Visited Benares ghats to seek inspiration for Raanjhanaa: Irshad Kamil
Soumya Vajpayee (HINDUSTAN TIMES; June 21, 2023)

Penning the songs of Raanjhanaa (2013) was quite a journey for lyricist Irshad Kamil. From writing during a vacation and travelling to Benares to seek inspiration — there are a lot of fond memories associated with the film, he says. Talking about his most challenging song,

Kamil says, “There is a situation in the film where a song is picturized while marriage preparations are on. The director (Aanand L Rai) was sure that he didn’t want a typical marriage track. So, I cracked the idea of mukrees, a form of writing invented by Amir Khusrow (late poet-singer) and came up with Ay Sakhi.”

Sharing the kind of research he did before penning the songs, Kamil says, “I visited the Banaras ghats to get the feel of the Ganga. I also interacted with the people there.”

Talking about his most special track, Kamil says, “It’s Nazar Laaye. My wife, Tasveer, and I were holidaying when one evening I got a call from A R Rahman (composer) sir’s studio that they’d mailed me the composition and had to record the song the next day. So, I woke up at 5 am, finished the song by 8 am and went sightseeing at 9 am.”

Kamil enjoyed working with Rahman on the soundtrack: “He is full of musical wonders. Whenever I work with him, I learn something from him.”
---------------------------------
Soumya Vajpayee (HINDUSTAN TIMES; June 21, 2023)

Singer Javed Ali recorded the song Tum Tak from Raanjhanaa (2013) in a jiffy. Interestingly, he wasn’t prepared when he was called for the recording by composer A R Rahman. “I was holidaying with my family in Goa when I got a call from Rahman sir. He wanted to record Tum Tak urgently. So, I had to cut my Goa trip short and travel to Chennai to record the song, while my family stayed back,” says Ali.

Sharing the recording experience, he adds, “When I reached there, Irshad sir (Irshad Kamil; lyricist) and Aanand L Rai (director) sir were there. Rahman sir had a tune, so Irshad sir added lyrics to the tune and I recorded it. We added some great variations to the song and I loved how I sounded in Tum Tak. It’s one of the best songs I’ve worked on.”

‘I had to cut my Goa trip short to record Tum Tak’