Janatha Garage Audio Review

Movie: Janatha Garage (జనతా గరాజ్)
Producer(s): Naveen Yerneni,Y. Ravi Shankar,C. V. Mohan
Cast: Tarak(NTR),Mohanlal,Samantha Ruth Prabhu,Nithya Menen, 
Direction: Koratala Siva
Music: Devi Sri Prasad

Tarak after Nannaku Premato is coming with a super combination, which raised the expectations beyond sky. The names associated to this project and the combination is what Tarak's fans are talking about. Their mind is set to nothing but super success as the result of the movie.

Koratala Siva after Srimanthudu reached to a new level as a director. Adding Mohanlal also added lot of weight to this project. Samantha has tweeted that this movie is 26th movie of Tarak and Samantha. This is another add-on factor to get a positive vibes for fans about the movie. Kajal Agarwal with her special appearance would definitely help the movie.

DSP worked earlier with Koratala Siva and Tarak, so nothing new about this combination. Ramajogayya Sastry gets chance to write all songs for this movie.

1. Pranaamam
Singer(s): Shankar Mahadevan
Lyrics: Ramajogayya Sastry

Its been a while that we heard Shankar Mahadevan. Probably he lost his space with so many singers out there. DSP made a good choice giving this song to Shankar instead of singing himself or giving to other hindi singers out there. Having said that Shankar sings effortlessly, but he should have taken little care when saying "Prabhata Suryuniki", "TaDi Meghalu", and many more phrases like this. Mainly when lyrics wants to take the lead, the singer should adher to that. As is the song composer. As said in music review of A Aa Ramajogayya Sastry garu needs to come up with more such songs, than his casual lyrics which takes him no where. Being a leading lyricists in the industry it would be nice to see more of such lyrics. This song would have been more pleasant if Shankar would have taken care of saying the words. In an interview the lead lyricist told they take utmost care so that the words are said right but the out put doesn't match the statement. Hope this gets better in future. 

2. Rock On Bro
Singer(s): Raghu Dixit
Lyrics: Ramajogayya Sastry

Rockstar DSP goes no wrong in these types of songs. This song again would have been better if for a different singer. His voice at places was strained and doesn't sound right, thats only limitation for serious music listeners, but lately thats not any issue. DSP keeps it simple but provides some twists here and there. RJS " Jeens pant Rushulu" is a different phrase applies to modern times. Ee dhanam and Indhanam is typical reused phrase. The beauty of the song is that it ends on a very pleasant note, even though it has issues in between due to various reasons. 

3.  Apple Beauty
Singer(s): Yazin Nizar, Neha Bhasin
Lyrics: Ramajogayya Sastry

DSP after providing two good songs, goes back to his routine stuff. Yazin and Neha did their job pretty well. They dont have much issues. RJS too is back to his routine stuff. Probably a song that was not demanded well by the makers. Apple Beauty and Newton Gravity, Cheekati linked to Edison Bulb, all these phrases are probably kind of easy stuff for RJS as the aim is to catch the attention of youth which he will do for sure. DSP doesnt do anything special in this song, let it go with his routine stuff.

4. Jayaho Janatha
Singer(s): Sukhwinder Singh, Vijay Prakash
Lyrics: Ramajogayya Sastry

Somehow Vijay Prakash reminds SPB at the start of the song. Probably the situation in the movie needed two singers, but one singer should have added more weight to the song. Felt even though Sukhwinder did decent , he diluted the intensity that was at the start of the song that Vijay Prakash had. Also Sukhwinder adds his extensions to the words doesn't fit well. This song gives some clues about the movie. This song has everything that should elevates the scenes in the movie. DSP did a good job in interludes and composing the song to make the song sound right. If this song comes in repeat mode in movie, then it will help a lot. 

5. Nee Selavadigi ( Short Bit )
Singer(s): Shweta Mohan
Lyrics: Ramajogayya Sastry

A short bit that is less than 2 minutes. A situational song. Shweta Mohan did well. Completely situational so nothing to say much about it. Seems like Pathos which DSP is very good at. 

