If there is an award for plagiarising film lyrics and music, it should go to Srikanth Deva, the music director of the Tamil film Pazhani.

From start to finish, originality has gone for a toss in this film directed by Perarasu.

What is even worse is that a slew of instruments that the composer has used to embellish the tracks have not been able to save it from adulterated mediocrity.

Pazhani reportedly has sibling bonding as its theme. Bharath in a car driver's role is the male protagonist and Khushboo acts as his sister. Kajal Aggarwal is in the female lead.

The opening track Ellam valla iraiva starts with the Hindi word Ajarae. The silly lyrics are full of camouflaged references to Kalaignar, Rajnikanth [Images], ('superstar' and 'paalkaaran') Ajith ('ultimate'),Vijay ('Ilaya Dalapathy') and their film titles. The composer has also contributed to this stupid mish-mash by borrowing hit tunes like Style style thaan, Ennadi raakkamma and rasikkum seemanae vaa. Sreekanth also mixes genres like gana, kuthu and folk making this a farcical track. Racy and energetic percussion is the only redeeming factor.

The following Yaarum ennidam, is a love duet by Karthik and Sadhana Sargam. The track, which starts with invoking Lord Saravanabhava (Muruga) has fast beats, melodious feel, powerful chorus and impressive instrumental interlude garnished with words like I love you da. But with the borrowed tunes of even nursery rhymes, the heard-before feel persists. The composer has even lifted from Rahman's chorus dham thera in Guru!

Thiruvarur therae is a romantic duet by Udith Narayan and Anuradha Sriram. The number starting quite energetically has catchy instrumental interlude and buoyant percussion. Udith Narayan sings with his stilted Tamil diction while Anuradha's zest and vigour is appreciable. But borrowed lyrics (Dindigal poottu) and tunes are again the bane of this light-hearted and racy piece, which may find favour with the masses.

Singers Naveen and Vasundhara Das have put their heart and soul into the song Innoru murai. Vasundhara is at her aggressive best and it is a treat to listen to her after a very long time. The number has fiery orchestration, fast beats and a rap passage in between. But Srikanth has no qualms in lifting tune from Rahman's Shivaji!

The solo piece Thaayai polathan by Mukesh is an emotional number with philosophical flavour. In fact this is perhaps the only track which does not create any sense of deja vu. The song with 'mother sentiments' has powerful chorus and good instrumentation which never oversteps. The flute finale is quite impressive. Mukesh's rendition and voice modulation are remarkable. One question, why is this singer not heard more often?

The concluding number Locku locku is in kuthu paattu style with mild rural touch. Perarasu once again dons the singer's garb (earlier in Dharmapuri) with Suchithra. Lyrics are overloaded with meaningless alliterations. Perarasu, singing in an inebriated style, is unimpressive as a singer, but Suchithra is at her energetic best. A track obviously meant to titillate the front benchers.

Pazhani album is a pot pourri of heavily borrowed tunes and lyrics.

A total let-down by Srikanth Deva.

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