Aalayal Thara Venam - Beautiful song from Masala Coffee

Being an admirer of Sooraj Santhosh and Masala Coffee, I couldn't help but fall in love with this beautiful song penned by Kavalam Narayana Panicker and tuned by Masala Coffee. A feeling of nostalgia sweeps you a few seconds into the video, beautifully shot and directed. Visuals do justice to the music and the vocals. Kudos to the whole team behind this one.

This is what they wrote down on the video,

This is for girls who travel the Universe, looking for themselves.
This is for girls who're married to their dreams.
This is for girls who dress up for themselves.
This is for girls whose feet are little wings.
This is for Snow Whites with a tan.
This is for the she-roes.
Above all, this is for you, Kavalam Sir.

Well said Masala Coffee, Repeat ! :)

Five AR Rahman tracks i could listen all day

AR Rahman

As AR Rahman celebrates another birthday, i feel blessed to have been born in an era where he lived and composed music. I have come up with five ARR tracks that i love the most. 

1)  ' Luka Chuppi ' - Rang De Basanti

    Artists: Lata Mangeshkar and AR Rahman

     Lyrics: Javed Akthar

This is for me the best ARR composition ever. A slow melody you can call it, The vocals of Lata Mangeshkar and AR Rahman stands out in this song. The song symbolizes the relationship between a mother and her son, the lyrics by Javed Akthar is simply brilliant and adds to the charm of this song. I feel that this is the best among songs that have been sung by Rahman himself.

2) ' Idayam Idam Mariyathe ' - Jodhaa Akbar(Tamil)
      Artist: Karthik and KS Chitra
      Lyrics: Na Muthukumar

 'In Lamhon Ke Daman Mein' is my favorite track in Jodha Akbar and it was on Youtube that i came across the Tamil version of this song sung by Karthik and KS Chitra. Felt like i was listening to a whole new song and the lyrics by Na Muthukumar is stunning. The lyrics no doubt is the winner here, Karthik and Chitra's vocals takes it to yet another level.  It is really sad that this song went unnoticed, a very few people know that this song exist. Just listen once and you will instantly fall in love with it.

3) 'Newyork Nagaram' - Sillunu oru Kadhal

     Artist: AR Rahman
     Lyrics: Vaali

Most people would prefer 'Munbe Va' over 'Newyork Nagaram' when it comes to the album 'Sillunu oru Kadhal', definitely not me. I was once so addicted to this song that i would listen to it for hours everyday. AR Rahman's voice again adds magic to this song, Just can't imagine anyone else singing this song. Vaali's lyrics is awesome and is in par with the music. I found an English translation of this beautiful song's lyrics.

4)  'Nadhiye Nadhiye' - Rythm
      Artist: Unni Menon
      Lyrics: Vairamuthu

Rythm is one of the best albums ever from AR Rahman, every song is unique and stands out in it's own charm. Whenever Unni Menon and AR Rahman joins for a song, magic happens. 'Nadhiye Nadhiye' is one among those wonders from AR Rahman and Unni Menon. Vairamuthu is at his best here.

Rythm - Nadhiye Nadhiye

5) ' Arziyan '- Delhi 6
    Artist: Javed Ali, Kailash Kher
   

A devotional number from Delhi 6 sung by Kailash Kher and Javed Ali. Never been a big admirer of Kailash Kher's voice but this changed all. I just love this song, even being 8 minutes and 40 seconds long, It is one of the most played in my iPod.



A few other songs that came close are 'Ay Hairathe Aashiqui' - Guru , 'Yeh Jo Des' - Swades, Sandana Thendralai - Kandukondaen Kandukondaen. 

Mayakkam Enna - Dhanush and Selvaraghavan's best till date

Dhanush and Richa in Mayakkam Enna

Well as soon as i finished watching the film on my laptop, i cursed myself for not watching it earlier at cinemas. But i did have my excuses in prepartion for semester exams. Well everything about the film moved me.

