How the gears met!

Two gears were stationed in their shafts parallelly; one the LAY shaft and the other the drive shaft. Unlike other LAY shafts, this peculiar shaft had the capability to drive the main shaft crazy. Days passed, the two gears were just stale. It so happened or just fate, that the reluctant drive shaft and the ever enthusiastic LAY shaft got assembled into a room. As the messiah of music came into the cabin and shifted the gear knob, they got energized by the sudden surge of power. High torque was produced and the LAY shaft gear got kick up. It took the drive shaft gear for a ride using the 60cc engine. Though the drive shaft gear wanted to take over, it was game to let the LAY shaft gear take the lead. During the ride, it couldn't stop noticing the artfully crafted, curvy helixes. It tried to make contact, but the line of action was not appropriate; it chose to wait for the idle gear to move out and for the ideal time to come. And it did come as the title started rolling leaving a clear path of action for both the gears. As the SUN gear shouted “am the happiest man in the world”, the LAY shaft got exhilarated and started producing humming sounds. Then came the break and thus entered the multifaceted crispy synchromesh. Both the gears were constantly reaching for it - and then it happened. The two gears first had few brushes against each other and slowly at their core, as they were meshing the friction between the two created a force which was starting to be felt at the center. It was a different feeling: a whole new experience. The two meshed well with maximum interference. It was like an in-Separable, smoothly Engaged, Perfectly matched Teeth setup, forming the shape of 8.

PS: a mechanical take on date :)

Aadhavan

Music: Harris Jeyaraj


Soft notes backed by liberal and yet delicate strings of the guitar, singers rendering in lower scale; their high pitch notes which dangerously abuts melancholy, the chorus humming the tune in pop style or like a pathos, the saranams of the songs being just fast slow fast slow versions of the pallavi or nothing related to the mood created by the initial motifs, incomprehensible words or mere noises becoming interludes: these are the set pieces one could find in any of Harris’ compositions. With all these to his backing, Harris shells out his 29th album from his repetitive factory only to surprise us this time with the different proportion of the same ingredients.

Hasile Fisiliye (Karthik, Harini, Dr. Burn, Maya)

The adagio rendering of “Byile Bylamore”, “Hasili fisili” builds up into an allegro movement preceding the rap, with Karthik taking over with his enticing humming, complimenting the rush of feeling as expressed in the lyrics and finally Harini breaks the ice with her charming voice. The addition of Dr. Burn in this version is another highlight.

Yeno Yeno (Shail Hada, Sudha, Andrea)

“Yeno Yeno” , yet another “Blue” inspired number from Harris, has the perfect classic pop feel given by Andrea and the synchronization of her’s and Sudha’s voice, followed by the MJ inspired rap and backed by chorus towards the end has top notch sound editing.

Dammaku (Benny Dayal)

The beautiful mouth organ introducing us to this number and the protagonist in turn with this song breaks into a rhapsody, preaching us the MGR-Kanadhasan principles, but Benny with his joyous modulations, especially “rasa vantha lesa pada” makes you appreciate this number, a better attempt from Harris in terms of intro songs.

Varayo (Chinmayee, Unni Krishnan)

The melody of the Piano which broaches us into the world of tender love in the form of Chinmayee’s voice backed by guitar and piano, ‘Varayo’ flows blandly until Unni attempts at singing high notes in a whisper, introducing ‘r’ and ‘z’ to the words, especially during the crescendo. The cello which sweeps us off the feet with its tragic sound and then the increasingly intensified cry in the form of opera which falls sharp at the coda, all backed by the piano is very exhilarating.

Dekho Dekho (Suvi, Sandhya, Sri Charan)

An attempt at depicting the cultural differences, Dekho a reminiscent of Samurai, Arasatchi, Ghajini, is a cacophonous collection of rap, pop and Indian classical, which could have worked if not for the poorly written carnatic notes.

Maasi maasi (Mano, Mega)
The unbearable African sounds and arrhythmic two syllable note sung by Mano, concoct into ‘Maasi Maasi’ a reminiscent to his ‘Muquala Muquabula’ and also ‘aatama therotama’. This African style song does have great usage of drums.

Harris does have gone for innovative usage of instruments and also succeeded to a certain extent in fusion, the highlight of this album which has poor lyrics. The irritating two syllable alliteration (wannabe) still continues in this outing as well and yet the change from feminish male singers who sing only in one style is a relief and that does the trick.

Varanam Aayiram

Date: Sun, Sep 28, 2008 at 11:18 PM
Varanam Aayiram

Music: Harris Jeyaraj

Adiye kolluthe(Krish,Beny,Sruthi)

Literally killer of a song to kick start the album. The powerful lyrics blending with different moods of the guitar makes the listeners shake their legs for the rocking tune. Krish with the feminine husky voice and Sruthi with full open throat are marvellous.

4/5 stars

Nenjukul peidhiudum(Hariharan,Devan,Prasanna)

No singer in the recent past has sung with so much passion and love as Hariharan does in this song. Thamarai is brilliant with the unusual and yet contemporary words. The soft flow provides a soothing feel throughout.

4/5 stars

Yethi yethi(Beny,Naresh,Solar Sai)

Muthukumar proves it's his forte with the line "Raja nan raja". This fun song having energetic vocals has an interesting flow in the instruments arrangement, with drums, guitar and clapping sounds taking turns to overwhelm us.

3.5/5 stars

Mundhinam(Naresh,Prasanthini)

A breezy romantic number rendered softly by the lead singers, "Mundhinam" is backed by beautiful lyrics. Naresh and Prashanthini's voices supported by the guitar gives a wonderful listening experience.

4/5 stars

Oh! Shanthi shanthi(Clinton,Charan)

The faster version of "Nenjukul peidhiudum", "Oh! Shanthi shanthi" has Clinton giving the song a classy touch. Charan does full justice to the tune. The guitar takes the center stage again here.

3/5 stars

Anjala(Karthick,Prasanna)

Though a very good attempt, the flat composition doesn't sound appealing. There seems to be a random shift in mood from fun to sorrow very often, which hampers the flow of the song.

2.5/5 stars

Annal mele(Sudha Ragunathan)

The song completely belongs to Sudha Ragunathan. Harris has opted for subtle sounds for the song completely letting the vocals take the center stage. The intelligent lyrics which carry with it an old flavor add to the USP of the song. This song is certainly a fitting way to end the album on a high note.

4/5 stars

Though most of the songs have guitar as the base, they represent various moods and situations, catering to different tastes. Harris scores full marks with his wonderful sound engineering skills. To sum up Varanam Ayiram is an album that should not be missed.

Verdict: 4/5 stars