Film: Maachis (1996)
Music: Vishal Bhardwaj
Lyrics: Gulzar
Singer: KK, Hariharan, Suresh Wadkar, Vinod Sehgal

The opening line of this nostalgia-inducing number has been sung in 3 different tunes to start with. This is from the era when the multi-faceted Vishal Bhardwaj was just a music director and not a filmmaker yet…but his mentor – Gulzar – was. Double him up as a lyricist and you get lines like ‘Teri qamar ke bal pe nadi muda karti thi, hansi teri sun sun ke fasal pakaa karti thi’. This track does not follow the standard mukhda-antara pattern and the beauty lies in how seamlessly each antara enters the mukhda. Also has 4 top-class vocalists playing their roles with élan.

Politically-sensitive cinema has always been understandably controversial and Maachis wasn’t different – the focus here was on youth in Punjab after the 1984 riots – ‘dil dard ka tukda hai, patthar ki dali si hai’ emotes the pain rather beautifully…ending with Suresh Wadkar’s rendition of ‘ik chhota sa lamha hai jo khatm nahi hota, main laakh jalaata hoon yeh bhasm nahi hota’. All other numbers from this movie were also loved by listeners – Chappa Chappa charkha chale (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwtWQxFMfxw), Paani paani re (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io8k1atUqRI), Tum gaye sab gaya (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZJwt-rNDrA), Yaad na aaye (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahm_62tEPBQ)