6. Pakka Local
Singer(s): Geetha Madhuri, Sagar
Lyrics: Ramajogayya Sastry

Geeta Madhuri felt uncomfortable when she was saying kakinada and yanam. This song and in between the questions by Sagar and female singer continuing to sing is typical item song standard setup by DSP and he doesn't deviate by this by any means. Also when singer sings localu, that style is also unchanged. Some songs sounds fine, but here it didnt sound right. The lyrics are predictable as the focus is more on adding rhyming words, which is fine for these type of mass songs. The beats, pattern is beaten by DSP so this song goes so so. It was said that Kajal Agarwal would make a special appearance in the song, probably this is the one. If so whatever the song is the focus would be on screen visuals than the song itself. 

Pick(s) of the album:  Jayaho Janatha, Pranaamam, Rock on Bro.

DSP has been consistent these days with 40-50% of the songs that will stand out and he does routine to the rest. This movie is no exception. He had given 3 good songs and a bit song. So the percentage increases. beyond 50%, which should serve well for the movie. Definitely he is past due to deliver a 6 out 6 songs like he used to do during initial days. The lyrics and the words are heard better in this album which is good, also the singer's voice is not manipulated which is also good. Within the limitation of singers, this can be said as pretty decent album. Now its upto Mohanlal, Koratala Siva and Tarak to take the movie to the success level that his fans are eagerly waiting for. 

Kabali Audio Review

Movie: Kabali (కబాలి)
Producer(s): Kalaipulu S Thanu
Cast: Rajanikanth, Radhika Apte, Dhansika, Dinesh Ravi, Kalaiyarasan, John Vijay star
Direction: Pa Ranjith

Music: Santosh Narayanan

After last two movies being flopped at box office, Kochodaiyaan and Lingaa Rajanikanth is coming with a gangster drama film after a gap of two years. The teaser was a rage and reminded him of the movie that was released 21 years ago. When Rajinikanth comes with a movie, his fans all expect him to be seeing him on screen. Then they will think of the movie whether its good or bad to watch it again. Thats the strength of his following. 

Rajinikanth's movies are always made special in terms of music. Any music director who worked with him always have given their best. After leaving out Ilayaraja, Rajanikanth sticked with ARR for long time, before letting him also go to work with a different music director. This would be the first movie that he is not working with ARR ever since he started with him.

Santosh Narayanan after debuting in Tamil film industry he is gaining his own space gradually increasing the number of movies he is doing every year and many notable films year after year. This year its a jackpot for him that he is working with none other than Superstar. The teaser got a very good name for him and lets see whether he continued his trend in Telugu too. Since its a dubbed movie, this will not be a critical factor for him as his music will be judged based on Tamil songs not Telugu. Lets go into details of each song.

Song: Okadae Okadokkadae
Singers: Ananthu & Chorus
Lyrics: Anantha Shriram

Ananthu sounded like Shankar Mahadevan at some places and like Kailesh Kher at few other places. This song doesn't appear like Telugu song at many places. There was no effort made for dubbing the song. The Rap in English is the only thing that sounds better in this song. Ananth Sriram's words in lyrics are shrinked to  fit the tune like vastunnaadu has become vastundu, kadilinaadu,becomes kadilindu. if the rest of the song goes in this slang, then its fine, but they dont. So the issue. Then other issue is with singers who made this song look bad. They can easily adjust if words are little bit out of sync, but they did not. The music director being non-Telugu probably cared much about his tune than the words and how they are synchronized with the tune. The tune as such doesn't have any issues, but over all song doesn't appeal.

Song: Gunde Ninda Yenno
Singers: Ananthu, Pradeep Kumar, Swetha Mohan
Lyrics: Anantha Shriram

This song starts good, but again the singers mess it up. మనల్ని ఇలా was the actual lyric, but it was said as మనల్ నిలా  which appears as Tamil word. So there by lost the nativity and appears as if Lyricist didn't find words to fill the tune in translation had to use Tamil word. This song is well made, with nice guitar beats, good melody, but again singers falter. The soul misses in the song. The feel is missing. and then alien to Telugu sound. Ananth Sriram's lyrics and Santhosh Narayanan's tune is felt wasted. Proably a little bit care would have made this song instant hit. 

