Music of Oru Kalluriyin Kadhai disappoints

Yuvan Shankar Raja is a busy man these days. He has two albums released around the same time, Kanda Naal Mudhal and Oru Kalluriyin Kadhai. I had been greatly impressed by the musical mastery in evidence in his compositions for Kanda Naal Mudhal. So, as I listened to Oru Kalluriyin Kadhai, I was trying to find out whether Yuvan could produce two albums of breathtaking quality at the same time.

For a regular listener to several Tamil music albums, it is quite easy to come out with a formula for a typical album - there has to be a fast-paced number (sung by a male singer) expressing passion, a slow-paced duet, a quick duet where the heroine gets to show her waist off as she gyrates to the tune and, finally, a koothu number to get the frontbenchers dancing in front of the screen.

Oru Kalluriyin Kadhai does not break the mould,it does not even try to. It is so hopelessly clichéd that, though the tunes are rather hum-able, it is nothing memorable at all.

Starting off with Kangal Kalangida, sung by Shankar, the album moves on to a slower duet sung by Harish Raghavendra and Chinmayi - neither of which is inspiring in the least. The best that can be said about either of these tracks is that it does not cause one's ear to hurt.

The rest of the tracks are even more pedestrian. This quality is compounded by the insipid vocals of Ranjith, Sriram and Unni Menon. After Side B winds itself to a slow halt, one is not left with the slightest desire to play the whole album again.

The only bright spot in the album is KK's inspired rendition of Kangal Kandadhu, a song that seems to keep repeating itself throughout!

It is rather disappointing that a music director of Yuvan's undeniable class has composed such an insipid collection. He should be more selective and avoid ruining the splendid body of his work with such pedestrian fare.

This album is most likely to gather dust on your music shelf after the first listening.