Music director Bharadwaj, quite popular for his melodious tunes, joins hands with debutant director Hochimin for February 14.
With some of his numbers in the recent past in movies including Ulla Kadathal and Mannin Maindhan failing to live up to expectations. Bharadwaj has been under a bit of pressure.
As the title suggests, February 14 is a romantic film and hence Bharadwaj has given more thrust to melody.
The album comprises seven songs with a mix of peppy tunes, soft melodies and hot reggaes.
With the likes of seasoned singers like Shreya Ghoshal, Sadhana Sargam, Anuradha Sreeram and Srinivas in fine form, the album has lot of things going for it.
Bharadwaj's excellent orchestration and classical based tunes add sheen to the numbers.
1) Laila Majnu (Karthik, Sadhana Sargam)
Just about the right beginning. This is a groovy number with Sadhana Sargam at her best. It begins on a soft note and gains lot of speed and purpose as it moves along. With peppy beats adding strength, the song really makes an impact. And Karthik these days can't make much wrong.
2) Aanandha Avasthai (Shreya Ghoshal)
Shreya Ghoshal is sublime form as her voice takes the contour of a cuckoo in top flight. Shreya's voice weaves a tapestry of melody and magic. A classical raga inspired melody, Bharadwaj's excellent orchestration makes this song shine further. Bharadwaj has not experimented much as he sticks to the basics. And that is good enough.
3) Nanba Nanba (Bharadwaj, Srinivas, Karthik, Janani Bharadwaj)
Bharadwaj's daughter Janani has combined with his father Bharadwaj, Srinivas and Karthik for this song. It's a tune inspired by western notes. The song has no big musical orchestration, but for the chorus. But this more a hymn on friendship. Watch out for some good lyrics by director Hochimin himself on friendship.
4) Un Peyarennada (Anuradha Sreeram)
A perfect classical style song. And Anuradha is the most apt choice for it. Her voice has an alluring mix of innocence and nasal twang. And her voice suits both classical tunes as well as rhythm-based numbers. In this highly Carnatic styled number (the accompaniments are mandolin, mridangam and ghatam), Anuradha keeps her voice and virtuosity steady.
5) Idhu Kadhala (Haricharan)
Yet another soft song with Haricharan, a new singer on the block, coming up with what the music director had asked of him. Sure, he has a long way to go before he gets every aspect of singing right. But Haricharan shows lot of promise. He has the right tone and timbre, and he also has his basics right. With a good background score (thavil stands out), Bharadwaj again shows that his orchestration skills are top of the range.
6) Ennachu Enakku (Sri Krishna)
This is big time Punjabi folk. The song oozes youthful romance and the intent is to enable raucous dance. And it sure does. New singer Sri Krishna comes up with the goods.
7) Othayya Rettaya (Pushpavanam Kuppusamy, Anuradha Sreeram)
Both Pushpavanam Kuppusamy and Anuradha Sreeram are wholesome singers. In that, they never hold back anything. They go for glory in every stanza. And that is what this song demands of them. They have delivered that. A mass number that will make even those with left foot dance, this number is for front-benchers.
On the whole, a competent effort from Bharadwaj.