- Sreya Sunil

After putting up a good boy act in Ee Abbayi chala manchodu [which, I guess, was too soon and too much for the Telugu audience to accept Ravi Teja as a goody good boy having seen him as an Idiot]; after talking about his Amma, Nanna, O Tamil Ammayi [which the audience paid a deaf ear to initially but ended up singing praises about it later], Ravi Teja is now back in action for the first time with Sontham, Gemini fame Namitha in Oka Raju Oka Rani [OROR].

Varma and Krishna Vamsi's protégé Yogi debuts as a director with this movie. Apart from the fresh pairing of the hero-heroine, this film also has story, dialogue writer, director Trivikram turning a lyricist by penning lyrics for the all the songs for the very first time. Bobby director Sobhan will also be seen in a cameo in this movie.

Chakri, after providing music for a number of Ravi Teja's films like Itlu Sravani Subramanyam, Idiot, Avunu Valliddaru Istapaddaru, ANOTA, is the music director for this film too. He packs the audio of OROR with a bunch of melodies of which most of them grab your attention in the very first listening. While you end up humming some of the songs inadvertently even after you have stopped listening to the audio, the others might do the rounds as long as the movie stays in the news. The album consists of 6 songs of which 3 are solos and 3 are duets. Chakri, takes a maximum share of singing 3 songs in the album and Kousalya gets a single card as the female singer.

1. Swaraala Veena (Listen)
A nice breezy number which has Trivikram talking about the feelings of a guy who has just fallen in love and all he sees everywhere is his girl. Though Chakri tries to sing this one well meeting with partial success, at times [especially towards the end of the stanzas] he makes us wish he made somebody else sing this number. The tune, the back ground music, the humming in the interludes and simple yet subtle lyrics make this one a very pleasant number. This song calls for a highly imaginative picturization to bring out the effect that Chakri creates in this number. As an aside, the tune in the opening lines of this song seems to be inspired by the humming in the song Sontha Kuralil Paada from Amarkkalam [Adbhutam] starring Ajith and Shalini, tuned by Ramani Bharathwaj and sung by Shalini herself.

2. Vennele Nuvvani (Listen)
This one's an instant winner with melody lovers. Chakri sounds very different in this song and does a good job of singing this song accompanied by Kousalya who is good too. Apart from a melodious music and good singing, what saves this song from being yet another love duet is good lyrics by Trivikram, who makes good usage of some inseparable bonded pairs like vennela-viraham, keratam-teeram, toorupu-vekuva, kala-nidra, chinuku-chiguru talking about the bond between the guy and the girl.

3. Kalalu Kantaanu Neneevela (Listen)
Though this is a catchy number which grows on us, it reminds us of a popular song (Hindi song??). While Trivikram's lyrics introduce us to the optimistic character of the heroine talking about her ideal/dream world, Kousalya imparts the right effect to this number with a good rendition. Namitha is one lucky heroine to enjoy a solo song in each of her movies so far - Telusuna [sung by Chitra in Sontham], Dil Diwana [sung by Usha in Gemini] and now this one.

4. Mannutine Chinnatanam (Listen)
So far so good! That's what I thought while reviewing this album until I heard this song. Well, it's definitely a neat composition with ample beats targeting a particular section of the audience who, I guess, will lap it up with open hands but... yes but it suffers from the Udit Narayan syndrome which people like me cannot stop complaining about. Udit, no doubt, is an amazing singer as long as he knows what he is singing which is very well the case with his Hindi songs. Also, it's natural for a singer singing in a language totally alien to him to end up sounding awful at times. [I am talking about the pronunciation of certain words there and not the singing style as such]. So, enthusiastic music directors using such singers have to take the additional onus of making sure that these singers are not essentially inviting the ire of music lovers. Isn't this unwarranted and uncalled for especially when life could have been much simpler if they had used local singers or at least made it a point to educate the singer with the correct way of uttering certain words if they *have* to use that singer no matter what? Having taken a short diversion there, let me get back to the track I am supposed to be treading. Trivikiram writes interesting lyrics for this song. Particularly the lines where he compares priyudu-mogudu-muddu with veduru-venuvu-raagam are good. Kousalya also appears out of place like her male counterpart singing certain lines

5. Nidurinche Raathirilo (Listen)
Not again Chakri! You extracted mushy lyrics from Trivikram, made Kousalya sound good, came up with a decent melodious composition but how could you go wrong with the choice of the male singer? Mathin sounds like a poor imitation of Kumar Sanu [who himself tries to imitate Kishore Kumar] showing his uneasiness in each and every line. If that is the reason [that Mathin sounds like Kumar Sanu] which made Chakri use him for this song, then what Chakri succeeds in is, reminding us of some old Anand-Milind Kumar Sanu Hindi songs. Though Trivikram uses kalalu, oohalu and other such typical ingredients of love potion, the way he mixes them turns out to be tasty; if not tasty enough.

6. Naa Praanam (Listen)
Chakri sings this one in a restrained manner. But his voice seems to lack the depth to depict the pain which the song mainly talks about. Lyrics by Trivikram convey the situation and mood of the song very well. With a beautiful composition, Chakri scores more points as a music director here than as a singer.

Trivikram, after proving his mettle as a story/dialogue-writer/director, now proves his abilities in being not only a lyricist but a good one at that. He pens love songs, mass song, and a tragic song with same panache and ease reminding us of veterans like Sirivennela and Veturi at times. If he continues writing lyrics then is bound to give stiff competition to the likes of Kula Sekhar and Chandrabose.

Overall, the audio of OROR has good melodies without any loud piercing beats. All the songs have a well-balanced harmony between the interludes and the opening music. The only complain is in the choice of singers for the fourth and fifth songs. The audio, without any doubts, is sure to taste success. Hopefully the movie also meets with the same fate.

Sreya's Picks: Vennele Nuvvani, Naa Praanam

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