You can listen to the songs here.
For those 20+ seconds of prelude, Maths Tough promises to be the infectious fun ride that its Hindi equivalent was. Unfortunately it doesn’t deliver on the promise, main culprit being the lead singing by Srinisha. The occasional shift to mridangam-based percussion doesn’t help much either. Of the two short, pensive pieces, Kanavugal is just under a minute and doesn’t have a particularly memorable tune. Surmukhi sings well, though. Shashaa Tirupati soulfully delivers the slightly longer and engaging Indha Vazhkai, wish it was of a normal song length. Composer Ilayaraja gets it right with Unakkum Enakkum/Kadavul Padaippil which are a lot similar but for the lyrics and vocalists. The melancholic melody is backed well by a piano-laden arrangement and song particularly scores in the soaring harmonic refrains. Though the elements in the backdrop are pretty much the same in both cases, they are structured pretty differently – the former like a regular song with two interludes (lovely singing from Ramya NSK and Vandana Srinivasan), while the latter just has a brief vocal portion from Haricharan which leads into an extended instrumental coda. And for that reason I like Kadavul Padaippil better.
Amma Kanakku. Ilayaraja‘s soundtrack is much shorter (wonder why, given that it is a remake) and less effective than the original, Nil Battey Sannata.
Music Aloud Rating: 6.5/10
Top Recos: Kadavul Padaippil, Unakkum Enakkum, Indha Vazhkai
