Ilayaraja's Ilaya Raja!

Yuvan is in some big hurry.It's May 8 and 5 albums of his are out already this year.

1.Siva Manasula Sakthi:This album had just one great song(Oru Kal).Some nice lines and an agreeable tune has made it this year's anthem for lovers at war. All other songs were drab with pathetic lyrics.("Eppadiyo Mattikiten" is one of the most badly written songs in Tamil Cinema)

Pick of the lot:Oru Kal-Yuvan Shankar Raja

2.Kunguma Poovum Konjum Puravum:Yuvan is comfortable in composing for "Paruthiveeran" genre films.This album introduced "Gujarish" Javed Ali to Tamil.3 hummable tunes.But making SPB croon a song meant for a Kanja Karuppu-lookalike is unimaginative and downright silly.

Pick of the lot:Chinna sirisu-Javed Ali,Bela Shende

3.Sarvam:The best of the 5.Vishnu-Yuvan combo works.Yuvan combines Ilayaraja and hip hop elements for the highly mischievous "Adada Vaa"."Neethane" is typical Yuvan stuff."Sutta Suriyane" has a strong tune being crooned by a mellow Vijay Yesudas.Javed Ali makes Seeman and co furious by merciless rendering in "Siragugal".

Pick of the lot:Sutta Suriyane-Vijay Yesudas

4.Vamanan:Quantity has a heavy toll on Quality."Money money" and "Lucky star" are less inventive with ordinary rap.Javed ali continues Tamil-bashing in "Aedho seigirai"."Oru Devadhai" reminds one of "Engeyo Partha" from YNM.

Pick of the lot:Oru Devadhai-Roopkumar Rathod

5.Muthirai:I am madly in love with "Azhagana Neeyum" sung so beautifully by Naresh Iyer.

If ever a song makes a lasting impact because of it's vocals,here is one."Om Shanti Om" has some heavy use of guitars and percussion.Other songs are dull.

Pick of the lot:Azhagana Neeyum-Naresh Iyer,Manjari Phadnis.

Some Don'ts for Yuvan:

1.Stop using Javed Ali,Roopkumar Rathod et al.Using North Indian singers is not going to make you a Rahman.

2.Too much of hip-hop can be avoided.People are not that interested.

3.Blaaze is being used to the point of overkill.I saw one trailer of "Vamanan"-2 minutes of rap.Bland.

4.Stop giving undue importance to instrumentation,layers,additional elements etc("Sutta Suriyane" would have been a masterpiece if it had had a less raucous instrumentation).You are better off imitating Ilayaraja rather than Rahman.

5.Stop doing too many films.You can be dismissed as one from the "Srikanth Deva" league.

 6.Take a cue from Harris and stop singing please.

Expecting a more selective,experimental,less singing,please-all Yuvan in the future!