You can listen to previews of the songs here.
Lead composer Gopi Sundar does three songs for Casanovva. The theme song could be alternately titled as “Mohanlal’s tutorial on how to propose in x different languages”. Musically it has very little to offer, the background being a middling mishmash. And listening to the lines of this song I am getting a major sense of foreboding about the movie (not that the title itself had helped in the first place). The hip hop-based Hey Manohara is quite evocative of the rap songs he did for Sagar Alias Jackie and Anwar, but is passable. Blaaze at the helm of affairs assisted by a redundantly huge number of singers – Balu Thankachan, Shalini, Priya Himesh, Feji and the composer himself. His last song is his best, with a very hummable lilt, albeit following the tried-and-tested youth romance formula. Omanichumma, as the song is titled, again has a long lineup including Karthik, Najeem Arshad, Vineeth Srinivasan, Kalyani and Roopa.
Alphonse, in his only composition Kanna Neeyo, presents something that sounds like an Arabicized version of his Parayaathaaro from Cocktail, interestingly featuring the same singer Sayanora Philip. While the Cocktail song itself wasn’t very great, this is further down the ladder. And in the end comes guest composer Gowri Lakshmi with Sakhiye. Riding on a lovely semiclassical tune and backed by a haunting keyboard loop and flowing string segments, the song is a total winner. And this coming from a 12th standard girl! The arrangement might have been done by Gopi Sundar, as per this article on Gowri, which could also explain a cameo by the Omanichumma riff in the first interlude. If he did, good job, total justice done to the tune. And fantastic singing by Vijay Yesudas and Swetha Mohan. Gopi Sundar in version 2, though not on par with Vijay, pulls it off commendably.
Casanovva – a soundtrack, though not a very memorable one, should prove an ideal launchpad for the prodigy Gowri Lakshmi.
Music Aloud Rating – 5.5/10
Top Recos – Sakhiye, Omanichumma
