, Wait it is only the title, the music simply swings around you. [Another famous Swing Jazz: The Pink Panther opening theme]. Tippu and Kamal sings, this song reminds Karthick Raja to me, may be he programmed it.
Kamal tries and comes good in singing blues like vocals with a rough singing in the opening lines. The big difference is the musical quality we all know in the 80’s is heard through out this song. Yes, the keyboard chord placements are raja Trade mark and there is no single composer till date who could imitate this. I would put it as the coolest Song in recent times from Raja’; second BGM is something you need to hear and feel the sax and drum/percussion parts for yourself. Totally feels like few monkeys jumping around you. The BGM closes with grand finale; yes you would feel like watching a Broadway show. I am big band aficionado, yes! If you have been jazz /big band concerts at times some people will tell me they don’t understand what is happening? True, in this song also, the placements are so complex it can confuses many ears, the second BGM is of that kind and I call it serious music.
Poo poothadhu, In my opinion,Man of the match aka the song of the album. Once again we hear the Jazz kit, I feel Raja must have attended a jazz festival just weeks before composing for this movie. This is 98.5 smooth Jazz. The male vocalist Sonu Nigam, justifies the composition well with proper Tamil pronunciation. There is no Random word Rounding off [aka.choosing the nearest possible pronunciation] like his counterparts from north, Udit in particular.
Listen to the jazz guitar part in the song, you many ask what is the difference between a guitar part and jazz guitar part, answer: the jazz guitar has thinner sound than acoustic or regular electric guitar. It will sound really soft. Frankly the way it was played sounds Prasanna to me. However I don’t know if he really played a part in this. There were similar songs by Raja in the movie called Time, which was one of best albums by Raja in recent times. Though the Jazz Drum playing or programming sounds like an electronic instead of an acoustic kit, it is near natural. Some of the best songs by Raja were done during the 80’s, more than the previous song this song tickles similar senses in me when I hear it.
Other 2 tracks, one is “vandematram” failed to impress me because of being situation based. There should be a reason for doing it this way, Singers pull and push the song. Note this point and let us see if my guess is right. Kamal should be the conductor of a band. The vocalists/ instrumentalists should be singing and playing based on this hand moment. So they drag and pull the tune as per his conducting actions. Just my assumption, however still I feel he could have chosen some other song instead of a famous patriotic song. Let us hope for the best.There was also an instrumental music track. Well programmed music, over all I don’t see many natural instruments in most songs.
Will I get the CD, Yes by all means, I would advice you to get it right away from a [Desi] CD store, my usual claim: Please don’t download it from a pirate.
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