Gokula Music Review

Audio Review by Kris Nayak

People say Mano Murthy’s songs take time to grow on you; not necessarily, if you listen to the songs of Gokula. Some songs make an impression early on, and some fail miserably; either way, you will have an instant opinion. The music lacks the oomph Mano Murthy normally packs into his compositions; that ‘something is missing’ feeling refuses to go away.

This album can be a good case study for ‘the effect of lyrics on the listenability of a song’. Music director and singers being constants, the words make all the difference. While Jayanth Kaikini’s words have loads of depth, meaning and manage to strike a chord, Dhananjaya’s lines sound rather hollow and haphazard. The Kaikini-Sonu combo rallies hard towards the finish line, but Mano Murthy (almost) succeeds in pulling them down.

Baruve Odi Odi (Karthik, Ritisha): A fun filled love song. Karthik and Rishita add a lot of life, and maintain the feel good factor throughout. Sprinkled with impromptu rap gigs at various parts, this song is bound to make you smile.

Aaramaage Idde naanu (Sonu Nigam, Shreya Goshal): It has all the ingredients of a good song, but the package sounds remarkably average. You can’t stop that ‘something is missing’ feeling when you hear it. Considering the quality of individual efforts, this song is a failure as a whole.

One By Two Jeevana (Tippu): Song to Avoid- No.1. The instrumental part starts off promisingly, but the lyrics and singing kill whatever build-up it achieved. Song wanders off aimlessly, and one tends to wonder where did it go wrong.

Maja Maadoke (Karthik, Ritisha): A party number no one would dance to. Lyrics are, again, the culprits, but music sounds a bit bland too. Singers who sounded so good in ‘Baruve odi Odi’ are surprisingly placid in this composition.

Neene Helu Nannadaavudu (Sonu Nigam): Soulful lyrics, soothing music, and excellent vocals. Need we say more? No one could have done justice to this song except for Sonu Nigam. You can feel the pain in the voice, and the guitar strumming in the background makes those hidden emotions come out exceptionally well.

Aaramaage Idde naanu- Remix (Sonu Nigam, Shreya Goshal): Remixes normally tend to be faster versions of their slower counterparts, with few beats added in; and most of the time, they degrade the original composition. This song is no exception to this trend.

Final verdict: Mano Murthy could have strung the individual performances together in a better way. This looks like an average effort, full of tracks which people will listen to for a few days, and move on to the next mediocre stuff. The team was exceptional, but the captain was off his best.

Also See

• Gokula Movie Review – Predictable but Beautiful!
• Interview – Prakash
• Gokula Movie Stills
• Gokula shooting kicks off – Movie Stills