Bahubali Audio Review

Movie: Bahubali ( బాహుబలి )

Producer: Shobu Yarlagadda, Prasad Devineni (Arka Media)
Cast: Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah, Ramya Krishna 
Direction: SS Rajamouli
Music: MM Keeravani

Boasted as the costliest movie that India has ever produced, after many years of gap, SS Rajamouli is coming with this magnum opus "Baahubali" which will be in two parts. The hype for this movie has reached sky, that was never seen before for any movie till date. A multilingual movie which will create records just for getting released in sheer number of theatrical releases this movie will have. Also the cost of movie is anywhere between 125 crores Indian Rupees to latest told by director which is 250 crores for both parts of the movie. We are hearing different numbers for cost, but director himself declared its 250 crores so have to believe him. There by with that number, making the costliest movie ever produced. SS Rajamouli has got Prabhas committed to this movie a top hero not having a release for two years is a huge risk mainly when he is in prime of his career. The story and Rajamouli's brand would have made Prabhas committed for this movie. 

The cast and technicians are huge for this movie. Most fantastic names in the field coming together is like a fascination coming true for any movie lover. When this kind of team comes together with the graphics team that is again best. no one will expect anything lesser than wonder. This is the sheer reason for the expectations going high for the movie. The marketing strategy using social media also worked wonders for the team so far. However on the flip side, able to meet this expectation is going to be huge uphill task tor the taskmaster like SS Rajamouli. He has so far lived to the expectations. 

However the film has been getting criticized for all the work so far done by netizens as they could find a original source. Even in Audio Satyaraj took the avatar video of trailer as example to set the expectations that for now its hollywood to tollywood, but in future it would be other way round. 

The cast is again best possible fit for the movie. Prabhas, Rana, Tamannah, Anushka, Ramyakrishna, Satyaraj, Nazar, and many more make this a treat to watch just for the cast. However whether the cast can sustain the expectations is a question that will be answered as the movie gets released.

Music for the movie composed by MM Keeravani. This type of epic movie will need huge support from Music department. Rajamouli and Keeravani are good team. They understand each other very well, so there will not be any issue with that. However the challenge is to not only meet the grandeur of the movie, but also should meet the nativity of different languages. This will be a huge task for the movie. Some songs if they didn't recompose, will be an issue in the other languages. This will be interesting to see how they have met this challenge. Keeravani has set of lyric writers whom he will go with and set of singers whom he will not deviate from. This exactly happened to this movie too.. For Magadheera, the songs werent so good compared to movie, but once the movie was hit, the songs caught up with movie and became hit. Need to see whether the same happens for this movie too or the movie and music will get independent success without depending upon each other. There are 8 songs with Dheevara getting an English version, so technically its 7 songs. I expected more songs or clips for this kind of magnanimous movie, but the team might have had different plans.

Lets see how did audio fare for this movie.

1. Mamatala Talli

Singer(s): Satya Yamini

Lyrics: K. Siva Sakti Dutta

Keeravani's father wrote the lyrics of this song. Paalkadali is something probably written keeping Tamil release in mind. In Telugu it should be Paala Kadali in Tamil it becomes PaalKadal. As I said before the lyrics and tunes have to meet multilingual releases. The song takes from a slow pace to high voltage keeping pace constant. Then the voltage switches back and forth. The tune is not new or fresh. The instrumentation makes this song different. By breaking Mamatala talli and then odi baahubali, the meaning didn't get conveyed. Not sure what was the reason for this break. Odi baahubali doesnt make sense. Guess this song is when the baby born named bahubali. This kind of powerful songs should get right breaks for the meanings, but the tune and lyrics were out of sync so failed to get the emotion right. The saving grace is instruments and this added by picturization will be at peak. But individually the song fails to strike the right chord.

2. Jeevanadi

Singer(s): Geeta Madhuri

Lyrics: Inaganti Sundar

If this song is as the credit says by Geeta Madhuri, then she did well. Her voice normally doesn't appeal but at this voice modulation, she sounded lot better. It is very hard to believe that it is her voice though. Short length song is situational so again depends on Rajamouli. Songwise no issues and singing wise singer did well enough.

3. Dheevara

Singer(s): Ramya Behara, Deepu

Lyrics: Ramajogiah Sastry, K Siva Sakti Datta

Ramajogiah sastry and Siva Datta worked together to make this song. Keeravani's trust for Ramya always works. She is just fantastic. Somehow Deepu voice was not grand enough for this song. The chorus with Siva datta's words were just treat for listeners. I am sure Rajamouli would have done just fantastic picturization to which which his cult fans will go gaga over this song. Mainly during the chorus part. Except for Deepu for no reason became weak link in this song, this song is instant hit. This song just for the Dheevara part will be hit for sure.

