Music Review: Billa II

In Billa (2007), Yuvan Shankar Raja etched an exotic blend of melody and feet-tapping beats (remember Sei Yedhavathu Sei and Vethalaiya Potendi?), complete with groovy orchestration and eminently danceable rhythms, while blending elements of contemporary music. In its prequel five years later, Yuvan has lesser success. Gangster, if we can excuse its mind-numbing lyrics, is passably engaging electro-pop but clearly inspired by the recent spate of such tunes from the likes of LMFAO. Thankfully, Idhayam ups the mood with its fantastic melody quotient and an equally beautiful rendition by Shweta Pandit. Yedho Mayakkam sounds generic and is nothing to write home about barring the interesting nadaswaram interlude, while Andrea Jeremiah packs in enough spunk in the madhalam-driven Madurai Ponnu. Unakkulle Mirugam is shockingly bland, no two ways about it, but the theme music rounds up the soundtrack on a gripping retro-tinged note. But for Idhayam, it's surprising that a large part of Billa II's music is rather mediocre.