Songs and partial credits at the end.
Sriram Parthasarathy’s uncharacteristically inconsistent vocals present the only hiccup in the wonderfully realised kalyaani raga based piece from composer Yuvan Shankar Raja called Vaanthooral. The composer’s construction of the melody and soothing arrangement more than make up for the above-mentioned shortcoming – besides, this isn’t a patch on the vocal damage that some of Yuvan’s other songs have faced in the recent few years. Vijay Yesudas, on the other hand, sounds his finest singing Dhooramai, a beautifully intimate melody that reminds one of nature the way another recent song, Aaraaro from the Malayalam movie Koode did. Equally effective in conveying the feel are Vairamuthu’s words. Continuing on the nature trail, but with a more pronounced highland-ish feel is Anbe Anbin where the composer draws on Celtic folk elements to fabulous results. While Karthik’s singing is spot on as usual, this song sees Yuvan at his imaginative best. He goes for a different melody in the second and third verse (the piece interestingly ends with the third verse, instead of coming back to the opening verse as songs usually do) – and while the vocal portions of the song are set to a plucked string refrain (banjo, I think), claps and accordion, the man introduces layers of tin whistles in the interludes, first time with a lovely bass line, and the second time with violins; the effect is spectacular in both cases. This song is not leaving my playlist for a long time! From Celtic folk, the soundtrack moves to local folk in the final track Setthu Pocchu Manasu. A simple, eminently hummable melody delivered well by Madhu Iyer, backdrop that is a charming melange of guitars, veena, kanjira and ghatam and that atmospheric feel that pervades the album – another solid winner to close the album.
Peranbu. Yuvan Shankar Raja delivers another brilliant soundtrack for director Ram, easily the composer’s best in a long time.
Music Aloud Rating: 4/5
Top Recos: All of them! (but start with Anbe Anbin)
Musician Credits
Song-1 : Dhooramaai
Album : Peranbu
Singer : Vijay Yesudas
Music : Yuvan Shankar Raja
Lyricist : Vairamuthu
Song-2 : Anbe Anbin
Album : Peranbu
Singer : Karthik
Music : Yuvan Shankar Raja
Lyricist : Sumathi Ram
Song-3 : Vaanthooral
Album : Peranbu
Singer : Sriram Parthasarathy
Music : Yuvan Shankar Raja
Lyricist : Vairamuthu
Song-4 : Setthu Pocchu Manasu
Album : Peranbu
Singer : Madhu Iyer
Music : Yuvan Shankar Raja
Lyricist : Karunakaran
