Dagudumuta Dandakor Audio Review

Movie: Dagudumuta Dandakor ( దాగుడు మూత దండా కోర్ )
Music: E S Murthy
Director:  R.K. Malineni
Producer(s): Ramoji Rao ( Ushakiron Movies ), Krish 
Cast: Rajendra Prasad, 

The movie title is well known for every Telugu child of yesteryear. Not sure whether this day and age kids heard the song with the title of the movie or say this while playing hide and seek. The title along with names associated to this movie like Ramoji Rao, Ushakiron Banner, Krish, Rajendra Prasad raises the bar very high even though the original of the movie is a Tamil movie named "Saivam". Directed originally by Vijay and acted by Nazar and Sara Arjun. This child artists has walked away with lot of accolades. However the remake of this movie in Telugu was projected as Vision of Krish, who is said to have transformed into Telugu nativity. Adding Rajendraprasad to this movie added a lot of weight.

ES Murthy is a single card lyricist and music director for this movie. ES Murthy aged 65 who originally wanted to be a composer, ended up with also being lyricist and singer. He worked initially for about 8 years with SP Balasubrahmanyam as composing guitarist and then worked as assistant music director to SA Rajakumar. Due to some compelling reasons while working with SA Rajakumar, started writing lyrics and until now wrote about 50-60 songs. Though he worked with famous movie Gamyam, not sure whether he got enough fame when he worked with Krish. His earlier movies as lyricists are likes of Nuvvu Vastavani (komma komma), Vedam, Krishnam vande Jagadgurum, Andala Ramudu(Sunil). Krish's association to this movie probably made him pick as music director along with single card for writing lyrics. Glad to see Krish giving good breaks to this talented composer/singer/lyricist.

The story of the movie revolves around a family, its head, his grand daughter and a rooster called "Naani". Due to ill happenings, the family realizes that they are occurring due to forgotten ritual in the form of sacrificing a rooster. The girl child however didn't want this to happen to the rooster she loves so much. She hides the rooster in the attic of the house and the entire family are behind finding it. The rest of the story is about what happens to the rooster and the family.

The trailers, the songs and the visuals gave a very good Telugu nativity feeling. Rajendraprasad is getting extremely lucky to get these kind of characters and I guess there is no one other than him who fits to the depth of the character like him and suits it to the perfection. The same girl who acted in Tamil acted in Telugu too. 

This album has 5 songs including one theme of the movie named as Dagudumutala Jaathara. The song consists of Unnikrishnan's daughter "Uthra Unnikrishnan". She sang a solo in Tamil which was a super hit. However in Telugu she shares the song with ES Murthy, and this is a pathos, instead of a classical song in Tamil. Another surprise of this album is that Sirivennela gets a chance to sing instead of write a song. 

With this background, lets see how the songs impress us whether they meet expectations set by the names attached to the movie or leave us with a different impression.

1. Evaru Nerparu

Singer(s): Madhu Balakrishnan

Lyrics: ES Murthy

This song being first of the album sets the bar of how lyrics are going to be, that is thoughtful, sensitive and depth in content. This explains wondering of the artistic nature of who( GOD ) who so carefully designed everything such as sweet voice to Cuckoo, the colors of sky, evening and comparison of lamp to sky was really good to hear after long time. Then the relations between the human relations naming as sweet bondage. Wondering who and how are these created is so pleasant to hear. We feel that this could go on, but not very long song appears ending soon. Ofcourse of innumerous acts of GOD what can be wondered in a song that has two stanzas? The music director kept everything simple and let the lyrics talk the song. This made this song so pleasant after a long time. I guess last time we heard such lyrics was for Mithunam. However MadhuBalakrishnan as many others faulted in saying Nerparu that sounded a little bit odd. However thats a small glitch compared to the over all song. Just for the beauty of the lyrics, it will be heard again and again. The song had a girl singing but the name was missing in the inlay card. Hope its Uthra sing this song too. 

