Vidyasagar is one music director who combines the melody of 80s and 90s with raucous rhythms of the 2000s. He can be downright mass. And he can be downright classy. It depends on what the director wants.
In Chandramukhi, he produced what is suitable to Rajni's image. In Kana Kanden, Vidyasagar is obviously hamstrung by the fact that Srikanth has no set image and K V Anand himself is on his first film as director.
Yet, considering all that, Vidyasgar has come up with a competent product.
1) Chinnaponnu
The singer is listed as Sayanoraphilip. Whoever that is, she starts in a throaty fashion, and by the time she comes to the middle segment it almost seems another is singing. The orchestration is heavy with the stress on rhythms.
2) Chinna Chinna
This is another husky number, suggesting intimacy. The lyrics (by Vairamuthu) borders on erotic. In the event, to listen to a rap bit at the start is rather puzzling. But Tippu and Sunitha Sarathary quickly take over. The interludes are soft and sustaining --- the sitar bit in particular is comes across as cool juice on a hot afternoon.
3) Thai Sollum
There is an almost old-fashioned beginning to the song that is about mother's love. Manickam Vinayagam, who belts out zingers, takes on gamely this pastoral piece. At higher octaves, his voice is disconcerting. Yet he carries on gamely.
4) Kaalai Arumbi
Srinivas has been on an unexplained hibernation for some time now. When you hear his voice and its essential melody, you wonder why he is not given chances more regularly. He joins with Kalyani and squeezes out a melodious juice out of this simple tune that does not complicate at any point.
5) Iyya Ramaiah
Udit Naryan, despite his butchering ways of the language, has a passionate energy and in zingy numbers like this it shows. The instrumentation reminds you of early Rehman. Yet, the mass number has a magnetic appeal.
Individual songs pass muster, but on the whole the cassette doesn't score much.
A case of the sum of the parts being more than the eventual whole.