Veera Vinayaka (Anirudh Ravichander and Vishal Dadlani)
A gnarling guitar keeps up with Anirudh’s voice throughout this song. And, what looks like a group kuthu dance in front of a Ganapathy temple. The lyrics begin by asking for the Elephant God’s blessings, before transitioning into an awkward chorus about Poondhu Velaas-ing.
Theri Theme (Anirudh Ravichander)
The ‘Theri’ theme, or as it will soon be known, the ringtone of every Ajith fan, is anything but subtle. Bent notes, pops, high hats, and assorted beats make their way back and forth across my headphones. It’s a carefully curated cacophony. What Anirudh had done with the ‘Kaththi’ theme was a lot better. (Note to fans: I accept abusive hashtags in English and Tamil. Hindi, while acceptable, might go over my tiny head.)
Uyir Nadhi Kalangudhae (Ravi G)
The song builds on a catchy rhythm. Sure, this is Anirudh. But there’s a pleasant shift around the anupallavi (Ravi G nails that ‘Oyamaale Uyirrr’ portion), and you’re hooked. The chorus cements the deal. Welcome to major airtime, you sneaky devil. Short, but the pretty guitar interlude leads to a flatter charanam. It’s almost generic, but who cares? The chorus nudges us back to attention. And this time even rides a fervent guitar to good effect, finally outro-ing like one of those reflective rock ballads. Quite possibly, this was Anirudh’s take on one.
Aaluma Doluma (Anirudh Ravichander and Baadshah)
Oh well, another kuththu song. And a few lines into it, I smell some ‘Dangamaari’. That one smelt better. This is just tiresome.
Don’t You Mess With Me (Shruti Haasan and Shakthisree Gopalan)
Full disclosure: I watched the images flash by me on the video song as I tried to write this down. Let’s just say Shruthi Hassan makes a strong case for liking this song. But I’ll set my bias aside, just this once. For four minutes and 57 seconds.
‘Don’t you mess with me’ is an Englipich song about Ajith’s pros and his apparent lack of cons. He doesn’t get mad. He doesn’t turn off. And she thinks it’s all an act and wants him to quit it. As she vents, Anirudh fits a tune and a catchy chorus around her frustration, to make this rant seem interesting. Soon after, a rhyme break is followed by a shoutout to all the girls to “say with her, say with her”. (She doesn’t tell you what, but we think it has something to do with Ajith.) Rinse, repeat. We’re at four minutes and 57 seconds.
Back to Shruthi. I think I love this song.
*****
Anirudh has a decent body of work by now. Decent enough for us to look back, and put it all on a list of best to worst. My instinct is to push Vedalam close to the bottom. Only, I remember the last Ajith-Siva collaboration, Veeram, whose songs featured on no one’s playlist. So this would be an upgrade for the duo, a downgrade for Anirudh fans. As for the rest of us neutral observers, we’ll just have to keep listening to Shruthi Haasan lyric videos.
*****