Favorite soundtrack of the year - 2015

This year has been a big bash and blast for us starting from Mythri to Thaarai Thappattai (and there is a single Challa Gaali Thakuthunna from Yevade Subramanyam and the main them song from Love and Love Only sung by Rachel Leahcar). The range and versatility which Maestro exhibited in (just 7 of) these outings should tell to all film makers in India that how much compromise they are making when it comes to approaching music in their films without the Maestro. Especially, the music from Rudhramadevi, Shamitabh, AbbayithO Ammayi and Thaarai Thappattai displays Maestro’s complete paradigm shift and unique thinking without getting stale and getting contended living in a comfort zone like many others. Even when the opportunity knocks their door everytime to come out of their comfort zones their lack of skills does not allow them to do so. If you add the background score (I have listened to Rudhramadevi and Shamitabh and eagerly waiting to hear others) to the songs, you can literally throw every one else out of your music playlists.

As they say in photography, A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into. Above all, In photography, some pictures you take might overwhelm you at that moment (of capture), but if you re-look into it after few months/years/decades (life time), you should get the same amount of enthusiasm when you looked into it the first time. Those are real pictures. If not, they need to be discarded. The same applies to music too.

Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies, but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit. - Ansel Adams

Every soundtrack of Maestro truly lives up to the above quote and these 7 easily add up to rest. Time to vote for your favorite soundtrack of the year. It would be more interesting if your drop few words about the reasoning on your selection.

Fantastic twitlonger on this subject by Nerd :
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1so416o

Now this is a lot of music to listen to, imbibe and discover. And as he has been doing in the last 40 years trust Raaja to hit that sweet spot you never knew existed as well as shake your heart completely, make you feel useless and the millions of emotions in between - with precision.

Voted for Rudhramadevi (Telugu).

While a lot had already been written about this album in the corresponding thread, few scoring points to be highlighted here (i.e. in comparison to other albums of IR this year):

1. BSO, of course (those sounds are telling)

2. Some of the songs can boast of superior grade singers (SPB / KSC / SG)

3. sundharath thelungu (means, I'm blissfully unaware of any lyrical irritations  )

In addition, I'll vote for punnamippoovai as the song of the year, without even thinking for a second

Thanks a lot app ji and Nerd. App ji please vote again, I corrected one typo, sorry about that

Undoubtedly Abbhayitho for me.  Immediate connection with the songs, which I didn't really get with the other albums (maybe Shamitabh in patches at best).  

By the by, is there going to be just the one song in Love & Love Only? Pity, would have liked a full soundtrack.

Though it doesn't technically qualify as "soundtrack", I think even "Swapnam" can be added to the list.

voted for AbbayithO Ammayee.  Felt guilty not voting for a host of other albums - love every single one of them.  Not sure why AA made the cut for me.  Maybe it was the surprise factor?  Did not have any expectations and then every single song had something novel with the Ilaiyaraaja stamp.  2015 is a great year for us fans.  Here's to a repeat in 2016 and beyond!  May film makers flock to IR and get some great albums!

Raja and 2015

It's been one of the best years of Raja and his music in the 21st century. Not because of the number of albums, but due to the variety and the depth of his work in this year. In 2009, he did 18 films but, it was not as satisfying as 2015. Let's explore a bit more.


Melodious Raja

There were more than one super melody tracks of Raja where he hit the ball out of the park. Top marks are for two Telugu tunes: a) Punnami Puvvai from Rudramadevi and b) Kanulu Kalanu Piliche. Both these tunes will remain in our memories for a long time. In 2012, Raja had a super album in Malayalam - Snehaveedu which had some fantastic melodies, but he did not get other opportunities to showcase his other faculties. This year was a very poor show in Malayalam

Pensive Raja

There were plenty of songs this year on the pensive side - surprisingly, all in Tamil. Top songs in this category included: a) Nenju Porukadilaiye b) Kathirunthaen c) Idarinum and d) Paaruruvaaya


Bubbly Raja


While his previous attempts in the past few years have not been greatly successful, 2015 was different. Raja had several worthy tracks in this category: a) Piddly b) Sha Sha Me c) Reena Mecareena and d) Saradale 


WCM Raja


Though Raja did some splendid work with Megha and OAK, it went unappreciated int he last few years. Raja had a decent run with his BGM in Rudramadevi with work being done in the UK


Cleverfolk Raja


The title track of Thaarai Thappattai qualifies as his cleverfolk as he exposes traditional folk music which appeals to the general audience and disciplines it with WCM and calculated rhythms. It will take a group of analysts a while to figure out the time signatures used in this track.


