Visited Banaras ghats to seek inspiration for Raanjhanaa: Irshad Kamil

Penning the songs for Raanjhanaa was quite a journey for lyricist Irshad Kamil. From writing during a vacation and travelling to Banaras to seek inspiration to indulging in good food, there are a lot of fond memories associated with the film. Sharing his most challenging song, Kamil says, “There is a situation in the film where a song is picturised while marriage preparations are on. The director 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 that resulted in Ay Sakhi.“

Sharing the kind of research that went behind penning such versatile tracks, Kamil says, “I visited the Banaras ghaats to get the feel of the Ganga. I also interacted with the people there and realised ‘Banarasiya Bana Rasiya’.”

Talking about his most special track from the film, Kamil says, “It’s Nazar Laaye Na. My wife Tasveer and I were holidaying when one late evening I got the call from Rahman sir’s studio that they’d mailed me the composition and had to record the song yeh next day with the lyrics. We had sightseeing plans for the next day. So I woke up at 5am, finished the song by 8am and went sightseeing at 9am. It was quite an experience.”

For Kamil, working with Rahman was an honour. “Rahman sir is full of musical wonders. Whenever I work with him, I learn something from him. Once, Rahman sir asked me to come over as he was in Mumbai. He wanted to discuss the first song (in the movie) of the film. When I got there, he asked me if I’d written anything and I shared two words – Tum Tak’. He smiled and appreciated them and in our next meeting, he’d already made a beautiful composition with just those two words,” recalls the lyricist.