The first big achievement of Shashank Khaitan’s Dhadak is the title track composed by Ajay-Atul. Khaitan roped in the Marathi original Sairat’s composers for his remake. While the chartbuster Zingaat has been retained, the title track is a fresh composition created for the Hindi version, and it looks all set to be a chart-topper.

The Hindi remake of Nagraj Manjule’s 2016 Marathi blockbuster stars Ishaan Khatter and Janhvi Kapoor as a young couple forced to defend their love against feudal forces in Rajasthan. The film will be released on July 20.

Advertisement

The title track has been sung by Ajay Gogavale, one half of the composers, and Shreya Goshal. The song starts off like a breeze before taking off in the mukhda, where Gogavale’s vocals swell and envelop the song with overwhelming emotion. Ghoshal is suitably supportive. The song’s minimalist musical arrangement, a rarity in contemporary romantic songs of Hindi cinema, is a welcome surprise.

The accompanying video looks at Khatter and Kapoor’s characters, Madhukar and Parthavi, basking in the glow of first love, running in slow motion across Udaipur, cosying up in a boat in the dark, and ratcheting up cellphone bills all through the night.

With this song, Ajay-Atul, who delivered an unparalleled soundtrack for Sairat, maintain a difficult balance of sincerity and sentimentality. Amitabh Bhattacharya’s lyrics are, as always, effective.