Confluence of musical systems


Raja without Carnatic music? His Swapnam is one of the best albums in the last 25 years. The pinnacle of this album is the track Ammaiye Appa which is set in an Operatic style but fully in the Carnatic tradition. The other confluence was the Ezhisaiye Isaipayane which started off as a typical symphonic movement and finds its way to the Carnatic song. 


In all, a splendid year for Raja and his fans. 


Films will come and go and so will success and failures. It is important that he focuses on his health. He should do no more than 10 films and keep the show going and deliver the same variety we have started taking for granted, The numbers do not matter any more.Most Raja fans will continue to expect his breadth and depth as he is the only one who can deliver on both.


I do not care about the number of films he does. He should release one Swapnam type album every year.

My vote goes to Shamitabh for it is such a delightful album! Just like everyone here I loved every album in this list and it is hard to choose one. As Ravi pointed out what a show of variety this year!

Gokul

Very very tough choice. The natural one should be 'Abbaiyitho Ammayi' because it is a completely fulfilling track and the number of melodies is high. On the other hand, the intensity of 'Taarai Tappatai' is unmistakable. Added to it is the exquisite 'Rudhramadhevi'. 

Yet, I voted for 'Shamitabh' because that is where Raja showed how he can move away from his comfort zone and create classics. Added to it was how he destroyed his own image. It is amazing that a MD of Raja's stature can take up a cult song like 'aasaiya kaathula' and recreate it in such a funky fashion. For breaking many barriers, 'Shamitabh' is the album of the year for me.

Voted for Shamitabh
Same reasons as Ragga Suresh Mentioned

Last year my IR wind was blowing in favor of Telungu Desam
I mean, my top spot for IR album of 2015 is  :
1. Rudramadevi - Lush , creamy delight with symphonic orchestration and evocative melodies like "Pinnami poovai" ,"Anthahpuramlo", "Auna" - aall make this an irresistible  fare.. Album of this kind is dearer to me more so as I don't know when Raja will get an opportunity of this magnitude again to showcase his musical extravaganza. Even "Mathagajame" has a lot of wcm laced interesting stuff in it., which I felt after few more listens.
My second in line would be obviously "Abbayito Ammayi".
But alas! we can choose ONLY one.

Thanks for all the votes and wonderful and valuable explanations on your selections. Really loved reading it. Yes, it is indeed a tough exercise to vote just one with seven outstanding soundtracks. This voting is also a minuscule sampling exercise to demonstrate how Maestro addresses to different set of listeners and their tastes. 

I intentionally didn’t include Swappnam for couple of reasons. First it got released on 28th December 2014, so missed 2015 by 3 days. When we featured last year (2014) poll, may be I opened the thread too soon before Swappnam, so we missed it dearly. I should have included it 2015 poll (having missed in 2014), but Swappnam does not belong to film soundtrack and also thought it would do a clean sweep, and other film soundtracks would not get a deserved chance. So there was a selfish motive too Swappnam is a mighty one, that deserves a special place in music history. I listen to it daily morning almost like a Suprabhatham. What a way to start the day!

Regarding Love & Love Only, I only heard the main theme, may be there is lot to come, but not yet released so far. Eagerly expecting to listen full soundtrack of the film.

I am writing few lines about each soundtrack while listening to each one of them at the background, so that I still have chance to change my mind and preferences, rather on relying on past listening experience. I even re-ordered few soundtracks based on current listening. 

So far Mythri didn’t garner any votes again does not mean it is not in contention. Just chandranEnu chandaa of Mythri will give run for money for the best of compositions in other soundtracks. The number of times I listened to chandranEnu chandaa will easily out number any other song I listened last year. I even like other songs in Mythri, but the experience of listening the former and the latter ones is so huge that the balance is too large to compensate, that’s the only reason not to go for it.

Touring Talkies was a goggly from Maestro, unfortunately didn’t garner any votes so far may be mainly because there is huge competition in 2015. Who would have expected this from a SAC film? Chakkaan chaga chakkaan and Reena Marcareena (from AbbayithO Ammayi) are fun twins, but the soundtrack belongs to Sharreth for couple of beautiful songs and chutti peNNE. It is indeed a Touring Talkies kind of experience.

