Songs that truly take you Vinnai Thandi..........

Rahman has once again pleased his fans by giving some fabulous music for the Gautham Menon (heard that he’s shed the Menon?) directed ‘Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya’. The clear contenders for the top spot are undoubtedly ‘Omana Penne’ and ‘Hosanna’. Not to forget the beautiful Steven Tyler style rendition of ‘Aaromale’ in Malayalam.

Just when you think that ‘Omana Penne’ just another song, it springs its first surprise when the song goes ‘kanngal simittavum marandhen, hey, anal, hey, kannil, hey. The other surprises are the beautiful Malayalam interlude rendered by Kalyani Menon, the intoxicating nadaswaram rendered in Mohanam (the entire song is based on mohanam?) and finally the beautiful mix of the ‘omana penne’ chorus set with the nadaswaram background, a song worth listening to a million times. One flaw that my cynical mind points out is the pronunciation of பென்னே (could have been பெண்ணே!!!).

Hosanna is a fast moving refreshing number intercepted by some Caribbean style singing by Blaaze (?) and the Tamil bit sung by Vijay Prakash (of Om Siva Om fame), simple, clear song, makes you want to listen to more.

And my favourite ‘Aaromale’ sung in excellent rock style by Alphons Joseph. The entire song is in Malayalam with some choruses in Reeti Gowla sung by a voice that sounds like Sreekumar to me! Great future for the singer there…. Kudos to Rahman for bringing into fore new genres and new voices.

The other two songs in the film that caught my attention are ‘Anbil Avan’ sung by Chinmayee and Devan and the mellifluous ‘Mannippaya’ sung by Shreya Ghosal and Rahman himself. ‘Anbil Avan’ is sure to become a hit among the young brigade. The song is peppy has some hummable choruses – bingo! You have a hit there! About ‘Mannippaya’, Shreya has rendered the song flawlessly and Rahman sings some touching notes that truly touch your heart. This song deserves praise for the wonderfully orchestrated interlude (sounds like a smooth choir so soothing to the ears).

Rahman has also composed the almost forgettable songs like Kannukkul Kannai sung by Naresh Iyer and Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya sung by Karthik. These songs sounded below Rahman standards and below the standards of the singers in question, so no further discussions on these two!

On the whole, Rahman has given some music that truly takes you Vinnai thandi.

And of course I can guess the story, boy meets girl, sings about her (Omana Penne), woos her (Kannukkul Kannai), girl falls in love (Anbil Avan), breaks boy’s heart (Hosanna), girl makes up (Mannippaya). We have to wait for Mr. Menon’s (er.. Mr. Gautam’s) output to see if my guess is right!!