Winner Audio Review

Movie: Winner ( విన్నర్ )
Producer(s):  Nallamalupu Bujji & Tagore Madhu
Cast: Sai Dharam Tej, Rakul Preet & Jagapathi Babu
Direction: Gopichand Malineni
Music: SS Thaman

Sai Dharam Tej is gradually occupying his own space even though the its a huge pack of heroes emerging from Mega family. He had couple of decent hits until now and coming up with latest movie named Winner. Accompanied by Rakul Preet and Jagapathi Babu, under direction of Don Seenu fame Gopichand Malineni. Advertised as an action packed movie that matches the energy of SDT, the pre-release hungama has created enough buzz. These days a new trend is catching up to release songs slowly one-by-one and audio functions are replaced by Pre-release function. Even though the purpose is same. After Thikka, this is another SDT's combination with Thaman.

In 2016 other than Sarrainodu, there was not a big name movie that Thaman worked. His other movies were Thikka of SDT, one Kannada movie which is bilingual and Srirastu Subhamastu, probably one other movie. For sure there was a break to the speed he was working. With the gap and slowdown, the expectations are that Thaman will be back with a bang. This album has 5 songs and 17 singers and 4 lyricists. The number of singers is quite amazing for 5 songs. Lets see whether Thaman was a winner or not. 

1. Suya Suya
Singer(s): Anurag Kulkarni, Suma Kanakala
Lyrics: Ramajogayya Sastry

Whether its Manchu Lakshmi or Suma Kanakala, when auto tuner is used, it doesn't matter any one can be singers. Is Thaman using the popular TV anchor to get enough mileage for the song?? Already there are 16 other singers named in this album, why he needed Suma Kanakala? Definitely It adds to get enough craze and visibility for the song. Thaman breaks the words as per his wish, as he wants the tune to be Winner. Neither Anurag nor Auto Tuned Suma were good enough for the song. Song is on Anasuya another TV Anchor turned movie artist. The intentional nasal voice of Anurag with a wierd pronunciation of words doesn't go well at all. The beats are beaten, the interludes are as well and Thaman is back with a bang with this song. Its been a while we heard him. And we dont miss him. 

2. Sitara
Singer(s): Yazin Nizar, Sanjana Kalamanjie
Lyrics: Ananth Sriram

Why Thaman cannot find good singers is a big question. Sanjana was not a good pair to Yazin at all. She was very feeble. Her start was not good. Thaman sounded a lot better in this song compared to the first. Somehow felt that Yazin Nazir was not at his usual best,. as many of his words are not clear. A better song doesn't sound right due to various reasons. 

3. Pichonne Ayipoyaa
Singer(s): Deepak, Christopher Stanley

Lyrics: Srimani

Thaman has this typical style of song making where he makes singers sing with additional sounds in the end which sounds as shouting, sometimes it appears as odd, high pitch voice with sound breaking in between, hurrying up saying few words, and then adding auto tuner. So no matter how he makes songs, as long as he sticks to this style every song sounds same. This song is no different. Every one got used to this style of making thinking its techno, hi-fi music and any one who feel otherwise are branded outdated. Using the same instruments is not an issue, making songs in same style is the issue. After listening Pichonne ayipoya might sound apt for this song. It will be either ways.

4. Bhajarangabali

Singer(s): MLR Karthikeyan, Naveen Madhavan, Srikrishna, Aditya Iyengar, Sarat Santhosh, Hymath, Arun Koundinya

Lyrics: Ramajogayya Sastry

Thaman for sure needs a translator so that he understands Telugu lyrics. తెగువెరా is not a Telugu word. There are many words like this I guess for sure he doesn't understand. Ramajogayya Sastry garu starts with Bhajarangabali and then to rhyme తెగువేరా did he use చేగువేరా in the song? Some word filling to the tune I guess. Not sure whether anyone knows about Che Guvera other than Pawan Kalyan refers to him? పోరాడు పోయేది ఏమి లేదు , Thaman crushes phrases like these the way he wanted. 7 singers totally loose their identity. Seems like an intense song, which Thaman is good at given that the advantage of electrifying techno instruments in his hand. In-spite of that song doesn't sound fresh. 

5. Naa B C Centerlu

Singer(s): Nakash Aziz, Sharmila, Anthara

Lyrics: Bhaskarabhatla

Bhaskarabhatla who is capable of writing sensible lyrics like "oka lalana" in Jyo achyutananda is branded to write out and out mass songs. Not sure why this branding is predominant in Telugu Film industry. I feel sorry for Bhaskarabhatla whenever I hear mass song from him. Not sure who will hear, but hope he gets to write many types of songs not just mass songs. He might have written around 500 songs so far out of which for sure 90% are mass romantic songs. Now coming to the song, this just doesn't sound like Telugu Song, other than that it has everything to be called as mass song. A mass song and the visuals show that SDT has worked enough to get the moves right to appeal his fans and movie goers. 

Pick(s) of the album: Sitara, Bhajarangabali 

Thaman after a decent gap, comes back to work with Sai Dharam Teja trying to be a winner and make the movie winner. However the gap didn't make him introspect, so he offers pretty much the same. He must realize that the gap shouldn't become permanent. In-spite of many music directors in place, still there is a void for a winner and that spot is vacant. Hope he realizes and tries to get there. On the other hand, the combination of songs make sense for the movie and Thaman doesn't deviate to offer what movie needs. The issues are pretty much on the music side not on the movie side. Hope SDT gets a good success with this movie.