Kal the miley, phir kyun lage aise,

Tumse miley arsaa hua jaise

Ab tu bataa jo ho pataa

Tere bina lamha lamha jiyenge kaise...

Crooned by Arijit Singh, touched by the monsoon shower, bringing with it all the bittersweet emotions of meeting and parting, this is the first song from Raja Natwarlal to be released. However, the version was recorded as an afterthought, after 90 per cent of the con caper had been shot.


“It was Humaima's (Malik) introduction scene in the film, a seductive bar dance, and Shweta Pandit had recorded the female version earlier. But the more I heard the tune, the more I was convinced that it was a quintessential Emraan Hashmi love song. Finally, I coaxed my composer, Yuvan Shankar Raja, to give it a crack with Arijit Singh,“ recalls director Kunal Deshmukh.

Fortunately for him, Yuvan loved Arijit's voice, programmed the male version and flew down to Mumbai. It was recorded in 45 minutes flat even though Arijit wasn't feeling too well and requested that they push forward the recording to another day. “But Yuvan persuaded me to sing a few lines and after listening to it, insisted that the kharoch (scratch) in my voice was working for the song. Since he was okay with the scratches in my voice, I sang with out worrying about tonality and it was over in a flash,“ reveals the singer.

Arijit however admits that when he heard that Illayaraja's son was making his Bollywood debut with a commercial Emraan Hashmi film, he was surprised because the composer is known for his classy, semi-commercial scores down South. “But when I heard the track I was blown away. It was a catchy commercial track with Yuvan's Southern touch and the richness of melody," he raves. Kunal reveals that it was Pritam who referred Yuvan when he approached him to score for his fourth film. “Pritam wanted to take a break and sent me some links of Yuvan's songs. Little did I know that they'd never met before," he smiles.

Yuvan flew down to Mumbai and over a two-hour conversation Kunal and he sized each other up. The Southern whizkid was picky about his Bollywood debut but when Kunal narrated his story, he decided this was it. “He only laid down one condition, that he would compose all the songs. This suited me fine," recalls Kunal.

And so this tune was set and given to Irshad Kamil with the brief that he should come up with words of love that came straight from the heart. “Whenever I write a romantic song I try to project love in a new light. And this time I wanted something, which had a hint of zidd and aggression that comes when you are really and truly in love. Your beloved becomes your aim in life and you are ready to fight every obstacle to get her because you feel teri baahon ka ghera badaa mehfooz lage hai, badi bekhauf jagah hai yeh inme hi rehna chaahein," he points out, reasoning that it didn't matter to him whether a girl sang it or a boy because such feelings are not gender specific.

The song was picturised in the first week of July, incorporated into the second half, a promo was cut, got the censor nod and it opened to arousing reception yesterday. Arijit, who also sang Murder 2's Phir mohabbat karne chala tu, says, “It's always great to sing for Emraan because his songs usually click. Hopefully, this one too will bring romance to the long rainy days."