Song: Ugra Trinetruda
Singers: Ganesh Ram
Lyrics: Ramajogaiah Sasthri

This song except for composer, everything has gone wrong. Ugra Trinetrudaa, sivamettara Harom Haraa.. Then the problem starts. Once again singers mess it up big time. Since eighties untouchable is definitely aimed at Rajini, even if it doesn't  correlated to story it would be fine. Rap is much better in this song again compared to main portion of the song. Did I hear " Attudukatha satruvu talagada"?? I heard the rest ok, like "nuvvu machitananiki manugaDa. digi vachina devuDaa, inta kaalam nuvvekkada". Wow. probably sastry garu was out of words to fit the tune that he had to use the phrase satruvu talagada to find a rhyming pattern for "Da". Anyways the singer had no feel, no expression nothing just goes reading the words in some lesser rap style. The interludes are out of sync with stanzas. Probably one messed up song. 

Song: Kalavani O Nadhi
Singer: Pradeep Kumar
Lyrics: Vanamali

The feel is the soul of the song, which lacks in this song. Singer again falters big time. He sounded like reading with tune instead of singing with expression. The tune will appeal but not the singing. The lyrics are again some how broken into pieces there by loosing the connectivity. Aakasam lo megham sounded a lot different. Raaye kariginade, sounds like calling instead of stone due to singer. Again one more song that sounds bad in Telugu. 

Song: Nippu Ra
Rap and Lyricas Verses: Vanamali
Dialogues/adlib verses: Shri Rajinikanth

This song when released as the teaser was huge rage. Tamil song was perfect. Santosh Narayanan was praised a lot for coming up with such an electrifying music, and every Rajani fan was happy. This tune has lot to offer and so is the song. The fans were awestruck looking at the visuals and few dialogs and the whistle in the end of the song.. With this background, the expectations on the song were nothing less than far beyond sky. 

The Telugu version is no difference until the phrase "Nippu Raa" and the music that follows. The entire trouble starts from the first stanza, Everything went wrong after that. The singer was bad, the lyrics were bad in the sense that they didnt match the tune, the singer lacked the energy, it appeared he wanted to be loud enough so that the rage in the eyes of Rajini will be seen but unfortunately its not that way. Vanamali once again failed in this song too. On the top All the words were totally misfit, the singer hurrying it up saying the words as if he had to go somewhere, was total disaster. And then add to pronunciation issues. Probably it will take another article to write what went wrong with this song. This will become a benchmark, how a Tamil song cannot be dubbed. 

Its a sentiment that SPB sings the title song of the movie, then the movie is expected to be sure shot hit. Fans will now have to wait until the movie to see whether this sentiment would fail this time, even though the song failed big time in Telugu.

Song(s) of the album: Better Skip Telugu version and Listen to Tamil version. Even if we dont understand, we can enjoy the music/hard work by Santosh Narayanan.

Even after the failure of Telugu version of Maniratnam's film Kadali where Vanamali was single card lyricists, Filmy people didnt realize the issue. This is a huge issue that needs to be fixed else the songs of dubbed movies doesn't make sense. By all means this audio is huge disappointment in Telugu version. There is no nativity feeling in these songs, there is no feel that Tamil songs had offered, lyrics are huge mismatch, singers serve no purpose. If anyone knows Tamil, its all better to skip the Telugu version and ignore this album. 

Gentleman Audio Review

Movie: Gentleman (జెంటిల్ మాన్ )
Producer(s): Sivalanka  Krishna Prasad
Cast: Nani, Niveda Thomas, Surabhi, Srinivas Avasarala
Direction/Screenplay: Mohankrishna Indraganti
Music: Mani Sharma

Nani's latest offering after different subject movies poses a question to audience whether he is a Hero or Villain in this movie called "Gentleman". Pairing up with Mohan Krishna Indraganti the person who introduced Nani to Telugu film industry in 2007, coming up with such a question is quite interesting. Nani lately has been consistent at box office with not only variety of subjects, but with his performance at box office. Nani/MohanKrishna's combination will sure raise expectations. 

