[intro]Despite its drawbacks, Thaman’s music in “Brucelee” may get crazier response by the day because of groovy numbers and trendy music.[/intro]
Ramcharan’s most-anticipated “Brucelee” promptly launched the audio launch amidst thronging crowds at HICC on Gandhi Jayanti. Some kind of irony that a movie titled after the apostle of martial arts got launched on the birthday of the apostle of non-violence. But never mind the irony. The fans were thrilled and the first family of Megastar turned up in full force – Chiranjeevi, wife, daughters alongside Ramcharan and Upasana.
Amidst thronging crowds and choreographed numbers, “Brucelee”’s audio was launched. The setting got bigger with a formal announcement that Chiranjeevi will be seen in a cameo that brings father and son in more than just a song sequence. That almost settles it as the Megastar’s 150th film and breaks the jinx of a seven year gap since father last danced in “Magadheera”. Alongwith Ramcharan and Rakul Preet Singh as the lead pair, impressive starcast of Kritti Karbanda, Arun Vijay, Sampath Kumar, Nadiya sets expectations high for what appears to be a brother-sister revenge drama in the backdrop of a martial arts master.[pullquote position=”right”]Despite lyrics becoming a casualty yet again in Thaman’s music, the songs will have a club-appeal that keeps looping your mind back to the catchy tunes.[/pullquote]
SS Thaman scored the music for the songs lyricised by Ramjogayya Sastry. All the five songs are set to peppy music with technobeats and trance music that’s been the hallmark of Thaman of late. Almost all the songs have the usual ingredients of his hypno-trance tracks – a catchword that keeps looping back, voices scooped up in juke box with special effects and percussions to match groovy steps.
- “Ley Chalo” is the track that already got released before the audio which has the same melody mix suiting the long-drive listening moods. Of course, lyrics by Ramjogayya do not get noticed in the heat of the instrumentation that Thaman infuses in his songs. And all the songs fall into this trap.
- “Run” the first track in the album is quite similar to the “Ley Chalo” in tune despite a slight change in the tempo.
- The song “Ria” is the better soundtrack with some impressive polyphonic mix that comes after the signature tune which will be a party hit because of its catchy tune and rhapsodic rhythms. Thaman introduced the Malaysian rockstar Rabbit Mac who sung this particular song at the audio launch and sure enough, he rocked in performance with a different-sounding voice that mixes fast-rap with a smooth baritone. The flute used in the song definitely uplifts the overall feel of the song.
- “Mega Mega Mega Meter” is the song that shows Rakul in item girl costumes ensnaring the hero Ram Charan – it looks like a proper item song with some attention-grabbing rhyming words like “Mega Mega Meter Lucky Matter” – a song that will top the charts with Mega fans.
- Of course, the only song that lags in speed is the slow but mass-appeal song of “Lee Lee Bruce Lee” which has a rustic beat. All songs except this have an urban touch with fast-beat numbers.
[pullquote position=”left”] Ramcharan has developed a knack of a safety-net approach – a mixture of good music, glamor support, good starcast, and entertainment rich with comedy. [/pullquote]Despite lyrics becoming a casualty yet again in Thaman’s music, the songs will have a club-appeal that keeps looping your mind back to the catchy tunes. Thaman’s music of late has become indistinguishable from the last twenty songs that he has composed and this soundtrack is no exception despite heaps of praise showered on him at the audio launch. It is another matter that the music may be a chart-buster despite the repeat feel. In the early part of Thaman’s career, he used some experienced singers like SPB, Karthik, Chitra, Shreya Ghosal to blend soulful singing with melodious rhythms. But after his 50th film “Aagadu”, Thaman got into the trap of creating medley of songs merely to appease masses with few songs that stood out. Now, his music has become an orchestra of his famous symphony tunes with afro-celt rhythms and hopeless lyrics with more than half the songs sung by himself or his favorite new finds like Suchitra and Ramya or the Malaysian singer Rabbit Mac. It gives no relief to the audience to have all the songs set to similar tempos and groovy rhythms even if the songs have an air of hummability.
Keeping that aside, Ramcharan’s choice of Thaman might help in the overall feel of an action-packed movie with a legendary title of “BruceLee” because of the jazz and pep Thaman brings in his music both in the songs and the BGM despite sounding repetitive. Starting with Mani Sharma in the first phase of the career, Ramcharan started rotating music directors frequently of late, not wanting to fall in the same trap as Allu Arjun who dances often to DSP. His last six films had five music composers –MM Keeravani, Mani Sharma, DSP, Harris Jayaraj, Yuvan Shankar Raja which speaks of a different strategy for selecting music than his predecessors. Only Thaman is repeated besides Mani Sharma in his career so far. In spite of all that, none of the soundtracks bombed in terms of juke box response. As producer BVSN Prasad remarked at the audio launch of “BruceLee”, Ramcharan enjoys a 90 per cent track-record at the box-office which is remarkable for a nine-film-old hero. Only “Orange” bombed at box-office of all his films released so far, even a forgettable “Govindudu Andari Vaadu” pulled it off in collections despite a lacklustre plot. Speaks of the stamina that is developing in Ramcharan’s films which takes a safety-net approach – a mixture of good music, glamor support, good starcast, and entertainment rich with comedy. Hopefully, “Brucelee” would continue the winning streak at the box-office for Ramcharan. As far as the audio response goes, despite its drawbacks, the response may only get crazier by the day because of groovy numbers and trendy music.