Oru Ponnu Oru Pyyan (OPOP), directed by Naren Deivanayagam, has the director doing the story, script and dialogue himself. Debutant Sandeep and Swetha are the leads, with veterans Sarat Babu and Bhanupriya, and Malayalam actor Madhu, in major roles.
Karthik Raja's album begins with a bang, with Kalkona uthatukari, a romantic duet with a light folksy touch, sung in sizzling fashion by Karthik and Reeta; the former gets another chance to prove his mettle, and sings with fervor. Reeta, too, sounds better than in her debut, Thiruvilayadal Arambam. The track has pleasing violin interludes.
Oh sweet da-Hey mama is an adrenalin-loaded number in rock & roll style, that takes you back to Oh mama mama from Minnale. The opening couplet has shades of the old Raja rajadhiraja number from Agninakshatram. Ranjith's screaming vocals at times get submerged under the orchestra.
Next comes Malargale malargale, a love song soaked in melody, rendered by Beila Shinde. Instrumentation is accentuated by a generous inclusion of violin and guitar. The number strikes a discordant note only when Beila negotiates the high octaves. Her voice becomes shrill as a whistle; your ear drums are at risk. The singer clearly has a lot more to learn about voice modulation and Tamil diction.
Karthik Raja sings the next track, Nenjil, and does so in poignant style.The song has echoes of the legendary KJ Yesudoss, and the number is lamentably short -- even before you really get into the mood, it is over. You find yourself wishing that Karthik Raja would sing a lot more, alongside his composing.
The title song Oru ponnu, is racy with sexual overtones and a bit of good humoured teasing; it is rendered by Karthik and Swarnalatha, and has the feel of an item number.
Yanai pasi brings back strong memories of an old Hindi number from an Urmila Matondkar-Nagarjuna film (Krodhi, if I am not mistaken, though I don't trust my memory entirely on this). It is is a passionate piece, sung remarkably well by Ramya, who dominates in this number, pushing male voice Vijay Jesudas into the backdrop. Still, there is plenty of scope in this song for Vijay to showcase his talent. You do reckon, though, the mixing could have been better.
The album ends on a sombre mood with a repetition of Nenjil, this time in Sangeeta's silken voice, that gives it the feel of a lullaby.
It is good that Karthik Raja is gradually coming out from hibernation; however, somewhere along the way he appears to have lost his originality. Many of the numbers in OPOP have a rehashed feel to them.
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