Nain is supported with two female leads, Niveda Thomas and Surabhi along with anchor turned movie artist Srimukhi playing an important role. Srinivas Avasarala has good rapport with the director and Nani that for sure he will be an asset in this film. Story is written by David Natha, and the screen play is written by Indraganti himself. 

Mohan krishna Indraganti has a unique style of film making and his movie has shown consistent quality of music too. His movies have different flavor of music that is quite evident in his past movies. He has good taste for lyrics too. He has been working with kalyan Koduri so far, however this time with permission of Kalyan koduri, did work with Manisharma who is these days either limited to Re-recording or almost forgotten. This is for sure a surprise element for Manisharma's fans. There are very few directors in Telugu Industry who has limited usage of other languages in songs in their movies. Mohan krishna is one of them. He also doesn't follow 6 song pattern in this movie that has only 4 songs. Ramajogaiah Sastry wrote one, Krishna kanth wrote two and Sirivennela gets to write the other song. Movie that started in December 2015 is slated to release on 17th June. Thats pretty quick by all means. 

1, GusaGusalade

Singer(s): Karthik, Pranavi

Lyrics: Ramajogaiah Sastry

Manisharma starts where he left off last time. Mass melody Brahma Manisharma starts the album with a nice melody, that starts good, A simple Manisharma mark melody. However felt that Pranavi's voice was weak, feeble didn't match karthik's voice at few places and starting. A strong start could have made this song much better. But Karthik and Manisharma covers up that issue. The way "Alajadi" is said and the rhythm accompanying that is good. RJ Sastry comes up with good lyrics that is in sync with tune shedding out his usual multilingual style. Overall a feel good song provided by the team.

2. Dintaka Dintaka

Singer(s): rahul Sipligunj, Uma Neha

Lyrics: Krishna Kanth

This time Manisharma decides to play it safe by taking a tune from his standard type of songs. "ee pille neeku dintaku dintaku, matladakunda jantaku raa", sums it all about the song. Rahul who had singing issues in Brahmotsavam did better in this song. Uma had no major issues. This song reminds Manisharma's old songs in interludes and lacks freshness. Since it involves group of people, this song should work on-screen. 

3. Chali gaali Chooddu

Haricharan, Malavika (US) Padmalatha

Lyrics: Sirivennela Seetaramasatry

Manisharma and Sirivennela did a wonderful job, but felt that singers didn't do justice to the song. Chooddu, is not said well which took off the flavor from the reason why it is written. Yet another good melody provided by Manisharma. As rightly said during audio release these these kind of melodies are becoming rare these days. A very feel good pleasant song with lyrics completely written in Telugu. A typical Mohan krishna Indraganti trade mark song, made exclusively for him. As usual Sirivennela weaves words thru. Some words are tuned to enhance the feel of the words. This is where Manisharma gives his Midas touch. There are minor issues with singers but they get buried under the melody. Good singers would have for sure elevated this song to next level. Having said that this is a very well composed melody that will keep haunting. Its been a while we would have heard this type of song. Manisharma and Sirivennela along with Mohan Krishna provides us a good song to cherish for quite some time. 

4. Saturday night fever

Singer(s): Narendra, Maneesha

Lyrics: Krishnakanth

Saturday night fever song is a situational song probably demanded by Script. Wouldnt see this type of songs quite commonly from Indraganti. Narendra during audio release thanked for giving opportunity, has utilized the opportunity. All he need to do is not create any issues with basic stuff and he does fine. Maneesha too did her job as required. Krishna kanth just provides what is required. Overall nothing much to say as Manisharma for sure has done umpteen songs like this.

Pick(s) of the album: Chali gaali chooddu, gusagusalaade. 

Indraganti Mohan krishna has been branded as intelligent director. His sensible movies and stories he picks, the music in his movies are examples of that. He provides clean entertainment and his songs have a particular style mostly in Telugu having very few issues from songs perspective be it lyrics or singing . In this movie too he made sure there were minimum issues with songs, then songs match his style and provided a beautiful melody in the name of "chali gaali chooddu". Having 4 songs in the album, he limited the capability of music to provide ample support, but two melodies are good enough for this album to support him well enough. Manisharma on the other hand keeps reminding that he is still there to help Telugu Film Music. Providing a song that stands out from a written off composer is something that needs to be noted by the movie makers. Most of the time music lovers do ask atleast one song per album that they can cherish, and this album provides that. 2 routine songs with 2 melodies is pretty easy to handle. 

