OVERALL COMMENTS:

I looked forward to the "Anbae Sivam" album quite a bit. (1) It's a Kamal Haasan movie that's (supposedly) not a comedy; (2) It's Madhavan; and (3) Vidyasaagar fans told me this was one of the best musical albums of the year.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

It's not. In fact, "Anbae Sivam" is incredibly disappointing, with its tracks resembling "Kaadhalaa Kaadhalaa" in structure, making me wonder if "Anbae Sivam," in the end, is after all, just a comedy.

What's most disappointing of all is that Kamal Haasan's voice, featured quite a lot in this album, is horribly unlistenable. This is a man whose singing I enjoyed in "Hey Ram," "Mahanathi," and even "Aalavandhaan," to an extent. But in this movie, I found his singing unpleasant. Just that notched "Anbae Sivam" down a mark.

This is an album I will put away and not listen to again.

SONG-BY-SONG REVIEW:

1. Anbae Sivam -- Kamal Haasan, Karthik.
We start off with a track sung by Kamal Haasan. Unfortunately, though the lyrics are good and the music is adequate, I actually don't like it because of Kamal Haasan. His voice is just not right for this song -- he was great at singing the songs in "Mahanathi" and even in "Hey Ram" recently -- but for this, he sounds like he has a bad head cold. Karthik, a good singer, gets only to be background. Because of Kamal's singing, the song gets only a: Nice.

2. Elo Machi -- Kamal Haasan, Udit Narayanan.
And ugh, we get Vidyasaagar's favorite Hindi important -- Udit Narayanan. He is his usual self here, not even saying simple Tamil words correctly (like "moolakkulla"). As for the song? It reminds me of a song from "Kaadhalaa Kaadhalaa," and is a dappaanguthu-based song. The lyrics aren't good. The music isn't good. The singing, by both Kamal and Udit Narayanan, is inadequate. This is one of those songs I probably won't listen to ever again. Mediocre.

3. Elo Machi II -- Udit Narayanan, Karthik.
Vidyasaagar must have realized Kamal Haasan sounded horrible in "Elo Machi" version 1 (he is still blissfully oblivious about Udit Narayanan) so he's repeated the song with Udit and Karthik. Well, this only increases the song's quality by very little. Again, bad lyrics, okay music, and only slightly better singing. Between a Mediocre and a Nice.

4. Mounamae -- S.P. Balasubramaniam, Chandrayee.
And here is the song that everyone's been going crazy over, saying it's the best song on the album. Well, it is one of the best. But also, in my opinion, it's no classic. The singing by SPB and Chandrayee is good, the music is a lot better than in the other songs, and the lyrics are pretty good. It's a good song, but not a classic. Very Nice.

5. Naattukoru Seiythi -- Kamal Haasan, Chandran.
"Oh no," I thought when I saw Kamal was singing another song. He has been nothing but annoying on this album, and that trend continues in this song, which should have been left in the movie and out of the album. This is a song like "Bhajanai Seivoam," from "Ivann." Possibly fun to see on screen, but just annoying to listen to as music. Inadequate music, inadequate lyrics, and inadequate singing. Mediocre.

5. Poo Vaasam -- Vijay Prakash, Sadhana Sargam.
And in my opinion, this is the best song on the album. The music is soft and melodious, Vijay Prakash sounds enough like Kamal Haasan minus the annoying singing voice, Sadhana Sargam does well, and the lyrics aren't bad. Again, this is no instant classic, but it's pretty good. Very Nice.

VIJAY VANNIARAJAN