One of the greatest Bollywood soundtracks, nothing comes near to this, but having listened to Maestro for more than 3 decades, as I indicated in my earlier posts about Shamitabh songs, the first three songs worked for me great that I repeat them frequently (as it has more classical approach). The rest three had lot of trendy stuff which would go well with the youngsters. But to me, it is a toy stuff and should have been an effortless left-hand signature by Maestro. I think Shamitabh songs serves as the first opportunity for Maestro to score in that fashion and he demonstrated how such songs should be done, but some how I felt similar to India (or a bigger team) scoring against minnows (the current crop of music directors) in cricket, rather than demonstrating music at the highest level. If we take RAP genre for example, however hard the music directors try, there is nothing interesting can come up. It has a huge limitation already in the way it is sung in a text-book reading fashion. There is absolutely no melody at all. Rhythm and backing arrangements offers some scope but not big. The only difference one can bring in that genre is the lyrics and the style/pace it is read. Nothing else. More than the songs, the background score overwhelmed me. I know it is not wise and correct to compare a soundtrack with songs to another with both songs and the score, but if I include the background score, it easily resides in top four. Even though I didn’t quite like the film (especially the climax and ending), the soundtrack has much more to say, that if you listen to the score alone, you can visualize the film. Such attachment is hardly there in today’s film scores. Shamitabh is indeed a milestone soundtrack with the above reasoning.

What a sweet little soundtrack is Kidaa Poosaari Magudi! It is a more soulful, native soundtrack that it is under-rated even by some IR fans. I can’t skip a single song. What a terrific balance and control in every song which gets me the complete and overall movie watching experience through the songs alone. I can very well say that they don’t deserve such a back stage. I love this one way way better than the first two. I am very tempted to vote for this one, very very close to the top four, even it tips Shamitabh songs for me, purely in terms of listening pleasure. Yes, I listen to this one more than Shamitabh, ‘cause I am at home listening to this and there is a direct connection to me with the songs.

Abbayitho Ammayi comes as a stunner silently. This  soundtrack was never expected, it came with zero expectations and captured everyone’s heart. 5-6 everlasting songs out 7, even leaving out the short songs. I still remember when one of my friends argued with me when I said most of the film songs have now turned western even with the main melody and singing. The main reason he gave was the subject is youth and college driven, so the music has to be like that. Not all of them were of that subject which he himself knew. I gave tons of examples from Maestro where the film subject was youth/college and how the melodies were indigenous and how it sounded. There was no answer. In 2015 we are here with Maestro at 72, addressing each and every youth (his grandson generation) with these compositions which cannot be more youthful. The best part is this soundtrack will stay youthful ever which most others fail to be. Again, if this soundtrack has to be compared with any other recent ones by others, there is no argument there, but when it comes to comparing with Maestro’s other soundtracks, that’s where I had few minor nitpicks regarding the singers which I already expressed. But this did not take away the listening experience. A totally overwhelming soundtrack with gorgeous melodies and arrangements.

I am still warming up to Thaarai Thappattai. It is too early for me to give comments on this soundtrack, but from initial hearing, I feel, this is going to be one phenomenal soundtrack surpassing Maestro’s many milestone soundtracks. Again comparing this one to any other music directors soundtrack will remain a sin only. It might surpass all the above soundtracks mentioned. May be next time, we might have to list the soundtracks based on movie release dates, rather than audio release date to get a complete feel about the soundtrack, but there again poses other problems where some movies don’t get released (for example, kidaa poosaari magudi, thandavakOnE etc) either.

I am going to take that liberty of above statements about Thaarai Thappattai and going to go for MY MOST FAVORITE SOUNDTRACK OF THE YEAR 2015. Yes it is RUDHRAMADEVI for me all way.  To me, this is the real one. This is the one which whispers to the entire world and the world of music composers. I have not skipped a single day to listen to this soundtrack right from the day of the audio release. I have not skipped a single song.  As Maestro tells, not every song can be called a composition, all these six songs can be called as real compositions. While the melody already makes me surrender, the underlying orchestration takes me to a breath-taking level. The experience of listening to real orchestra and acoustic instruments can’t be explained in words. The richness of melody, the amount of notes incorporated in each melody layer (for each instrument), the rich harmony they bring when played together along with vocal melody, the new sounds of native and historic instruments, the mood they all bring with crystal clear integration, the choice of singers, the way they rendered, the sweetness of the language, the way lyrics fit to the melody, the lyrical quality, it gives me a wholesome experience. It should have been tough for Maestro to deliver what he thought and how it has come. Maestro will never be in his comfort zone, not in a single song, not in a single soundtrack, but some story situation and plot might be easier for him to compose, but it does not mean he was in his comfort zone, he always searches for new avenues, just that some come effortlessly to him, some like Rudhramadevi even though instantly, comes after extreme hard work. But when we listen, we can clearly say how even the toughest of compositions, comes so effortlessly to him, mainly because of the flow in the melody and how all the layers sing in harmony without any distraction. We can certainly feel the science behind it, that it has to be only this way, there cannot be any other way to compose this composition. He gives us that belief which we only have with science. That tightness and tautness in the structure is dear only to Maestro. 