2. Manishi Manishini

Singer(s): Naren, Gayathri, Jayashree, Priya Hemesh

Lyrics: ES Murthy

The preface of this song tells people migrating from villages. Probably a lesson to someone in the movie who want to migrate and tells what is important for some one in life. After the preface, this song reminds of Shankar Mahadevan song, but it ends in comparision with the tune only. However the lyrics once again adds beauty to the song. When a family is all togather and do something without any issues, its a wonder for everyone. That is depicted in form of kabaddi game. Rest of the song goes about what each member of family does. First song wonders about the relations, where as this song explains how sweet the relations if they are maintained. This is one of the best in recent times, where there is some continuity maintained. May be the story or being single lyricists that we could see this connectivity. The beauty of the village is nothing but the people being togather and meet once in a while and celebrate festivals. If that is gone, the beauty of villages are gone probably. These celebrations in the song continue and makes us realize what is missed. Everyone in the song did very well. Well executed song in recent times without much pronunciation issues and other complaints. Trailers shows very good visuals so this song stands as one that can be enjoyed on and offscreen. Hope our imaginations work off screen.

3. Naa Illu Naa Vaallu

Singer(s): ES Murthy, Uthra Unnikrishnan

Lyrics: ES Murthy

A pathos, ES murthy, composing, writing and singing with such a great compassion is rare to see these days. Uthra gets an excellent feel. A typical grandfather and grand daughter conversation converted naturally to a song that is common scenario when they find issues. Their bonding is well written and sung. The confidence kids get when grandparents are around and the happiness when kids are around for a grandfather cant be explained. This is an attempt of what it is between them. Uthra has a long way to go and hope she sticks to ground and achieve what she is talented of. Once again lyrics are winner than composing and singing for ES Murthy.

4. Kokko Kokko

Singer(s): Sirivennela, Balaji, Sai Charan, Yogeswar Sharma, Aswini, Sindhuri,, Sisira

Lyrics: ES Murthy

This song gives the feeling of what the trailer shows. Entire family in search of the the rooster "Nanee". Sirivennela sings after 2nd stanza. ES Murthy made sure his voice is heard enough while he is singing instead of getting lost in the crowd, Also supports him so that his voice suits the song very well. Singing is nothing new to Sirivennela garu, but the pace of the song doesn't make it tough for him, thanks to ES Murthy. He brings in different flavor and level to this song. This song instantly hits the listeners. The clever mix of interlude made this song more interesting. Even though the words/tunes in between appear familiar. Dagudu muta danda kor is famous across the Telugu audience so as long as it is said in nice way, it will reach the audience and this song will reach for sure. Kokko and Bobbo are terms never heard in cities these days as many places its very rare to see a rooster. Nice to hear these words again. Situational song in search of the rooster, words matches the scenes and well written without much complication in the lyrics. A well made song so catchy that it might make us go in search of the rooster :) :) 

5. Dagudumuthala Jathara
Theme song

Village Jathara Theme. Movie will tell when this theme is used. As the story says the family is associated with a temple so might be during that time. 

Pick(s) of the album: Entire Album

During the audio release, Krish said that there was not even a single word of other language used in this album, which itself is such a refreshing to hear.  Indeed he is true. Kudos to the team, the number of such thinking persons in film industry is required. Anyways its hard to find such album these days. ES Murthy garu I guess didn't get the break or recognition he is worth of. Ramoji Rao and Krish team brought a good album for all Telugu album craving music listeners. The album gels with the story so easily which is another rarity these days. I guess we need more producers/directors who can promote Telugu which is lost in so called "Youth Music" which is nothing but sound. The commercial lyricists need to take a break from the crap they are writing these days and make at-least an attempt in their life to write meaningful songs else they will never be remembered no matter how many songs they write in their life. The songs, tunes, lyrics might not be outstanding, but indeed will make an impact on every listener and crave for more such songs. Which is definitely a welcome change.

Temper Audio Review

Movie: Temper (టెంపర్ )
Music: Anup Rubens
Director:  Puri Jagannadh
Producer(s): Bandla Ganesh ( Parameswara Art Creations)
Cast: Tarak, Kajal

Puri Jagannadh boasted that a new person from Nandamuri family will be getting introduced with this movie which he named as "Temper". Tarak getting into combination after 11 years with Puri Jagannadh was taken as big surprise by his fans as Puri Jagannadh was running low at box office. Lately. his movies were not getting connected to the movie goers. However the trailers and the movie bits released so far for sure showed a different Tarak all togather. Also the energy in the dances were back raising huge hopes for the fans. With his brother delivering hit in the form of "Pataas", this movie is creating lot of buzz before getting released. Tarak speech during audio release also seems like he has realized what he is missing till now. Hope this turns positive and what he has lost will get back to him.

