I went crazy listening to Raavan when it released. All songs grew on me on every listen. I was totally hooked to Ranjha Ranjha and Beera Beera initially. Then slowly followed Behne De and Khili Re...eventually Kata Kata and Thok De Dilli registered in my mind and all of a sudden the entire album kept spinning in my ipod and my mind in a loop.
Raavan became the album to get VTV and YMC out of my mind, even though I was occasionally getting back to Kundanappu Bomma/Omana Penne and Hosanna. Then the unexpected happened. Raavanan released..all my excitement shifted to Raavanan. I went for my favorite song of Raavan, Ranjha Ranjha. Was unpleasantly surprised. Thought the beauty and enigmatic touch of Ranjha was spoilt in Kattu Sirukki. Wondered if it was the lyrics / the high-pitched singing of Anuradha. Skipped and went to Usurey Pogudhe. This was great, on par with Behne De. Loved it and moved on to Veera. Was disappointed a bit. Thought the african chants didn't work in tamil or the lyrics again were bad. I found Kalvare soothing, mainly because of Shreya's voice, wasn't really impressed by VM's lyrics. Kodu Potta was good, but I liked hindi version better. Finally Kedakkari was something which struck the right chord for me. Rahman did do something different for this song to fit Raavanan. The shift from Shehnai to Nadaswaram was brilliant, and overall the feel of the song was different from the hindi version. All said and done, kept listening to Raavanan for a while until one day I realized I shouldn't force myself to listen to something just because its Rahman's. I mean the music is great no doubt, the hindi version already proved it. ARR delivered big time to suit the movie's needs. The songs sure do transport the listener to breathtaking locales of the movie as seen frm the trailer. But its the other half of the equation which takes away my interest from listening to them. The lyrics by VM and the singers to some extent. I switched back to Raavan and I'm much more happy listening to the songs, no more disappointments or ponderings, and in tamil VTV is back !!! To me if Rahman wins an award in tamil, it will be and should be for VTV than Raavanan, and I never ever thought I'd say this for an ARR-Maniratnam combo. Sirish P.S - I decided to share my opinion after deep thought and seeing posts justifying how Raavanan score will/might grow on you...I tried, but it just didn't..
