Peranbu Songs - Music Review

Suhansid Srikanth

Peranbu, a film with its very name suggesting what Ram and Yuvan are up to this time.. has four songs.. an album that barely has a runtime of sixteen minutes. Yet the compassion, the humaneness and the calm it offers amidst all the chaos we are in is poetry.

To hear a Ram album without Na.Muthukumar pounds a thumping sadness. But like a father who comes forward to take care of a destructed home post its elder son death.. Vairamuthu resurrects the songs with a Tamil that hasn't gone a bit faded in all these decades.

Dhooramaai

Dhooramaai is a detour from the madding world! Words like 'Kutruyire' in a 2018 song passes off like a surprise! And the way Vairamuthu steps up his words..

'Kollai azhagu theeraadhu,

kuruvi ingu saagaadhu!

Vellai pookkal vaadaadhu,

nee sooda neraadhu!'.

 

He beautifully utilises the flexibility of Tamil without raising a confusion in the meaning he aims for in a line. And.. there is a line that goes 'Valayum aaru vaayal paayum! Varame.. Odi vaa!'. It took a while for me to buy the visual beauty Vairamuthu beholds beneath lines like this.

'Mozhiyatra boomi idhuvaagum!

Mugabaavam ingu mozhiyaagum!

Mugaipootha idhazhil nagaipoothu..

Ennai magizhvootta vaa!'

He who packs a film of 2+ hours in two stanzas of a song!!! Vijay Yesudas, with his caressing solid paternity in the vocals adds even more redemptive quality to the song!

Vaanthooral 

Sriram Parthasarathy who earlier sung 'Aanandha yaazhai' sings Vaanthooral. The choice of Sriram is brilliant for there can be no better option to compliment the calmness in Mammooty's face. The song that starts off as a Vishwathulasi or Bharathi like Ilayaraja mood flows into a carnatic interlude and stretches gloriously as a Yuvan's number!

The free verse poetry of Vairamuthu for this number is a piece of peace on its own!

'Mellathaane sollum maaarum!

Sollithaane sogam theerum!

Vaazhum aasai ulla berkke vaazhkkai endrume inikkum!'

The parallel that I get reminded off is 'Poththi vachchaa anbu illa! Solliputtaa vambu illa' in Kodiyile, a Kadalora Kavidhaigal number. But an even more close brother number of this track is the recent 'Merkku karaiyil' from Aruvi. These are two great lyricals that sort of list out the beauties of life and little pleasures in the world as a call for hope and will to live.

Seththu Pochchu Manasu

The song is rendered as a little kid's say who is one step away from giving up yet refusing to do so. Madhu Iyer's vocals flavours an Ilayaraja nostalgia like Bhavatharini's naive rurality in 'Mayil pola ponnu onnu' or Shreya Ghoshal's gem like rendering of existential mundaneness in 'Vilayaattaa padagotti' from Dhoni. Also, it is therapeutic to hear Yuvan switching it this effortlessly to Ilayaraja mode!

Anbe Anbin 

Anbe Anbin is your typical Ram number that celebrates love like an ecstasy.

Ram's songs that would call a loved one as 'Ilaippaatral', 'Peranbin aadhi ootru' or 'Dheivam' shines here in an imagery like 'Kadal sumandha siru padage' by Sumathi Ram. And an even more surprise is Karthik singing it. Not so often I've heard him (known for the light hearted melodies) to balance a deep number like this.

Like a 'Para Para' in Katradhu Tamizh or a 'Yaarukkum thozhanillai' of Thangameengal, the father's song for his daughter wonders at the treasure she is in every way possible. The ending 'Oho! En Magale!' echoing the chilling mist and vastness of hills reverberates in our ears!

Bottom line

Peranbu, the rain of compassion.. adds stubbornness to the statement that it is silly to say 'Yuvan's come-back' as he has never gone anywhere else. Also it reminds us of the sin we are doing to the abundantly blessed artists like Vairamuthu or Yuvan most of the times with films that hold no content to feed their thrive to excel.

Rating : 4/5