This is second film with Puri and third film with Kajal for Tarak. With Kajal he has a good track record but with former he doesnt. Fans were very unhappy when the first movie with Puri released and no wonder it took so long for another movie with him. Bandla Ganesh after producing Baadshah is actually only person very high with all the hits he bagged until now. Puri Jagannadh known for working only on his story and script, first time went outside with recommendation of Tarak to work with Vakkantam Vamsy. After finalizing the story, there was a team who worked on the script that went on the floor. Hope this was a good step by Tarak.

Regarding music, it was DSP who was initially signed up for this movie, but however with Anup zooming high lately with many hits is the one who replaced DSP. However Manisharma has got chance to do the BGM. Whether this is a right move or not the audio will tell us after listening to it. Trailers show energetic Tarak, so the music has to be energetic. 

There are 5 songs with a theme music in the album. Viswa, Bhaskarabhatla and Kandikonda prove that the lyrics are going to mass types. Nothing to be noted on the lyrics department. Singers are too many in this album that more than a dozen singers are listed, including a surprise element in the name of Puri himself. Whether he is heard or lost in sound or voice manipulation will know when we get to the song. 

Lets see whether Anup helped to the movie or he made to think whether it could have been DSP better choice.

1. Choolenge Aasma 

Lyrics:    Viswa

Singer(s): Adnan Sami, Ramya Behara, Veena Ghantasala

All these latest music directors start well but once the start bit is complete they all sound same. Anup for a second has started song with a good guitar bit, but Adnan voice ruined it. The start and the rest of the song has no correlation. Anup should have limited Adnan to sing Hindi words only, and could have asked female singers to sing the rest. However female singers voice is shriek, didn't match the song. Supposed to be a melody but missed the pleasantness. Lyrics wise this is only better compared to the rest. This song technically will not appeal the music fans out their, but it will grow over the period to the rest. 

2. Temper

Lyrics:   Bhaskarabhatla

Singer(s):   Rahul (Rap) Uma Neha, M. L. R. Karthikeyan, Bhargavi Pillai, Simha

Tamper is different to Temper. I thought I heard Tamper/Pamper and what not in the initial start of the song. Doesn't matter we are tampered any ways. Nandamuri songs should list the family members in movie, but in the song too? Not sure what were Puri/Bhaskarbhatla thinking. Sometimes family names sound little odd mainly in a song. Taata, Annayya, Babayi, Ayya and Tarak everyone has temper is what the song ultimately conveys to us. Rest of the song is crap from Bhaskarbhatla, He picked few words and gave it to Anup and he made a song of it which doesnt appeal anyone, except for Tarak fans who watch out for some dance movements. The song sounds beaten, nothing new to tell about or special to look for. Just watch for the song one the screen. Music and lyrics wise nothing to mention at all.

3. Devudaa

Lyrics:   Bhaskarabhatla

Singer(s):  Anoop Rubens, Puri Jagannadh

This song not sure what is the situation, but definitely not for Nandamuri hero. The lyrics show the lead actor in a low situation, which doesn't sound right for the hero. But thats what makes Puri special. Anup composed the song with latest trend in music. Tweaking the voice, high pitch. Lately all heros are multi lingual. Without Hindi, I guess they cant talk/sing. Where is Puri's voice in this song is a big question mark. Puri's trademark words are everywhere. I guess it would have been a mistake that Bhaskarabhatla's name was listed. Puri could have himself written this song. Its his concept written all over this song. Anup has done nothing special to this special song. 

4. One More Time

Lyrics:  Kandikonda

Singer(s): Ranjith, Lipsika

Once again Violin starts better but the dog barking kind of sounds lets the song go from the listeners. However Lipsika brings back for few seconds. But then again this song leaves listeners with mixed feelings as the song sounds different there after. One more time and on the spot doesnt appear fresh. Anup tried to mix different flavors but somehow this song doesnt grow instantly. Might be having the same issue like all the latest music directors. A slow, classic flavor song with a missing feeling. Lipsika shows brilliance in between, but later on got lost mainly when she changes the gear. Anup should have left her alone instead of accompanying the voice with chorus. Over all a song that leaves mixed feeling.