Brahmotsavam Audio Review

Movie: Brahmotsavam (బ్రహ్మోత్సవం)
Producer(s): Prasad V. Potluri, Mahesh Babu 
Cast: Mahesh Babu, Samantha, Kajal Agarwal, Pranitha
Direction/Story: Srikanth Addala
Music: Mickey J Meyer

After SVSC, Mahesh and Srikanth Addala working together has created huge expectations with family audience as the teasers, bits, song released talk very high about the movie. This movie also boasts of so many actors being part of this movie. Srikanth Addala known for family oriented movies with family traditions and values, continues the same concept with this movie too as the key message of this movie is that when people get togather its utsavam and with many family members get together its brahmotsavam. The song released so far depict the same message. Mahesh is have three female leads is something thats  tells about this movie. There are so many senior actors who are named in this film. With so much heavy casting it will be a huge challenge for Srikanth Addala who wrote the story himself to create relevant characters in the movie and the screen play would be so complicated to show them in the movie at right times.

The music department is shared by two persons, Mickey J Meyer composing songs and Manisharma scoring the background music. Sirivennela garu writes all 2 songs and two songs are reused traditional songs, Then one song is written by Srikanth Addala himself and the rest are penned by Krishna Chaitanya. Mickey J Meyer had scored good with his earlier album A Aa, with that background, the expectations for this movie are much bigger as this is much bigger film than the former. Lets see what Mickey did to meet the expectations and whether he met or not.

1. Vacchindi Kada Avakasam 

Singer(s): Abhay Jodhpurkar

Lyrics: Sirivennela

This song was released prior to audio release function. This got mixed reviews. People were confused why "Vangaaru Vanga" was used. Abhay Jodhpurkar got a song in Mickey's last album A, Aa, He had issues in that song and he continues the same issues with this song too. This song I guess even Mickey didn't understand the lyrics. Else he could have given a better tune than breaking it into pieces. The tune provided to lyrics are no where related to the mood of the lyrics. The mood, interlude and tone are completely out of sync. Its more like reading the lyric with some background sound. Its very sad to see some fantastic lines get lost into singers pronunciation and breaking up the words, like a robot singing. Abhay singing "Anandam ante painedo lede" is having few issues. Not sure why it sounded so odd. Same with few other lines. Also its rAka pOtE(రాక పొతే ), not rakA potE ( రాకా పొతే ).. Where do we get these singers who cant even sing properly for such key songs?

However on the other had Sirivennela comes up with a great philosophy in this song which can be unmatched. These two lines are best example of explaining greatest philosophy of life in simple sentences. Not sure how can he manage to fit these in a commercial song. Probably he is the only one who never disappointed or let us down from standards that he set for himself. 

అనందం అంటె పైనేదో లేదే మనలోనే దాగుంది

ఛిరునవ్వు దీపం వెలిగించి చూస్తే మనకే తెలుస్తుంది!!

భూగోళమంతా మోసే పనేదొ మనమీదనే ఉందా
లోకాన మొత్తం చికాకులన్ని మనకొరకే పుట్టిందా !!

Over all a good justice is not provided to the lyrics by not so understanding composer and singer. This song by Mickey is not refreshing at all thats another problem. Since there are too many artists in this song, this should be a feast on screen. 

2. Madhuram Madhuram 

Singer(s): Padma & Sridevi

Lyrics: Vallabhacharya - ( 2lines from Madhurashtakam )

This song is a remix ( fusion ) of Madhurashtakam written by Sri Vallabhacharya. From the ashtakam only first two stanzas are taken to form this song. Who ever is familiar with Madhurashtakam and heard this from MS Subbulakshmi or others, will know what is missing from this song. Basically the feel, the sweetness of Krishna. However the impact of this song will be known from the situation that this is used in the movie. If director's idea is to bring this Madhurashtakam to audience and asking them to go back to listen what it is then he will be successful. The fusion is fine by itself, the singers are fine with no issues. But these bhajans have a different feel which have to be carefully done while creating a fusion of it. Without the feel the song doesn't will not appeal.

