MS Raju has earned quite a name for himself and his banner Sumanth Arts in recent years. Though Pournami broke his continuous success streak (Nee Sneham, I was told, did reasonably well), one still has great expectations from his movies. And why not, when Siddarth (after Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana), VN Aditya (after Manasantha Nuvve) and Devi Sri Prasad aka Devi (after Varsham, NVNV, Pournami) are teaming up with him again for Aata. If it was Trisha in NVNV, its Illeana who Sid falls head over heels for in Aata and thus begins a game!

Varsham, NVNV and even Pournami had good music. Naturally, one expects the moon from MS Raju – Devi. John Lubbock once said, what we see depends mainly on what we look for. Likewise, what we hear depends mainly on what we like to (h)ear. So, it is that vicious thinking called ‘liking’ that may or may not make you go ga-ga over the music of Aata. Even otherwise, going by the music Devi delivered for Raju’s earlier movies, Aata (except for the first two songs) comes nowhere close. Read on -

1. Aata
What a start to this album! Devi’s infectious tune is brought to life by Shankar Mahadevan, who is a perfect choice for this song, and lyricist Sirivennela Seetarama Sastry. Sirivennela has always given wonderful lyrics to MS Raju’s movies and here again, he writes simple yet effective words about treating life like a game - aaTa...aaTa...anukunTE batakaDam oka aaTa, aaTa...aaTa...kaadanTE baruvE prati pooTa. What more, he also adds a couple of lines in the second stanza about the protagonist’s fascination for cinema heroes.

2. Hoyna
The opening strings instantly remind you of Hare Raama (from another MS Raju movie - Okkadu, music: Mani Sharma) but from there on this one drifts to totally new charters ending up as the best song in this album. Perfect choice of singers (Karthik and Chitra truly excel), beautiful lyrics by Sirivennela (who brings to light the contradictory feelings between the guy and the girl lucidly) and melodious orchestration make this one a winner. On a speculative note, does the word ‘kannetaara’, used to describe the heroine, give out signals that Illeana enacts the role of a cinema heroine here?

3. Yela Yela
This catchy and racy number about two girls, has a strong heard before feel to it and may appeal only on the screen. Just the audio is nothing to rave about. Sirivennela’s lyrics for this song actually lend this number some decency especially when one tries to imagine what any other lyricist could have done to this song. Both Smitha and Sunitha sing this one very well.

4. Ninu Choostunte
Just because you see Siddarth’s name as the singer, don’t expect anything great from this song to save yourself some disappointment. Not that his signing is bad. In fact I’d go to the length of saying that, singing wise, this is his best number so far but Devi and he cannot recreate the same magic of Appudo Ippudo (Bommarillu) here. Sumangali sounds her usual self. Even in an average song like this, Sirivennela’s words shine - aaDa manasu kada bayaTa padagalada, anta suluvuga antu dorakadu vinta podupu kadha.

5. Muddulaata
Why? Devi, why? First of all this is a dull number with just a few interesting guitar strings but otherwise it has mediocrity written all over it. Why? And, of all,Udit Narayan? Why? Actually, Udit tries his best but like the famous Vemana padyam, eluka tolu techhi EDaadi utikinaa...., making Udit come up with correct pronunciations is mission impossible, I guess. Chandrabose stretches the usage of ‘aata’ word beyond your imagination in his lyrics.

6. Kaakinaada Kaaja
A fast paced number with a lot of beats and could most likely be the last song in the movie. Tippu and Gopika Poornima sing this one while Chandrabose’s wordplay, along the lines of Sirivennela’s, is interesting although he cannot refrain from this trademark style of framing new words like kissabdham (to rhyme it with nishhabdham)

In a nut shell, though this album starts off beautifully with two good numbers it settles down as an ordinary album not living upto the standards and expectations of an MS Raju – Devi combination. That in itself may be a disappointment for Devi fans. Surprisingly, there’s just a few days gap between the audio release and movie release. Does MS Raju already know that the album desperately needs some backing from the movie for it to gain popularity?

On a different note:

Mithoon Sharma, a 22 yr old composer, created quite a stir in the Hindi music industry with his wonderful [guest] compositions in albums like Bas Ek Pal (Tere Bin is his sole composition in this album), Anwar (Maula Mere, Javeda Zindagi are his compositions in this album) and Doorie (Kuch is Tarah). His new album - The Train - where he has composed music for all the songs is now out and you have to listen to the songs in this album. What a talent! Is Mithoon another Rahman in the making?

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audio reviews by Sundeep Reddy
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