Days have gone by, things have changed, I've grown up from being a kid going to school, then to college, finally to actually start working and earning. Many things changed except for one. My anticipation and excitement for AR Rahman's new music albums. The only difference I would think is that when in Chennai, I used to call up the music store guy every now and then to check on the album status, and now I refresh TFMpage to see if the album is released in Malaysia or not and wait for the reviews. And there's not even a single time I've been ever disappointed in any of his albums. Its come to a point when I can confidently say that if I like a song in the first hearing, it's a hit and if I don't like it, its a Super hit. For a Vijay starrer, knowing his striking personality on screen and his mass appeal, I expected somewhere in the lines of hit quality music which people can hum quite instantly. And once again, I wasn't disappointed, infact I was pleasantly surprised to hear some above hit quality songs.
"Ellaapugazhum" is gotta be one of the best intro songs in the recent times for any actor. I think its even more powerful than "Balleilaka", and the credit for that equally goes to the grand Orchestration and highly energetic singing by ARR and inspiring lyrics by Vaali. Many things work in this song, the rocking guitar, the strings, the claps in the start, the high pitched Rahman's voice...everything except the beats which however sound familiar. Infact the 1st interlude follows similar pattern as "Katril" song's 2nd interlude from Varalaaru movie. Nevertheless this is an upbeat song light up the entire theater. I can imagine Vijay's delighted fans getting completely absorbed and singing in chorus when the song goes "thala dalapathi dalapathi nee dhaan nee dhaan...anbu thalaiva..vetri namake..azhagiya tamizh magan nee dhaane".
"Ponmagal Vandha" - I guess its become a customary thing to have a remix of an old song in Vijay's movies. I remember Rahman once mentioning about how he hates to remix an old song. I don't know if he was forced to do one in this movie or was it done by someone else. Nevertheless its an awesome remix which still preserves the olden golden beauty, giving it a cool trendy sound. The minimal usage of instruments along with a nice rhythms makes this song very beautiful and pleasant to hear. Special mention needs to be made about the cool rap by Ember rap (surprisingly not by Blaaze). "You're my diamond girl...You're smilin smilin girl"...loved it..Aslam sounds so much like one of those olden days singers. I saw many comparing this song with "Thottal Poo Malarum" and saying this is much better. Honestly speaking, I wouldn't compare both as this is a remix song while the other was a retune. Both are wonderful songs in their own ways.
"Nee Marlyn Monroe" - This song is sure to set the screen on fire with hot Namitha and stylish Vijay dancing in exotic locales. Rahman introduces two new singers in this song, Ujaini and Benny Dayal. Both of them do full justice to this cool and peppy song. Its been a while since Rahman has given this kind of peppy tune, the last I remember being "Hey hey enna aachi unakku". Thanks to its awful picturisation, that song has been completely erased from everyone's mind...except a few, which includes me. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Punjabi folk tune as the first interlude for such a hep song. Only Rahman can come up with such a mixing. Na Muthukumar's lyrics are very youthful. However what did he mean by the line "Pengal cricket...angal wicket...or Pengal mixie, angal chutney" ..hmmmm...anyways go boomshaka boom boomshaka with this song.
"Valayapatti" - AR Rahman is in top form in this song. This is a very catchy and a lively number. One can notice a lot of experimentation going on in this song. There's a classical jugalbandhi in between which is amazing. I love the charanams of this song. Once again lyrics by Muthukumar is interesting and pretty funny..he uses Harmonium and Hormone as rhyming words :). Naresh yet again gets a catchy line after "avalkenne anbasamudura iyer hotel alva maadiri". We know of classic rock genres...i think this belongs to Classical Rock genres :)..Rahman should have had lot of fun composing this song.
"Kelaamal Kaiyile" - This was the song i was waiting to hear after listening to samples. And boy what a beauty this song is. Its a haunting and mesmerizing melody with nice mellowed techno beats creating a dreamy atmosphere. The classical touch to the song elevates it to a new horizon. Many would say it reminds them of "Aagaya Vennilave" or "oru deivam thanda poove". I think it was meant to be that way as the lyrics say "Kettu rasitha paadal ondrai meendum indru nyabagam thoonde". If you listen carefully you'll hear a sound very similar to the droplets sound in "Thenmerku Paruvaikaatru" from Karuthamma, especially at the amazing second interlude. I see another new singer here...Saindhavi. My friend Sridhar feels this is an OK song right now. I've challenged him that he's gonna change his mind in less than 2 days.
"Maduraikki pogadhadi" - The final song of the album where we find Rahman back to his good old Kizhakku cheemayile days. Love the start of the song "Karpoora Kannigai vaarai". Excellent Tamil folk song with once again very catchy charanams. Nothing special in the tune, as it gives sort of heard before feeling, but the arrangements and thavil sound give freshness to the song. Its easily a classy mass song :).
AR Rahman..take a bow...you've struck Gold yet again. He's proved it with Sivaji, and he's proved it yet again with ATM that he's undoubtedly the Mighty Emperor when it comes to delivering music which can satisfy both masses and classes equally. This album is a conglomeration of 6 songs belonging to 6 different genres, all of which seem to be potential chart busters. Its also undoubtedly the most consistent and entertaining album for a Vijay's movie ever. Rahman rocks big time.
In short, ATM = ATtagaasaM