5. Ittage Rechchipodam

Lyrics:  Bhaskarabhatla

Singer(s): Geetha Madhuri, Dhanunjay, Anudeep, Arun

Item song doesn't have to be sung with a different voice. The tune should take care of it. Female singer was not good during the start of the song, that was some careless singing. Her singing was not at all up-to mark. Anup showed many repetitions through out the song. Be it chorus or the tunes. Puri said Tarak is item in this song. Not sure what he meant by that? This song appears to be a short length which is good.

6. Theme Music

Lyrics:  NA

Singer(s): Rahul (Rap), Hymath, Arun, Anudeep, Dhanunjay

Theme music adds rap and a sloka with loudness written all over it. This music doesnt appear to have those many singers that were listed. Anyway cant figure out anything from this music what is the theme about.

Pick(s) of the album: Choolenge Aasma, One more time.

Anup has proved he is just another latest music director who had all standard issues. However he is better than the master of modern music so that's only positive in this album which makes this bearable.  Not sure whether this can be listed as one of the low quality albums of Tarak, but it belongs somewhere there. This album shows how low quality lyrics we are getting, how low standard the music has gone, however when there are two lines drawn we have to pick the better line. This music will be big line infront of smaller line so survives better. The producer who is interested in blockbuster movies, will never be able to focus of producing good quality music albums. The director known to be eccentric in thought process would have never focused on music and its content/quality. Definitely there will be a thought that why not DSP or Manisharma instead of Anup. Hope this movie helps Anup to check his work and go forward from there. Anyways irrespective of what it is fans are going to like it and whether this music helps movie or not time will tell. All the best to Tarak who needs a desperate hit.

Mukunda Audio Review

Movie: Mukunda ( ముకుంద )
Music: Mickey J Meyer
Director:  Srikanth Addala
Producer(s): B.Madhusudhana Reddy
Cast: Varun Tej, Pooja Hegde

Another hero from Mega family. Now its turn for Nagababu's son Varun Tej. Seems like they are just coming and probably more to come. It seems Varun was supposed to be debut with another team of director and producers, but got scrapped and finally ended with Srikanth Addala directing him. Mukunda being title for a debutant movie is unusual and Srikanth who has been successful directing family movies trying to direct a movie where fans expect something else is a tough choice for the Hero's team, but they made it. Pooja Hegde who made her debut in Oka Laila Kosam is acting as female lead. 

Sirivennela garu getting a single card for lyrics is just fantastic to see after a long time. Mickey J Meyer who has composed some successful movies is know for his feel good songs, tying up with Sirivennela garu and Srikanth is an interesting combination. Not sure whose choice it is but not getting into youthful music is something notable for a debutant. Mickey didnt experiment on singers which is good to see in inlay card.

With lot of good names attached to this album lets see how the songs fared.

1. Chesededo
Lyrics : Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry
Singers : Rahul Nambiar, Revanth

Sirivennela is the hero of the song, next comes Mickey and if singers could have done a little better, it would have been more excellent. Sirivennela in his usual best gives perfect messages to the youth in this youthful song composed by Mickey. Rahul and Revanth had given their best. The words are important for this song along with energy, and they need clarity rather than casually saying them. Phrases like "Kalalaki kallaki kanureppe addamani" are really treat to listen. They not only make one think, they give more than mere message. Sirivennela garu pointed a technical issue in Audio release in this song. But that's fine, we do have technical glitches everywhere. Srikanth and Mickey should be commendable for having this kind of powerful song if used to introduce the hero. Varun Tej must be extremely lucky to get this kind of introduction. 

2. Daredumdadum
Lyrics : Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry
Singers : Mickey J Meyer, Sai Shivani

This song except for the male voice, everything is good. I was not sure about whether its an audio issue or my hearing problem. The song chorus, start of the song didn't match the male voice. They both are completely off sync to each other. Both appear good when heard separately. The initial interludes are familiar. This song should be fixed for the sake of rest of the song. We cannot mute selectively. Mukunda is synonym for flute, it has to be extraordinary and it is good in this song. 