4. Sivuni Aana

Singer(s): MM Keeravani, Mounima

Lyrics: Inaganti Sundar

The percussion arrangements has been good so far in this album. This song starts with Siva tandava Stotram not sure the song is not related though to the rest of the song. Inaganti Sundar wrote the situational song. Keeravani composed the tune very well to carry the right emotion of the song. But his singing is completely off. His high pitch was shriek, his voice didn't have enough depth, not enough clarity in pronunciation, his voice didn't suit the song at all. Not sure why he chose to sing this song. He has unintentionally ruined the song I believe since he might not have found the right singer to sing this song, he chose to sing himself. Why he didn't try SPB not sure. SPB would have elevated this song to next level. This song is for sure is a good song, but would have been a lot lot better song for sheer power of siva tandava strotram, tune, beats everything is better except for Keeravani. So bad..

5. Pacha Bottesi

Singer(s): karthik, Damini

Lyrics: Anantha Sriram

A pretty routine song.  వేయి జన్మాల tune has messed up adding extra deergam which is not required. Tune is also not refreshing. Damini when she started singing, the words were not clear. పిల్ల గాడా  నీతో has become "పిల్ల  గాడానితొ". Need more hearings to understand the words. Not sure when they make such a grand film they miss some minute details in lyrics or singing by singers. And with Keeravani at the helm. May be they got tired with correcting singers. Ananth Sriram as usual did justice to his name/brand. I thought Keeravani rehashed few tunes is the very reason for not getting a fresh feel. This song reminds me of the song that was not very hit before Magadheera album later on went on to become hit regarding the fate of the song. This might become hit later on who knows.

6. Manohari

Singer(s): Mohana Bhogaraju, Revanth

Lyrics: Chaitanya Prasad

This sing appears to be made for Tamilians. The tune has Tamil nativity. The song appears to be made so that music director's job is easy. Revanth did very good job. His voice sounds so better. Compared to the other songs, this song has more energy and vigor. Revanth carried right expressions in this song very beautifully. Mohana did just fine. Listening to Veena after a long time. I get fantastic feel when I hear this instrument which is almost getting lost with modern music directors who live on electronic sounds and instruments.

7. Nippule Swasaga

Singer(s): MM keeravani

Lyrics: Inaganti Sundar

Inaganti Sundar is lucky to get major pie in lyrics department in SSRM family movie. Is this song prelude of the war? I guess so. Then its a perfect fit for the situation. The words are good, singing by chorus is good, the beats have the intensity, tune has the feel of the situation, given the war situation then this song will just elevate the scenes so well that this is what Keeravani is know for and is expected to do. What keeravani has sung could have been a different bit song by itself. And this song could have started from Maahishmati.. This would have been perfect. Once again Keeravani's voice was feeble. This kind of songs need heavy voice with great depth. Anyways movie will cover it up.

8. Dheevara ( English Version )

Singer(s): Ramya Behara, Aditya

Lyrics: Noel Sean, Aditya

I guess this song is made to meet international audience. After listening to the first version of the song. This song doesn't appeal as much as the initial version. If heard for the first time, this song will appeal. For who heard the first one already, they can skip this version, but Dheevara portion of this song makes one to hear this song as well.

Pick(s) of the album: Dheevara, Manohari, Nippule Swasaga.

Knowing the background of the movie, the story, the expectations are set for this album. People will not be ready to accept if this is not grand. This album some how makes one feel that it lacks that magnanimity feel. This album will have more variety of moods, situations so getting a song fit into this kind of movie is very difficult and at the same meeting unknown expectations is also very tough task. The album is ordinary when there is a comparison to the cost of movie, other wise its just fine. The background music for this movie will have to be right,whether songs are fine or not is something required for normal movies which will drag audience to movie because of songs. However this kind of movie already reached audience. Music only set the expectations probably more, so with this album, they will not have such problems/ Having said that songs will not meet the expectations just for lacking grand feeling might not be a problem for the movie as such. Cant imagine any current music directors who can do justice to this movie other than Keeravani. The song for the baby born to bahubali could have been more powerful, then Sivuni Aana if not for keeravani would have been better. 3 songs are pretty normal. Which leaves 3 out of 8 songs and of which one is English version. So going by number 2 out of 8 is not what audience will want. Statistics apart. this movie is all set for Telugu movie goer to be proud for having such huge film become reality. All the best for the team for having spent innumerous sleepless nights to get something the team dreamt to make their fascination to reality.