Osthi

Producer: T.Ramesh
Director: Dharani
Lyricist: Vaali, Yugabharathi and Silambarasan
Music Director: S.Thaman
Singers: L.R.Easwari, Silambarasan, Thaman, Rahul Nambiar, Mahati, Rita, Baba Sehgal, Naveen Madhav, Ranjith, Sola Sai
Actors: Silambarasan, Richa, Sonu Sood
Label: Sony Music

Osthi, the Tamil remake of Dabanng, starring Silambarasan and Sonu Sood (playing the same character as in the original) amongst others is scheduled for release end of November 2011.  The film’s music is by S.Thaman who recently did Nagaram and Vandhan Vendraan and Mundhinam paartheney. Thaman started off as actor in the film Boys – he has since found his niche in music direction and has been moderately successful in Tamil and Telugu films.

Osthi Mamey – the title song (lyrics by Vaali) is sung by Baba Sehgal, Rahul Nambiar, Naveen Madhav and Ranjith – an upbeat song which however soon starts seeming like leftovers or remnants of Kaadhal Vandhaale - the song that Sehgal sang from Singam picturised on Surya.  However, Baba Sehgal (amazing how perfect this Punjabi singer’s Tamil diction is) and his co-singers give it their best in this spry and animated number. The hero introduces himself to the audience w

Unnale Unnale – sung by Rita and Thaman whose voice is synthesized throughout.  The song is pleasant enough and would have better without playing around with the male vocals.  A fairly buoyant song with full emphasis on rhythm and percussion.

Neduvaali – sung by Rahul Nambiar and Mahati – a song where shooting (a gun) is used as a metaphor with plenty of double entendres thrown in for good measure.

Pondaati – sung (and penned) by Silambarasan – once again the male vocals are dragged through the voice box.  The song is very reminiscent of yaathe yaathe from aadukalam and the lyrics which sing the praises of the hero’s cute pondaati (wife) are not exactly graceful or sensitive!  Thanks to the doctoring of the voice, it is difficult to say if Silambarasan has sung well or not.

Kalasala Kalasala – aah…. the song we were waiting for – the equivalent of Munni Badnaam picturised on Mallika Sherawat and sung by none other than L.R.Easwari who is accompanied by T.Rajender and Sola Sai – the song is an out and out item number – totally dance floor and foot tapping – with bawdy and risqué lyrics and very sultry vocals by the female singer.  L.R.Easwari (who has sung some of the best ‘cabaret’ and item numbers in Tamil films) breezes through the song effortlessly, and though she is over 70 and is singing at a much lower scale and synthesized vocals, still packs the same punch as before.  T.Rajender’s raucous rendition and Vaali’s raunchy lyrics give the song the requisite ‘record’ dance (a popular term for item numbers in Tamil film music parlance!) feel!!

The listener  starts getting a little impatient and unfocused by the time the third song unfolds– what’s with the vocal synthesizing  in almost every song – esp. for the male singers – and the cadence is the same for all songs– fast and energetic maybe– some catchy, but not all – a hint of some other song here and there.  The music is largely unexciting with more emphasis on hard hitting and punchy percussion – melody seems to be sacrificed for mass and box office appeal and the lyrics written obviously to reflect the nature and the character of the protagonist and suit the narrative and therefore laced with lewdness mostly.  My rating for the album was 2 out of 5 stars!

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