“This is my best album so far,” said G V Prakash Kumar of Kuselan. It is certainly the 21-year-old’s biggest album till date, because the film stars the biggest star of them all, Rajinikanth.
So what he is not the main protagonist. Rajini is there on the cover, the inside jacket and Kuselan is indeed being sold as a Rajinikanth film. In fact, the audio rights have been bought for Rs 2.25 crore, more than what A.R.Rahman-Rajini’s Sivaji got.
P Vasu, the director of Kuselan apparently had heard Prakash’s earlier albums and was impressed enough to give this prestigious project to him.
When Prakash got the call from Vasu’s office to discuss their next project, he literally ran. For nothing on earth, would he miss the chance to make the superstar dance to his tunes.
What we have is an entertaining mix of songs. The jewel in the crown according to Prakash is Om Zaarare sung by the King of Punjabi pop Daler Mehndi for the king of Indian cinema.
When I met Prakash, he sang the number and it was obvious it is going to be an extremely catchy number. He told me, Rajinikanth in his inimitable style had said: “Super song, it will be a superhit.” But I had my apprehensions.
With Daler singing in Tamil, will it be like eating aloo parantha with sambhar !! My fears were not unfounded, the Tamil has a very definite Punjabi lilt but Daler’s energy makes up for it. Chithra and Sadhana Sargam join in the fun too.
The album has a Cinema Cinema song, which introduces Rajini in the film. It is not sung by SP Balasubramaniam like in most of Rajini films, but by Shankar Mahadevan and you know that is a tough act to follow.
Prakash told me it will not pale in comparison with the Rajini-Rahman combo intro songs in Muthu, Padyappa or Sivaji because he has gone into a different genre altogether.
With lyrics by Vaali, this song is clearly targetted at the Superstar’s fans but somewhere it does not have the same effect as say the Oruvan Oruvan song of Muthu.
Also these Rajini numbers coming close on the heels of Ulaga Nayagane in Kamal Haasan’s Dasavathaaram makes you wonder why Tamil cinema’s biggest stars are on a high dose of ego-boosters.
My favourite song in the album is Chaaral by Shreya Ghoshal. It makes you feel wet in the rain, which according to Prakash is his biggest strength.
“If I am composing a winter song, I want the audience to feel cool listening to it,” he told me. And Chaaral does have that effect, ending with grandeur with thunder. But two things, the frog croaking at the beginning is too artificial and somewhere, it reminds you of A R’s May Madham rain number.
The other number that I loved was Sollamma sung by Hariharan, Sujatha, Ranjani and Pooja. Very melodious, with beautiful lyrics by Pa Vijay.
Perinba by Kailash Kher is the last song in the album and did we feel GV running out of hit tunes ! Is that why the song reminds you of Kailash’s first Tamil number, also for Prakash in Veyyil.
You feel the same rusticity in Perinba but just like Veyilodu Velayaadi, it is a nice pacy foot-tapping number.
Prakash’s first album for a Rajini film certainly is good fare and there isn’t likely to be any criticism why Vasu chose him over so many others. Go for it.
Source: NDTVmusic
