- Sreya Sunil

Jr. NTR, B Gopal and RP Patnaik are the talk of the tinsel town today. Jr. NTR, having garnered a huge mass following with his sensational Aadi, dons a full-length mass hero role again in Allari Ramudu. B. Gopal having delivered a stupendous hit in the form of Narasimha Naidu, is the director in the reckoning now with two most eagerly awaited films in his kitty (Allari Ramudu and Megastar's Indra). RP Patnaik who rose to instant fame with his musical scores for Chitram, Nuvvu Nenu and Manasanta Nuvve, is the uncrowned king of music in Tollywood today. This is RP's fifth musical score this year. His other albums so far in 2002 being - Nuvvu Leka Nenu Lenu, Santosham, Sreeram and Jayam

When three hotshots come together for the first time, nothing less than a scintillating display of fireworks is expected. But sometimes, not all the crackers burn the way they ought to. Some bomb out, some explode with a deafening cacophony and some dazzle us. Even if one sets aside the expectations from such a combination, the music of this flick is not at all slick. Hackneyed instrumentation, banal tunes, mediocre lyrics result in a trite allari that is rammed into this album.

1. 2002 Varaku (Listen)
This is a revamped version of NTR-Sreedevi's highly popular 'Aaku chaatu pindhe tadise' from Vetagaadu. The original song was composed by Chakaravarthy and sung by SPB and Suseela. SPB and Usha sing this version. Though it lacks the punch of the original song, it's the singing of SPB and Usha, which makes it worth listening to. Lyrics by Veturi in the original song are much better than what Pothula Ravi Kiran pens here. If Veturi talks subtly about the girl as 'aaku chaatu pindhe tadise', Ravi Kiran prefers to refer her as 'choodaledey intha saruku'.

2. Chelia Chelia (Listen)
This is the only melodious song in this album. Though it has no great instrumentation, RP comes up with a hummable tune. RP, Usha do their job of singing this song well. Lyrics by a new lyricist Chaitanya Prasad are decent considering the quality of lyrics in the other songs of this album.

3. Rukhmini Rukhmini (Listen)
A supposedly fast beat song sung by Ravi Verma and Usha. Though Ravi Verma's voice sounds like that of Vandemataram Srinivas and Devi Sri Prasad, he nevertheless impresses and so does Usha. If Chaitanya Prasad pens lyrics like 'looks loni x-ray ni penchutondi pulse-beat' (Wonder what he means by that? That is, if at all his intention was to come up with something meaningful in the first place), he also pens some witty lines like 'muripalanu vediga tagani, madi meegada toduga veyani'.

4. Bodduni Choodayyo (Listen)
This song starts off as a Punjabi folk number with the chorus singing 'shama' and 'aha' (this part resembles the chorus singing 'aha' in the 'Snehituda' song of Sakhi). Karthik and Kousalya sing this number effectively. What can I talk about the lyrics written by Pothula Ravi Kiran, which goes 'Boddunu Choodayyo, Bongaramadayyo!'? They speak for themselves. Seduction seems to have taken an entirely new route these days where the girl has to 'explicitly' say certain things to catch the attention of the guy.

5. Voppula Kuppa (Listen)
RP, who renders his vocals for this song, sounds like Altaf Raja singing a Telugu song going overboard whenever and wherever possible. Usha, is her usual self. Though the 'pallavi' of the song is catchy, the tune in the 'charanams' treads the commonplace path. Lyrics by Chaitanya Prasad are just about mediocre.

6. Ee town naadiraa (Listen)
There's one line in this song written by Pothula Ravi Kiran which sums up this whole song - 'Mari cheap!' Mano sings this song in his usual style doing justice to what was expected out of him. It is solely because of him that the rating of this song goes beyond one star. RP shouts a few words in the song and Usha gets to mouth a line or two here and there.

RP is known for his beautiful melodious numbers apart from his penchant for folk songs. Most of the best songs in his albums till date are melodious numbers retaining the richness of the lyrics and bringing out the best out of his singers. With Allari Ramudu he has tried something different, to come up with 'pakka mass' numbers but leaves a lot to be desired. If this album does any good, then that is - it makes you appreciate RP's recent albums (Santosham, Sreeram and Jayam) all the more.

Some of the songs in this album are bound to become popular as the release date of the movie draws closer and will hang in there as long as the movie is in the news. But not a single song will remain etched in our memory unlike at least one song from each of RP's previous albums. The songs, if well picturized (adding the oomph of Arti Agarwal and Nagma and the amazing dancing skills of Jr. NTR) might catch up after the release of the movie. Until then, this ramudu might not create any allari.

Click here to read the other articles by Sreya Sunil

click here for other audio reviews - Indra, Jayam, Sreeram, Kanulu Moosina Neevaye, Vasu & Santosham

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