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A double for Rahman

Music composer Shrikanth plays Rahman's double in Doubles. Does film commerce dictate that newcomers adhere to Rahman's style, or is it just plain adulation?

Doubles
Five Star Audio
Rs 37

This is a Prabhudeva starrer. And it looks like Shrikanth, newcomer music director, is trying to set himself up as the poor man's A R Rahman!

Take the staccato singing style and the string section bangs in the interludes in the Hariharan number Naan ippo. Rahman plucks such sounds out of different genres -- he adds a dash of one colour here and a spray of another colour elsewhere, but Srikanth only seems to copy the already established sounds of Rahman.

Chukku bukku comes back in Rama rama. The Spanish orchestra of Jumbalakka comes back in Ayei pondattikum. They all speak Rahman's language.

In Ayei pondattikum by Devan and Sujatha, Spanish pop and tappanguchi dominate. The song is repeated with Sukhwinder Singh and Sujata.

Vasundhara, who played Kamal Haasan's second wife in Hey Ram, made her debut as a singer with Shakalaka baby in Mudhalvan. Here she sings Colourful nilave with Timmy, and the seductive quality of her voice is overwhelmed by sound and speed. The track is a fast pop-trance mix with an overload of electronic sounds.

Naan ippo starts with congo drums and a sarangi, reminding you faintly of Deva's Kaadal Kottai song Lolaaku. Hariharan sings staccato phrases. The interludes again play softly to the strains of the sarangi and kolaatam sticks.

Unnikrishnan and Harini sing Adi kaadal. The melody line is hummable and the orchestra arrangement is tender. A sax interlude stands out.

Leaving out Hariharan, Unnikrishnan and Sukhwinder Singh, the other male singers (like Timmy and Devan) insist on copying Rahman's anglicised style of singing Tamil. A bit of trivia: Shrikanth happens to be music composer Deva's son.

S Suchitra Lata

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