Songs and complete musician credits at the end.
After employing his vocals quite effectively in Wifikku Speedilla for the movie Mariyam Vannu Vilakkoothi earlier this year, composer Prashant Pillai gets Thakara band frontman James Thakara to deliver another song in a similarly quirky vein, the title song of Saajan Bakery Since 1962. Starting with an old timey radio spiel for the titular bakery, the song’s lines are replete with nostalgia-inducing (for me, that is) references to bakery items like mutta puffs, bun-um vennem etc (incidentally written by Vinayak Sasikumar who also wrote the aforementioned Prashant-James song). The delightful retro pop melody and arrangement carry a fairly evident nod to Redbone’s Come and Get Your Love (that you might remember from Peter Quill’s Awesome Mix Vol. 1) and features some excellent guitar (Akash S Menon) and horns (programmed, from the looks of it). K S Harishankar leads the singing in two of the album’s songs. Eeran Kannil, while set to a commonplace, if enjoyable, melody, is elevated by Harishankar’s top quality vocals and its structuring – the song is presented pretty much in one continuous stretch, without any interlude per se. And there is that surprise switch to a slower, more soulful segment towards the end. Akash Menon is once again in fine form on the guitar. While Harishankar sounds fab even in his other song, Kaalamere Poi Maaikilum, it is the ambient choral segment around the title refrain that pip’s the singer’s solo act. I was incidentally reading something on the rising trend of calming lo-fi/ambient releases in the Indian indie scene – this song fits right into that zone.
My absolute favourites from the soundtrack are the remaining two songs, though, both written by Anu Elizabeth Jose. Rarely does Prashant Pillai employ “mainstream” singers in his albums, so it comes as a bit of a surprise that three of the five songs in Saajan Bakery feature such artists. The third one being Vineeth Sreenivasan in Thoraa Mazhayilum. Not that I mean this as a kind of complaint, of course, this is the best I have heard him sing in quite a while. And what an addictive song – there is the smooth, understated melody delivered with aplomb by Vineeth and Preeti Pillai in support, the groovy arrangement highlighted by Josy Alappuzha’s splendid saxophone phrases and that delectable bluesy bass line (programmed, apparently), and of course Anu’s lines that is adorned with these lovely onomatopoeic touches like ittittittitha and nenjil jil jil jil (a nod to Kannathil Muthamittaal?). Preeti Pillai gets the centre-stage in Kaanaa Dooram, and she is spectacular here. Well, I say centre-stage – featuring almost as prominently as her in the song is Paulson with some brilliant sitar-playing – it is particularly pleasing to hear the sitar phrases echo across the expansive soundscape in the interlude. The nenje nenje refrain is my favourite bit in the melody of course (I am surprised the song wasn’t titled that, since that is the repeating line, although Kaanaa Dooram is set to the same tune), but I especially love when Preeti gets to that verse after the beautifully constructed second verse. Ending the song with a swara-based improv is also a nice touch – the song seems to bear shades of abheri raga.
Saajan Bakery Since 1962. Prashant Pillai delivers one of the best Malayalam soundtracks this year (probably just Ayyappanum Koshiyum that I would rate a tad higher than this), and his personal best soundtrack in a long time. Total winner, this!
Music Aloud Rating: 4/5
Top Recos: Kaanaa Dooram, Thoraa Mazhayilum, Once Upon a Time in Ranni
Musician Credits
Once Upon A Time In Ranni
Music Composed, Arranged & Programmed : Prashant Pillai
Music Assistants & Additional Programmers : Sreerag Saji, Rakesh
Singer : James Thakara
Lyrics : Vinayak Sasikumar
Guitars : Akash S Menon
Mixed & Mastered By : Vivek Thomas
Recording Engineer : Rahul Narayan
Studio : VTP Studios, Kochi
Thora Mazhayilum
Music Composed, Arranged & Programmed : Prashant Pillai
Singers : Vineeth Sreenivasan, Preeti Pillai
Lyrics : Anu Elizabeth Jose
Sax : Josy
Music Assistants & Additional Programmers : Sreerag Saji, Rakesh
Mixed & Mastered By : Vivek Thomas
Recording Engineers : Sai Prakash, Akshay K
Studio : My Studio, Kochi
Kaana Dooram
Music Composed,Arranged & Programmed : Prashant Pillai
Singer : Preeti Pillai
Lyrics : Anu Elizabeth Jose
Music Assistants & Additional Programmers : Sreerag Saji, Rakesh
Sitar : Paulson
Mixed & Mastered By : Vivek Thomas
Recording Engineers : Sai Prakash, Akshay K
Studio : My Studio, Kochi
Eeran Kannil
Music Composed, Arranged & Programmed : Prashant Pillai
Singer : K S Harisankar
Lyrics : Vinayak Sasikumar
Music Assistants & Additional Programmers : Sreerag Saji, Rakesh
Guitars : Akash S Menon
Mixed & Mastered By : Vivek Thomas
Recording Engineers : Sai Prakash, Akshay K
Studio : My Studio, Kochi
Kaalamere Poi Maikilum
Music Composed, Arranged & Programmed : Prashant Pillai
Singer : K S Harisankar
Lyrics : Vinayak Sasikumar
Music Assistants & Additional Programmers : Albin Mathew, Sreerag Saji, Rakesh
Mixed & Mastered by : Prashant Pillai
Recording Engineers : Sai Prakash, Akshay K,
Studio : My Studio, Kochi
Label : Muzik247