Poo

It is easy to find whether a soundtrack is really worth listening after you listen to it once. I casually listened to ‘Poo’ soundtrack few times while at work and I really didn’t pay much attention to the music, it was just playing on my ears. But a week after I found myself humming the melody of ‘Avaram Poo’ and ofcourse one cannot forget the instantly catchy ‘Cho Cho maari’ so easily after listening once. That is how good music gets into our mind even if we don’t really take any effort to concentrate and listen.

S.S.Kumaran’s debut effort is folk solid and promising. When it comes to composing songs for kids, I admire Vishal Bharadwaj a lot; S.S.Kumaran comes close of Vishal in ‘Cho Cho maari’. I think after Illayaraja’s ‘Damakku Damakku’ from Azhaghi, we have a real kiddie’s song. The immensely likeable hook line and a brilliant rendition of the kids should make this song an instant favourite of anyone who listens to it.

It is so refreshing to listen to Harini in a folksy romantic melody. She has rendered ‘Mamaan Yengirukka’ with right diction, emotion and openness in her voice. And Harini is the highpoint of this song and it is a very clever choice by the composer. While ‘Dheena’ has loud percussive male portions sung with right zing by Shankar Mahadevan and a soft and soothing female portions aptly accompanied by rustic flute.

By the time we reach ‘Dheena’ song, we get to understand the composer’s style and approach towards orchestrating a song. S.S.Kumaran does tend to provide a very dense orchestration with lot of instruments and layers though these beautiful melodies would definitely have worked even with minimal orchestration. But I should admit, that these aesthetically added layers of instruments indeed add a lot of colour, energy and aural richness to the songs.

Chinmayi’s serene vocal opens ‘Avaram Poo’ and as the melody unfolds in her expressive cum voice it goes on to prove a point that after A.R.Rahman it is S.S.Kumaran who has used Chinmayi’s voice aptly well. ‘Paasa Mozhi’ inspite of being a very nice melody suffers hugely because of S.S.Kuraman’s singing. Periya Karuppu Thevar’s ‘Sivagasi Rathiyae’ starts with a nice punch and sustains it throughout. It is a neat folksy kuthu number.

S.S.Kumaran’s Poo is a fresh fragrant bouquet of melodies.