3. Chaala Bagundi
Lyrics : Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry
Singers : Hari Charan

Another good start, with nice foot tapping guitar. MIckey nicely mixed guitar with accompaniments and they all sound good. Guitar accompanying the singer is cool. Haricharan surprisingly didn't do anything extra, kept low which is good. Chala Bagundi could have sounded better. Once again Sirivennela garu rocks. Mickey tried to add different flavors in interludes mixing different styles and they gel well. Overall a cool song that will haunt.

4. Gopikamma
Lyrics : Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry
Singers : Chitra

Sounds like a song in SVSC but that's only similarities in the beats. Chitra garu is just awesome. Trying to wake up the heroine. Mukunda so there has to be a gopika. Who is trying to wake up whom is something the movie will tell I guess. Sirivennela garu has I guess patented on the word Kalalu. He understands about the dreams better than anyone. Doma tera is white, Machu Tera is white. Something changed in 2nd stanza did someone sang in between? Words just flow and treat us. If listener is aware of Krishna and Gopika, they will understand this song better. The nuances of this song. Another good song in this album.

5. Arere Chandrakala
Lyrics : Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry
Singers : Karthik, Sai Shivani

The only issue in this song is with lack of freshness . Karthik and Sai Shivani have no issues. Lyricists who try to write rhyming song should listen to this song. This will teach how not to just add words without meaning. Have rhyming with a meaning is what matters. Another foot tapping song. Could be better on screen if nice moves are added. If Hero and the group are better in dances like the hero's Mega family is known for, fans should go crazy. 

6. Nandalaala
Lyrics : Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry
Singers : Swetha Pandit

Why didnt Chitra get this song? Swetha Pandit had issues with pronunciation and few endings. Also the words are not clear from her singing. Lacks clarity. The word "Ullamu" in Ullamu Jhalluna ponginade is rarely heard these days. If not Sirivennela who would have used it effectively. The songs are lost in Multilingual words written by latest lyricists. Srikanth Addala's choice of songs are really good. Not sure who is behind the idea of Sirivennela getting to write all songs. That person should be commendable. Srikanth could have done much better as interludes didn't appear fresh, but still song feels good. If Chitra and If Srikanth added freshness to this song, this could have been a lot better to hear. And complete justice to lyrics would have been achieved. Having said that, this is definitely a better song to hear.

7. Mukunda Theme

Listen and enjoy. Nothing much to say. 

Pick(s) of the album: Feel good album

Mickey J Meyer is known for his feel good songs, Srikanth Addala is known for feel good movies and the combination should make us doubly feel good and as a matter of fact they do and is a lot better feel good album in recent times. Sirivennela garu tells us what we are missing these days and why he is there where he is. Mukunda ( Krishna ) obviously appeals everyone alike and this one too. Varun Tej gets something that normally everyone doesn't. Time will tell where he will go, but his start of career is really good out of so called youthful music(noise). Wish the entire team all the best. Hope the movie fares well at box office too.

Rowdy Fellow Audio Review

Movie: Rowdy Fellow (రౌడీ ఫెల్లో )
Music: Sunny M.R
Director:  Krishna Chaitanya
Producer(s): T Prakash Reddy Entertainment banner
Cast: Nara Rohit, Vishakha Singh
Lyrics: Krishna Chaitanya, C Narayana Reddy, Vasistha Sharma

Rowdy Fellow is an upcoming film of Nara Rohit, written and directed by Krishna Chaitanya This movie is produced by Prakash Reddy under his banner Moviemills, and presented by Cinema 5. Nara Rohit and Vishakha Singh are the male and female leads and Nandini Rai playing an important role in this film, supported by other actors like Rao Ramesh, Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, Posani Krishna Murali, Gollapudi Maruti Rao.

Nara Rohit who had done movies at a very slow pace since his debut film Baanam, took two years for his next movie Solo. I guess he realized that this is not going to work and increased pace in 2014 and lined up atleast 4 movies in 2014 after Pratinidhi, which got good acclaims. This movie though started in 2013, took some time to complete.

Sunny MR who is flying high with back to back hits in the names of Swamy Ra Ra, Uyyala Jumpala, going to try his third film in Telugu. A Sound Engineer and Recording supervisor in Bollywood has big Hindi movies associated to his name. Seems like it was Krishna Chaitanya who introduced to the team of Swamy Ra Ra and got a chance as music director.

