A DISCLAIMER - THIS REVIEW IS ON THEW MUSIC OF KANNATHIL MUTHAMITTAL - A tamil movie, I have received a response from Aarti Kapoor of Mouthshut that the regional music category is non functinal hence this review has been put in this section.

A Peck on the Cheek to ….

Assalam Valikkum A R Rahman Sir or should I say namaste Dilip Shekar , I am a big fan of your musical creations. I have been following your work regularly since your first project ’’Roja’’ . I am going to review your latest work with Mani Ratnam ’’ Kannathil Muthamittal ’’. Oooooooooops .. Sorry Mr Rahman this is Mouthshut and all my friends here at mouthshut , & guys this is the great A R Rahman .

We are talking about the his latest creation in which he teams up with the great Lyricist Vairamuthu after what was said in the press as a breakup between the two. Mani Rathnam is said to be very particular about the music of all his movies and hes hit the jackpot bulls eye with this one too… He along with A R Rahman have come up with some fabulous music in the past and this is no exception. For the movie he has Sabu Cyril to recreate Sri Lanka and Ravi Chandran as the cinematographer.

The Story is about how a Sri Lankan Tamil Kid ( the daughter of Nandita Das and Chakravarthy ( Satya Fame) who is an LTTE militant ) is adopted by Simran and Madhavan and how the kid needs to meet her mother and a trip to the Emerald Island becomes essential. The music therefore has to be a mix of Sri lankan based music and general Tamil music.

The best track is the title track of the album, before you play the song make sure no ones at home, the time is after sunset , dim the light, pull on the curtains close your eyes and play the song !!! . You are transported to another world , a world which it endless , indeed this song seems to have been composed without any parameters around it. The singers, Jayachandran and Chinmayi have grabbed the opportunity with both hands to make a meal of it , especially Chinmayi , she takes the range up and drops it parallel to the existent range and gets back, ooh wonderful. The Lyrics are awesome in this song too. It explains the love of a mother towards her child. This song comes once again as a solo by Jayachandran.

Signore Signore is another song that stands out !!! , you can almost feel the music loving sri lankans dancing as the rhythm takes over, this song actually grabs you by your shoulders and makes u dance, the gentle swaying beat which moves into a frenzy and comes back during the song. It’s a teaser song and is rendered very well by Rafique, Noel, Anupama and Swarnalatha. Vellai Pookal showcases the Rahman singing skills, no we don’t have any high pitched singing here, it’s a very very soft song accentutated by gentle strumming guitar, the guitaring is very good and is used very effectively to change the pitch ever so gently.

Sundari is sung by Hariharan, Sujatha, Tippu, Karthik and Madhumitha , its starts with a mouthorgan piece with a nice flowing rhythm , it’s a birthday song, its not as good as compared with the four mentioned earlier , but is worth listening. Vidai Kodu engal Nade sung by MSV, Balram, Febi, Rehana is a song when the Tamils flee Sri lanka , it’s a very rustic situational song , shouldn’t go down very well at first.

Well that sums up Kannathil Muthamittal which means ’’ A peck on the cheek ’’ , I guess this review is a tad too long but I guess when you listen to it you would realize you need to write a lot more !!!

I would encourage Non South Indians and even Non Indians to try out the songs, you can hear the songs at www.raaga.com in the Tamil section.