Endhiran Music Review - Robotic Perfection

So.. Enthiran’s topped the US iTunes Charts. What's all the fuss about? Rehman? Rajni? Ash? The combination I guess. It must be noted that every Rajnikanth film breaks the previous benchmark at box office (that’s no yardstick to judge whether the every film is better than the previous). The iTunes ranking, if nothing, proves both - the global appeal that Rahman has now and the fan following of Rajnikanth.

But how’s the music? Here's what I think..

It took me a while to arrive at this conclusion. But I can comfortably say – this is yet another Shankar-Rehman combination set to top charts – not just by the merit of its ultra-famous star cast, but for it’s proper Shanker film masala, with a dash of Rajni-‘superstar’-lyrics and enough poetic metophars praising of the once-beauty queen Aishwarya.

The album opens with ‘Puthiya Manitha’-sung by SPB and ARR – the song singing praises and hoping for miracles from the new human – the robot. Techno and trance in feel, the song takes a while to grow on you and it is the quintessential SPB touch that claims this as the Superstar Superhero beginning.

Next up, is a melodious Kadal Anukkal – sung byVijay Prakash and a new Rahman-favorite Shreya Ghoshal, who seems to get his most melodious numbers of all his recent albums (remember VTV, Raavan?). Although the guitar strumming seems very familiar, the song goes on to become quite an instant hit.

Chitti Dance Showcase – as an ensemble of different music styles and a listenable fusion and will soon become a performance favorite number. Irumbile Iruthayam reminds you of the Nokia song from Shankar’s previous film Anniya – heavily instrumental (and not my types).

Arima Arima is again full of pompous praise for the Superstar Superhero, asking the ‘beauty queen’ to bow to the hero who is applauded even by waves of the sea! (What lyrics.. why!?) But the music is great and the beaguls make it a royal experience. And yes, Welcome back, Sadhana Sargam – singing a Rahman song after a long time. Missed you!

And then comes the peppy Kilimanjaro – sung by Javel Ali and the versatile Chinmayi – south African tribal folk beats make this a percussion fest. The singers seem to enjoy the song and it’s another instant hit. (My favorite right away).

Boom Boom Robot – an out and out Techno number – is written and sung simply to highlight the making of a Robot. This is most noisey number and a lot is ‘happening’ in this song musicwise – not for the melody fans – although Shwetas are sung with as much melody as possible.
Overall, Vairamuthus lyrics have always had a Tinglish (tamil+English) way of being. Remember Telephone Manipol, Strawberry Kannae, somehow the coolness those lyrics held in the late 90s don’t seem to wow me anymore. And here, the case in point, is a robot afterall, so the poetic liberty is liberally pushed so silicon and hard-disk and so on and so forth make their presence felt. My other issue lyrically is the unending praises of Aishwaryas so called timeless beauty. Is it a rule, that in every tamil film of hers, she must be called ‘Ulaga Alagi’ (most beautiful in the world) in the songs? Really, the lyrics are a little ‘been there done that’!

So overall, its unquestional that the meteoric rise on the charts is more to do with the Rajnikant factor, but this album has enough to stand by itself – a typical Shankar-Rehman album lacking just that one rural folk song like Ballelakka or Usalampatti. Although he may not play the Robot in this much hyped megastarrer, Rehman is the closest to the perfection one would anticipate from a robot, managing to delivery excellence consistently, album after album! Go get these songs on your music systems… Hindi fans, wait for Robot in Hindi.. Coming soon!