Songs at the end.
Kandu Kothiche is composed by Deepankuran. The man who once showed immense promise as a singer even as a child, but went on to have a patchy singing career despite having a famed lyricist for father. He did end up debuting as composer in 2013 with Jayaraj’s Camel Safari (incidentally his father and uncle both debuted as composers for the same director!) and gave a couple of good songs in an otherwise ho-hum affair. And after a largely quiet couple of years (he seems to have composed for one unremarkable movie in between) the musician returns to compose one song here in Hello Namasthe, Kandu Kothiche that I would rate better than his songs from Camel Safari. A nice familiar-ish melody (shades of bageshri raga perhaps?) that works more for the guitar-led arrangement in which Deepankuran deftly infuses folk elements. And the in-form Vijay Yesudas handles the vocals neatly. The lyrics, like with most of his songs, are by his father Kaithapram. Title song marks Masala Coffee’s film debut as composers. A song that carries the band’s definitive sound, and that the band crams with all instruments at their disposal, from bouzouki to morsing to kazoo. The song is entertaining too; Sooraj Santhosh and Varun Sunil leading the proceedings with their rendition of a very Malayali tune (loosely Kharaharapriya raga-based, I think) atop the rich arrangement that also features Dilshad Khan’s esraj; always get fascinated by that inclusion in the band’s Malayali folk-heavy songs. The only awkward bit is the title Hello Namasthe itself, but then to be fair I don’t see that kind of a title making for a good musical fit in any form!
Very short soundtrack (that probably didn’t warrant this long a review, apologies about the Deepankuran-based digression!) from Deepankuran and Masala Coffee but an entertaining one all the same.
Music Aloud Rating: 6.5/10