Photography for some people is a passion, for some it is just a hobby. Karthik Swaminathan(Dhanush) is a serious freelance photographer whose interest is portraits and wildlife photography, Photography is his passion and his life. He aims to make it big and hopes to become an assistant to Madesh Krishnaswamy a very well known proffessional photographer. Karthik is usually seen with his friends in a care free attittude, but when it comes to photography he gets damn serious. Sunder is his best buddy from childhood and it was Sunder's father along with friends who took care of Karthik and his sister Ramya after the death of their parents. Yamini comes to the scene as Sunder's date, Karthik falls for her with time. Yamini too starts to care for him and they soon fall in love. Later Sunder finds out and their friendship goes for a toss, which is saved by Sunder's father and Yamini and Karthik gets married. Meanwhile Madhesh asks Karthik to take some wildlife photos so that he could consider appointing him as an assistant. Karthik is shattered when Madhesh says his photos are waste and he should give up photography. Karthik is hurt, but moves on. Later he finds out that one of the photos he submitted to Madhesh wins the National award with all credit going to him. Karthik soon moves into an abnormal state and Yamini, who now his wife cares for him. Karthik finally gets his break and wins an international photography award beating Madesh Krishnaswamy as well. This forms the plot of the film.

All credit of the film goes to Selvaraghavan, Dhanush and GV Prakash Kumar,they made the film an outstanding piece of Cinema. I appreciate Selvaraghavan for a theme never before tried. Emotions flow through out, and every relation is given due respect, from friendship to love. The guts Selva showed in portraying the love between bestfriend and girlfriend of Sunder deserves mention, and the way Sunder and Karthik patches up after Sunder finds out is too good. Another thing as good as Selva's direction is GV Prakash Kumar's music and background scores, i was totally moved by the bgm's in some scenes. Dhanush as usual comes up with a performance which explains why he deserved the National Award for Aadukalam, If you ask me i would give another one for him as i believe he was at his best in this film. Richa Ganopadhay's character is another one you would fall in love with, One would feel that she ain't all that nice after she loves the friend of her boyfriend, her character and acting skills come out in the second half and especially in the song 'Pirai Thedum'.

There are a few scenes in the film which deserves mention and the first one being Karthik going into the wild to shoot photos, and the joy he receives is portrayed in a scene with no dialogues beautifully and this scene alone describes the film for you, Simply Elegant.

                                 Dhanush Wildlife Photography scene from Mayakkam Enna

Another scene is the one where Yamini feels that Karthik should give up photography and tells him he is not good at it, dejected Karthik walks back home when he meets an old lady and the photographer inside him wakes up. The way he spreads a smile to the old lady and husband, and the way he replies to Yamini is a treat.

                                                Karthik photographs an old lady

There are plenty of other scenes which stands out like the one where Yamini washes blood stains of the floor and Karthik apologizing to her. The final speech Karthik delivers at the International photography award ceremony and few more as well.

Well, to sum it up, This is one of the best Tamil films i saw in life and i am really sad that the film hasn't received its deserved credit. This is the kind of film which moves you and at the same time inspires you to take  up photography and give respect to photographers. If you still haven't watched this film, then i request you to.

Kan Vizhithal / Shauk Hai - An unheard gem from ARR

Madhavan and Vidya Balan in Guru

I recently watched Guru, crafted beautifully by Mani Ratnam. Released back in 2007, I faintly remember watching it in theatre alone. I am not here to write about the film but about a song which featured in the film as a  background score and not in the audio release. The song appears as a background score in a scene where Madhavan's character proposes to Vidya Balan's character. I had heard the hindi version 'Shauk Hai' a long time before and  have it already in my playlist, little did I know that this gem had a tamil version to it. Listen to 'Kan Vizhithal'(still listening as I type this post) , pure bliss.

 

This adds to songs like 'Idhayam Idam'(Jodhaa Akbar), 'Unthan Desathin'(Swades) which are equally good if not better versions of the originals.