You can listen to preview of the songs here.
Director Lal Jose and composer Vidyasagar better have had a good enough reason for disfiguring Omana Thinkal Kidavo the way they did in Spanish Masala. Nikitha’s attempted foreign accent in rendition comes off as totally fake. And annoying. The composer goes Latino for the rest of the soundtrack, staying true to the title of the movie. Aarezhuthi Aavo starts off spectacularly, lovely guitar phrases, beautiful singing by Karthik and Shreya Ghoshal. And then Vidyasagar spoils it with a starkly obvious borrowing of the lead hook of Enrique Iglesias’ Bailamos. The rest of the song sounds quite nice, especially the second interlude, wonder why the composer had to do this pointless lift. If you ignore the lyrics and the vocoding, Hayyo is a good listen, especially due to the fusion elements in the orchestration. Yazin Nazir and Franco do the honors behind the mic.
The allure of Spanish orchestration combined with Karthik’s vocal talents work in favour of Irulil Oru Kaithiri, though not as much as the previous two. Udit Narayan’s alternate version only serves to make Karthik’s Malayalam seem more perfect than it actually is, in comparison (Such a contrast with how Shreya handles Malayalam!). The fusion factor works for Akkarey as well, more so in this case due to the exotic choice of instruments. The combination of Vineeth Srinivasan and Sujatha has worked for me in the past too, ditto here.
A soundtrack works more due to the Spanish factor than the Vidyasagar factor. Even so it is not among Lal Jose-Vidyasagar’s best.
Music Aloud Rating – 6/10
Top Recos – Akkarey, Aarezhuthi Aavo, Hayyo
