Putham Pudhu Kaalai – Music Review (Tamil Soundtrack)

Songs and complete musician credits at the end.

SPB Charan singing a song that references one of his father’s hits would be a pleasant throwback in a normal scenario, but given recent events, Manmadhan Naan Dhaana – that makes a nod to M S Viswanathan-Kannadasan’s Namma Ooru Singaari from the 1979 movie Ninaithaale Inikkum (thanks to @soundtrackindia for this trivia) – hits different. The song is great (made even more so by its visuals) –Charan channels SPB’s swagger very well and G V Prakash Kumar aces the rock and roll style arrangements. In fact, it is the quirky, retro styled songs that find GVP in his best form. Unfortunately, this is also the soundtrack’s segment that gets over the quickest – four songs flying past you in just over six minutes (and all of them feature in the same short). While I understand that their placement in the film does not warrant full length songs, I do wish the makers had gone for extended versions in the soundtrack alone. The processing in Charan’s voice makes Oho Endhan Baby a bit jarring in places, but the melody and arrangement prop it up. Kulfi Kuchchi is one of my favourites – always a sucker for that European-flavoured arrangement; and the song has a very cute video to accompany it in the film. The composer himself delivers this one, alongside Bhavani Sre – interestingly, the song’s melody reminds me of Shankar Jaikishan’s Chaahe Koi Mujhe Junglee Kahe in its entire progression. The same singers pair up to deliver the relatively longer Kannam Adhil Vannam as well, which sort of continues in the same vein as the previous one, but at a slower pace, and is as enjoyable.

G V Prakash’s final song of the album is the title track. Bit of a template anthemic song with the atmospheric piano + strings-based soundscape et al, this one would have been much more entertaining had GVP himself not been singing it. Effective, nevertheless. It is guest composer Govind Vasantha who delivers the soundtrack’s pièce de résistance, though! Written by Karky (GVP’s songs are all penned by Kurangan band’s frontman Kaber Vasuki), the composer does a classical-based composition (dharmavathi/madhuvanthi raga, I feel – the song I get instantly taken back to is Kanda Naal Mudhalaai) in Kannaa Thoodhu Po da and gets Bombay Jayashree to deliver it. While the singer is incredible at her delivery, the composer backs her up with a comparatively minimal, but very effective arrangement comprised of kanjira, mridangam and flute (some beautiful phrases here by Vishnu Vijay, especially in the interlude).

Putham Pudhu Kaalai. G V Prakash Kumar delivers a bunch of really enjoyable songs that I wish were longer, but boy am I glad that Govind Vasantha’s guest composition is long enough!

Music Aloud Rating: 3.5/5

Top Recos: Kannaa Thoodhu Po Da, Kulfi Kuchchi, Manmadhan Naan Dhaana, Kannam Adhil Vannam

Musician Credits