March 23, 2009 APK
Rating - ***
Mani-Meher: Just Fine
What went wrong with Bujjigadu?-must be a question that continues to haunt Prabhas till date. He'd given it his best shot (read that as he looked awake throughout the shoot), displayed his bilingual skills and even (GASP) shaved his Chatrapati chest and showed off his toned abs. Past is past, and Puri-prodigy Meher Ramesh, also recovering from potential-hit-but-flopshow debut Kantri teams up with Prabhas and puts in a snazzy title 'Billa' for their joint venture presented by uncle Krishnam Raju. Bujjigadu is a pretty mushy title right? Billa sums up macho and muscled. That's exactly how the music is. Take it or leave it.
Hariroranga Hari Whew! The first reaction to this song. Then...doesn't it sometimes sound like 'Ganpat' from Shootout at Lokandwala? Third reaction: kichidi of Telugu rap (a stylish new genre), Teen maar, an interlude of aunty-chorus. Repeat reaction, whew. Mani Sharma beat his keyboard to death for this album. Worth it. Hariro ranga Hari is a fun number, sure to appear on charts and ipods by this weekend.***.5
Yellora Silpanni Typical Mani beats, and very value for mani (pun intended). Sharma's beats, Ramajogayya Sastry's lines and Rita's vocals in this solo full of self-praise and mild seduction looks like it could be a club song, and gets a heavy dose of techno towards the end. The mixer had great fun with this song-do the listeners share it? Well, it's no different from 20 other club songs of Sharma. Cannot pinpoint a flaw, but not bad either.***
Billa Theme Song Meher Ramesh loves his leads and goes out of the way to write the theme song for his lead characters. Kantri title track rocked. But this is all Englipeesh and very little Telugu as opposed to the Tinglish of Kantri title which was much more fun. Ranjith and Rahul team up to sing about Billlllaaa. This is pretty serious stuff and the instrumental sounds like it could be Spiderman-Batman theme music. Pretty intense, huh? ***
Bommali 'Yadundi Tali, I wanna make you my ali'. Awesome new way to propose, and all you gentlemen out there wanting to propose with a ring/rose by the sea-side/Tankbund might as well replace their 'Will you marry me?' with this line. Again, full of English chorus, rap, whatnot. Hemachandra and Malavika's vocals are peppy and they make this song worth listening to. Shifts from sweet romance to Billa style rude courtship.***.25
Ne Patasu With the hardness of electric guitar and the softness of an Arabic-influenced duet crooned by Suchi and Ranjith, this passionate number better be situational-or could have done with a little less strumming. Still, works while it lasts.***
My name is Billa Okay so this dude Billa character in the movie is not illiterate. He figures out that it's 'B for Billa'. Good job! And even if you didn't know this movie is based on Don, you'd know it by now. So it's 'Mein Hoon Don' all over again. As mentioned earlier, take it or leave it. For some reason, the strumming here reminds one of the Jagadam songs. ***
Last Word Hariroranga Hari and Bommali stand out while My name is Billa and Ne Tapasu are good while they lasts and the album is forgettable once it stops. No song is particularly catchy but it is good for people on the go-namely one of those good 'car albums' when no one is concentrating, it just breezes along. You get the drift. Mani Sharma doesn't disappoint, doesn't exactly wow us either. Meher Ramesh stamps his signature style along, even though he's just two flicks old with this movie. Watch out for the movie, and if it clicks, the music will make better sense and suddenly tends to get better and grow. Funny how that happens, for now it's just fine.
|