This movie has 6 tracks named in the album, one song is a remix of old song. The title track and call of Rowdy doesn't count as songs, so literally there are 3 songs composed by Sunny. The Singers list is complete foreign to Telugu full of bollywood singers, Sunny association tells it all. I thought Sunny had a studio in Hyderabad. So trying to understand the reason of bringing so many singers to Hyderabad to sing Telugu songs.

Anyway lets see whether Sunny got a hat-trick or not.

01 Rowdy
Singer(s): Arijit Singh,Aditi Singh Sharma

Arijit has a unique voice and doesnt work for all songs, and mainly in an alien language to him. Neerasam Nuvveraa, if we hear this we get really neerasam. For a minute I thought I am listening to Sunny's earlier album Swamy Rara, did I play something wrong? Not thats Swaamy Rara, this is Raraa Rowdy, there is a difference. Not sure what else to talk about this song. Arijit was ok, but the way the words are broke and sung is becoming normal in every movie. The style was similar to Gulabi Kallu sung by Javed Ali in GAV. Anyway short length song so its a relief.

02 Yedo 
Singer(s):  Armaan Malik,Harshika Gudi

Surprising to see Sunny suddenly switch gear to provide a melody. Armaan Malik was fine, but Harshika's voice was feeble and faint. This was better made song. But the instruments supporting the voices were loud. Melody songs the instruments in background should be light sounded when singers are singing and should take over in interludes. But they sound exactly same, no matter what. Having said that this is a good song, that ended good. The lyrics are good too.

03 Aa Seetadevi 
Singer(s):  Arijit Singh

Arijit gets one more song. This song in his voice sounds similar and hear somewhere. The beauty of Telugu is that when words are said correctly, even without any tune they sound sweet. However lately music directors without knowing the greatness of Telugu try to tune to Telugu words in their style. They don't have to put any afford if the words that give a meaning said together. This song is perfect example for how not to break words in the name of tune. There is difference between kallu, KAllu. When these singers sing, we don't know what to make out of these words to understand. Not matter how the great tune is how great the singer is if the words are not said right, the song goes to drain. 

04 Yentha Vaaru Gani 
Singer(s): Nakash Aziz,Natasha Pinto

This song is yesteryear famous hit song of NTR from Bhale tammudu. The specialty being sung by great Mohammad Rafi, which is Telugu version of baar baar dekho. Even though those days Hindi Industry had great singers, they were not asked to sing as their Telugu sounded alien. However this song was popular. C Narayana Reddy those time wrote the lyrics and good thing that the lyrics are untouched. The song doesn't sound different as that time it was sung by Hindi person and now it is repeated with similar voice. Sunny did good job by keep the original flavor intact and adding some own touches here and there, Didn't create issues. Any ways when original is there, duplicate is always second choice. For those who never listened to original song, can enjoy this version too.

05 Red & Yellow 
Singer(s):  Shalmali Kholgade,Samrat Kaushal

In child hood days, whenever any one say Red and Yellow, it was said Rowdy Fellow. Glad that this phrase was used in this song. Other than that this song doesn't offer anything much. Shalmali and Samraut not sure what they were singing. This song falls flat in terms of every angle of the song. First issue is understanding this song. Then try to get the feel of the song. Anyways since this song has not much to offer, cannot say much about it.

06 Call of the Rowdy 
Singer(s):  Jennifer Abraham,Sunny M.R.

Theme of the movie? I guess so. Again Raa Raa Rowdy Raa Raa is sung with different sounds supporting it. In movie it might be different but its too loud I guess for normal listening. Sunny also lent his voice but cant know who is singing what.

Pick(s) of the album: Yedo, Aa Seetadevi sounded better in this album, not that they are great songs.

One more so called trendy album, where tunes are repeated, sung by non-Telugu singers for Telugu album. Slowly Telugu movie is loosing its Teluguness in the name of youthful, trendy, catchy music. Since music is objective, there will be no bad music, it can be said bad if majority dislike it. Yet there will be some one who will love the songs. This album is for those. Nara Rohit didnt get enough support from music, Sunny MR missed a hat-trick. It is upto listeners if they choose to listen. Sunny has just started career so he has long way to go, one album here and there will not create much problems for him as long as he is focused.