BOMBAY TIMES (April 10, 2020)

Recreations and remixes of old classics have now become a part of the music world and are often loved by fans. In recent times, reprised version of songs like Tamma Tamma, Dilbar and Muqabla turned out to be huge hits, but not every reprised version wins the audience’s appreciation. And that seems to be the case with Masakali 2.0, a recreation of Delhi-6’s song Masakali. It has been a decade since the Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra film hit the theatres, and Masakali was one of the most loved songs from the film. In fact, one of the highlights of Delhi-6 was its songs, scored by A R Rahman and penned by Prasoon Joshi.

Masakali 2.0, featuring Sidharth Malhotra and Tara Sutaria, was released on Wednesday, and since then, it has divided netizens. The song has also become the subject of countless memes. While the original was sung by Mohit Chauhan, the new version has been composed by Tanishk Bagchi and sung by Sachet Tandon and Tulsi Kumar. Both the songs are owned by T-Series.

Rahman expressed his displeasure about the remix through a tweet (see left). Talking to BT, Prasoon says, “Masakali is special for many reasons. Though all the songs I have written are special for me, a few are milestones in their own right. The entire album of Delhi-6, I humbly say, is truly iconic. Masakali is a word which I coined. It has no meaning and it’s not part of any language. I tried to infuse meaning in it through imagery, which A R Rahman painstakingly and masterfully composed, and singer Mohit added many more dimensions to. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, cinematographer Binod Pradhan, and of course, Sonam (K Ahuja) made it visually come alive. There is a larger point here – Who will protect the sanctity of original music and poetry? Is there any accountability to the music lovers or can whoever feels like tamper with the soul? ”

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is also upset about the recreation of the song. He tells us, “It’s not like you cannot ever have a reprise, but it should go to the same people who created the original. The decision should be left to them if they want to do it. If I had been asked, I would have first spoken to A R Rahman and asked him if he agreed with the idea. I am a hardcore believer in originality and left to me, I would have said no to the idea right away.”

On his part, Mohit Chauhan says, “Masakali is iconic and has been a really important song in my career. Rahman saab and Prasoon bhai have already conveyed the sentiment that I have at this moment about Masakali 2.0. When a world-renowned musician and composer like Rahman saab says that the original should be heard, and not the remix, he is politely conveying that the song has been butchered. I think the time of polite dismissal of remixes is gone and the industry now must state in clear terms that remixes are really not necessary.” Tanishk, who is known for remixing old songs, recently recreated another of Rahman’s iconic songs — Muqabla, for Street Dancer 3D. Both Bhushan Kumar, of T-Series, and Tanishk were unavailable for a comment till the time we went to press.

— With inputs from Rachana Dubey and Debarati Sen