Aravan – Music Review (Tamil Movie Soundtrack)

You can listen to the soundtrack here.

Despite following a standard sugary melody template Nila Nila works, helped a great deal by Vijay Prakash and Harini. Similar story with Unna Kolla Poaren, a regular folksy arrangement but the likeability is there. This one has M L R Karthikeyan and a very different (nicely so) sounding Bhavatharini doing the honors on vocals. It is in Oruvaan Iravaan that Karthik steps out of the rut, setting a protagonist intro song to a controlled, sinister base. The highlight is the use of harmonium (accordion?) and violin, giving the arrangement an almost East European edge in places. The composer himself gets behind the mic to deliver this one flawlessly. In Oore Oore too the composer creates an engaging folk track, employing to good effect a long lineup of singers – Krishnaraj, Mukesh, Periya Karuppu Thevar, Rita, Priya.

Kalavuda, like the previous song, has an even bigger set of singers (Mano, Pasupathi, Kottaichaami, Karunanidhi, Rahul Nambiar, MLR Karthikeyan, Vijay Narain, Malathi, Harish) belting out another folk-based song. Interesting, but low on recall value I feel – too much crammed into 2.5 minutes. Seerkazhi Sivachidambaram, Gopal (Rao?) and Narayanan induce some interest with their rendition in Naagamaalai Sanchiduchu, that falls to an arrangement that is placid otherwise, despite building on a hook from Oruvaan Iruvaan.  And closing the soundtrack is a classical track, Nandakumara. After having watched Karthik do fusion with Bennet and the Band, this was a genre I expected him to totally nail, but to my disappointment he dishes out a tame Kalyani-based track, that like the opening two songs, is very pleasant, but also of a very repetitive quality. The vocalist Subhiksha, though, sounds fabulous.

A debut replete with feel-good songs, but devoid of much innovativeness. Which is not what I expected of Karthik.

Music Aloud Rating – 7/10

Top Recos – Oore Oore, Oruvaan Iruvaan, Nandakumara