Kollywood 2003 – Music :

a) Best Picturised Song – Ennai Konjam from Kakkha Kakkha. Splendid camera work from R.D Rajasekhar. The new style of editing called avid editing reached the audience. A clear difference between the normal editing methods and the avid editing techniques were seen. Harris Jayaraj’s Amazing tune that gives the pace. Offlate many of my collegues have started to drive car with this song singing continously in the background. Also the romance in Jyothika’s eyes, very evident of her true life.

b) Best Picturised Solo Song – Devathaiyai Kanden from Kadhal Konden and
Kadhal Vandhaal from Iyarkai. Both were pathos songs from the single male lovers. D.Kanden had amazing camera work and some freeze techniques. K.Vandhaal showed the unexplored harbour machinery and shyaam singing the song in a small boat. It also had amazing sea side visuals and nice pallavi.

c) Best Lyrics in a song – Vaali for Secret of Success (Boys) and Thamarai for all songs in Kakkha Kakkha, specifically Uyirin Uyirey and Thoodhu Varumma. Vaali was at his best in Boys. SoS had simple yet thoughtful lyrics. Thamarai, the female lyricist, certainly brings a new dimension to film music. Her lyrics have a feminine touch and is a relief to us who have been hearing to the stereotyped lyrics from male lyricists. Especially the songs in Kakkha Kakkha proved her nerves. Thoodhu Varumma is one such song. It went very unnoticed because of it’s bad picturisation.

c) Best Male Singer – Karthik for Manase Manase(April Mathathil) and Harish Raghavendar for Devathaiyai Kanden (Kadhal Konden). Great work by these youngsters.

d) Best Female Singer – Sadhana Sargam for various songs. Specially for her fabulous vocals in Iniya Nadhi from Manaselaam.

e) Best Bit song – Kanni Saami, the ayappan song from Boys. Scored by Pravin Mani, this is one song that I keep humming from the day I heard it. Good folk tune.

f) Best Ghana – It is the Madras Ghana and not the Hindi ‘Ghana’. Manmatha Rasa falls into this category and hence the clear winner. Though it had bad lyrics like the heroine calling the hero to Enna Kanakku Pannenda, it created a wave. Good job by the ‘Kannin Mani Kannin Mani’ Dheena.

e) Best Song – Uyirin Uyirey from Kakkha Kakkha. Undoutedly the best song of the year. With blasting music and soul searching lyrics, this takes over it’s contender Devathaiyai Kanden by a photo-finish. But it was badly picturised however.

f) Best Movie with good music – Boys and Dhool. Both had the good variety of music in the movie. Something that all directors wish to have in their movies. Dharani was however successful to extract the best of the best from Vidhyasagar. Though Shankar’s Boys was an honest attempt, the music wasn’t the same. Secret of Success was inspired by Eminem’s Without Me and Maro Maro had the underlying beats of Michael Jackson’s They Don’t Care About Us . However, the experimental number like Dating and the electric guitar special Girlfriend were some of the best of the year. Since it was a musical , Boys also joins the list.

g) Best BGMs – Kadhal Konden and Kakkha Kakkha, both had fabulous BGMs. Especially the encounter bgm in Kakkha Kakkha was close Mission Impossible tune. Also the theme music of Kadhal Konden was amazing. Interestingly, both are the most used ringtones in Tamil Nadu.

h) Best Music Director – Harris Jayaraj for Saami and Kakkha Kakkha. You know why.

i) Best of the Best – Illankathu Visuthey from Pithamahan. After a long time, a song that was picturised well and had the magical maestro touch. It’s a song that can stand time. Maestro Rocks!!

Some more on Kollywood music coming up !!