3. Brahmotsavam  

Singer(s): Sreerama Chandra

Lyrics: Sirivennela

Not sure why Sreerama Chandra took it high. He didn't sound good at all. He not only gets strained at few places, lost comfort zone, there by song doesn't appear pleasant. Once again Sirivennela garu rocks with his lyrics by explaining the meaning of Brahmotsavam  in terms of movie. First song he touches vedanta and here he touches the Runanubhandam concept by saying who will become relatives to us and why. The pace of the song is too much to handle for Sriramachandra that he couldn't control his breath. He had to swallow couple of words. Not sure why this song is composed with so much pace and high pitch. It lost its pleasantness. It might be fine for onscreen but to just to listen as song is something that depends on listeners how much they can afford to ignore issues. 

4. Aata Paatalaadu 

Singer(s): Karthik

Lyrics: Srikanth Addala

So far the initial three songs have some or other issues, Seems like this song is first song that sounds to be better in the lot. Karthik as usual does his job with all easiness as this song doesn't offer any challenges to him. Alavataite ee utsavame madi koradaa maralaa maralaa?? Sums it all about the song. Sirivennela garu once again writes off some excellent words. His songs most of the times are questions he asks. They might be thoughts he infuses or questions that makes us think. Finally a song that goes hand in had between song, lyrics and singing.

5. Naidorintikada 

Singer(s): Anjana Soumya & Ramya Behara

Lyrics: Traditional 

Anjana Soumya gets again back to back chance with Mickey. This song seems to be like a contest between Anjana Soumya and Ramya Behara. As a treat both excel equally and make this interesting contest. Mickey after being lost somewhere during start of the album finally is back in track. The rhythm is just fine, the tuning is apt, the singing is good and cannot tell anything less about the lyrics. Nayudu song is catchy and different. One minor issues is that couldnt clearly understand something about kannula vaaru. Other than that for sure an enjoyable song.

6. Bala Tripuramani 

Singer(s): Rahul Nambiar

Lyrics: Krishna Chaitanya

This song again probably was written for the tune. There is disconnect in singing here and there. For sure not bad as first two songs ( excluding madhuram song ). The song increases pitch/scale as the song progresses. Even Rahul had issues related to pronounciation. Vinaalani undi, not Vinnaalani Undi, Is it naara or nara? Tana mana not Tanaa Mana. Anyways, I guess only few care about pronunciation issues these days. The chorus and beats that repeats through out the song are good, the interludes are made differently. This song needs repeated hearing to grow upon. Probably not an instant hit, due to singing issues. "Buddude Yuddame Cheseyyada ninnu choosi" is an awesome phrase. 

7. Put Your Hands Up 

Singer(s): Shravana Bhargavi & Mickey J Meyer

Lyrics: Krishna Chaitanya

Put your hands up Rocking on the dance floor, shaking on the dance floor. If this is what probably Mahesh says that, we can imagine what will happen to the dance floor. Thats for the movie, but coming to the song. Put your hands up is definitely catchy and haunting. All the other flavors added to the song are fine. Shravana Bhargavi should have avoided fake accent here and there. She was fine until then and most of the song. Mickey's name is there but not heard distinctively. Probably gone in the chorus or somewhere. No major issues as such with this song. Depends on youth and Mahesh to do something to the song to take in on the charts. 

Pick(s) of the album: Naidorintikada, Aatapaatalaadu, Vachindi kadaa avakasam ( purely for lyrics)

Mickey J Meyer had a golden opportunity with back to back albums releasing and to make a huge impact in Telugu Film fraternity. I feel that he lost good chance to utilize it to the maximum extent. Wonder why he is depending on Abhay for critical songs of the albums. These songs could have helped him a lot if done properly. Since a movie for family audience, the movie and Mahesh can take care of themselves independent of the music, but it undisputed fact that music can take any movie to different level. I am not sure how much help this would make as it leaves mixed feeling in terms of music. Its a decent album, but with given expectations, could have definitely been better. Some minor issues will hold back this album to taste good success. Hope this will appeal Mahesh Babu's fans.