I also want to mention again how the choice of singers makes a huge difference. Experience matters a lot!!!! While we sometimes prefer other singers when we hear a song, but this time, I didn’t have any complaints, as all of them stuck to the task diligently and rendered extremely well. I am not a big fan of Sadhana Sargam’s voice, but her voice came as a disguise that I always felt she sounded like Jikki in Auna NeevEna, which took me to aahaa inba nilaavinilE (maaya bazaar 1957 film) song. It had that vintage touch, even the mood of the melody was strikingly getting me to the former.  What a gem of a composition. While SPB, Shreya Ghoshal & Hariharan showered their experiences through these songs, it was Chitra who shocked and surprised me in Choosukovo Teesukovo. That was a perfect goggly and Chitra was re-discovered by Maestro yet again. While Punnami Puvvai, Auna NeevEna, Choosukkova, Teesukova and AnthapuramlO demonstrates the feminine nature of the soundtrack aptly composed for the film title and the main character; soft, flowery and tender, Matthagajame roars like a lion with over-powering orchestration, Allakallolamai is divinity and intensity at its very best, demonstrates the man-like warrior and stubbornness in Rudhramadevi and her undying passion for her land and the people. The melody crosses from Baroque, to Classicism, to Romanticism, to Modern folk, to even address Telugu current sensibilities. It is really a double-edged sword. A single slip either in toning/tuning the instruments or in orchestration or in melody, will only denounce itself. He has used modern instruments, yet the soundscape he brought with all these instruments will only take us to 13th century, that’s the whole beauty of Maestro’s compositions. A whole spectrum of Rudhramadevi’s life in six everlasting compositions. EPIC soundtrack! I don’t want to add the background score for insecurity reasons for other music directors. I certainly bet on Rudhramadevi. Hail Maestro and the Queen!!!

Great writeup V_S.

I echo V_S..
Rudrammadevi - both songs and the BG score are delights of highest order.

Maththagajame is an orchestral delight, however still manages to bring in the local flavor perfectly.
This is "Bavani varugiraa" nicely done in a movie that got the exposure and aesthetics right in comparison 
with the prashanth starrer.. Still Maestro's work is in line with his earlier effort and also with the ethos of
 yesteryear legends. The blend of veteran voices of SPB and Chitra with Kailash Kher is uber perfect and the 
telengana folk singing and rhythms are nicely blended in giving a lush historic feel to the score and the song.

Punnami Poovai is my next favorite - this is a "break free" song.. The princess inside Rudra deva breaks out and enjoys her
 real self. Not much of weightage is given to this "emotion" in the movie, but Raaja takes care of all that in this one sweet song..
Rest of the songs are trademark "to die for " melodies and chartbusters which only Raaja is capable of making "unforgettable"..
For the overall importance to music and the orchestration, Rudrammadevi is my pick of the year.. having said that the rest of the movies
 including the small ones like KPM are "only Raaja possible" varieties..
A nice problem of plenty for us.. hope it stays that way the next year..

Thanks Suresh ji and Jai. Yes, "highest order" is the key

Fantastic writeup V_S. I was already fixed to vote for Rudramadevi and your writeup just re-inforced that view. 

Rudramadevi is a very important soundtrack in Maestro's repertoire. It holds its ground against other equally important orchestral works of the Maestro. You get transported into another realm / time period by the orchestration in Auna Nevena, the melody in Punnami Poovai, the song structure of Anthapuramlo and the grandeur of Mathagajame.

Due to Swapnam, which robbed me most of my time early 2015 I avoided Rudhramadevi to salvage whatever was left of 2015, but blame V_S for this fantastic write up, I couldn't resist anymore, my 2016 is gone hope something like shamitabh would come along to get me out of this Rudhram

raj!! what CDs do you want?

Thanks rajkumar and [μsic]மாபியா