Raazi’s New Song Dilbaro Has The Emotions In Place, But Without The Magic

The new song Dilbaro from Raazi is out now. The team of the film took to social media to release the song. After Ae Watan, this is the second song from the spy drama to be released. Shankar Ehsaan Loy has composed the music and Gulzar has penned the lyrics and the song is played against the backdrop of Sehmat’s wedding to the Pakistani Army officer in the film. Here is what we think about it.

Also Read: Love, Patriotism, and Sacrifice: This Is The Real Story Of Raazi's Sehmat Khan

The song Dilbaro is essentially an emotional number. It talks about the emotions of a father-daughter relationship as felt by a daughter during the time of ‘bidaai’. Given the context of Raazi, the emotional turmoil is further heightened and the lyrics totally support that. ‘Ungli pakad ke tuney chalna sikhaya than a, dehleez uchi hai yeh, paar kara de’ beautifully captures Sehmat’s and probably every girl’s plea to derive strength from their father while embarking on a journey that they have no idea about.

The song is heavily inspired by the folk music that peculiar to the region of Kashmir.  Even the initial lyrics are in the Koshur language that is usually spoked in the region, giving the melody a very rooted and authentic touch. Although it is a ballad that talks about the pain of separation, it also manages to keep the essence and mood of a wedding intact. The composers have used a lot of rhythm instruments which are normally used in folk music of the region, especially for wedding songs, but the lyrics are used to convey the pain, heartache, and fear of the unknown.

The song has been sung by Harshdeep Kaur with Vibha Saraf and Shankar Mahadevan providing backing vocals. Due to the strong folk flavor of the song Harshdeep is in her most familiar territory and with the lyrics and music the unique texture of her voice further gives the song a very strong sense of belonging to the roots.

Given the context of the song, it is bound to strike a chord, especially with women. But in case of Raazi especially, the words are not being spoken just to the father but also the nation that Sehmat loves and is being made to leave and go to an alien land that awaits a lot of challenges for her, but all for the love of the same nation. With the emotion of bidaai overlapping with a certain tinge of patriotism, the song evokes two very relatable emotions.

Unlike many, we quite liked Ae Waatan, but with stalwarts like Shankar Ehsaan Loy and Gulzar coming together for a film that is as emotional and dramatic, the music of the song falls a little short of our expectations. This was one opportunity that could have accommodated and even majorly benefitted from a magical number, but even with the emotions and Alia Bhatt ’s sensitive portrayal, the music falls flat and fails to create the impact that we were so looking for.