The making of Ishqiya's Dil To Bachcha Hai by the numbers

In this age of Youtube and what not - try as I will, its hard to listen to a song before watching its video first.

Take Ke$ha's Tik Tok (the first US Billboard #1 of the decade) for instance. Long after the insanely persistent tune left my head, the image of a trashed out party chhokri who gargled with Jack was so seared in my brain that it was hard not to break out into the song whenever I felt boredom (or the police) approaching. This took a while to get rid of. (I did however add the vaguely inappropriate term 'Blow my speakers up' from the song to my vocabulary.)

In a similar vein, I ended up discovering Ishqiya's flagship song Dil to Bachcha Hai via its 'making of' video. And this messed up my perspective completely.

It's easy to mistake this song as a simple melody. Its the production more than the melody that is simple. Composer Vishal Bhardwaj uses Hitesh Sonik and Clinton Cerejo as his producers and together they are able to use instruments sparingly without making the song sound sparse.

There are two things that give Dil to Bachcha Hai its lilting cuteness: (1) a waltz rhythm, minimal percussion and a peti and guitar as primary instruments that don't overrun each other (2) delicate vocals by Rahet Fateh Ali Khan.

I review music a lot on the Drift so I decided to do something different. I watched the 'Making of...' video instead and made some important notes.



Number of times someone says 'bachcha': 13

Number of times Naseer explains the role of a song in a film: 1

Number of times Naseer clears his throat while doing that: 2

Number of come hither looks thrown by Vidya Balan: 8

Number of dopey looks thrown by Naseer: 1

Number of times Naseer's age in the film is referred to: 3

Number of references to lyricist Gulzar's age: 1

Amount of enthu Naseer has for the interview = Amount of enthu KJo has for RGV

The different ages that love reduces you to a bachcha according to Vidya Balan: 15, 50 and 80

Times composer Vishal instructs singer Rahat on how to pronounce 'Safed': 1

How Rahat pronounces 'Safed': Soofayd

Number of cheeky looks thrown by Rahet at Vishal immediately after doing this: 1

Number of people who think this is Vishal Bhardwaj's best work: 2

Number of shots of Drift favorite Hitesh Sonik: 4

Number of stills of Gulzar shown in montage: 6

Number of stills in which Gulzar's mouth is agape: 3

Number of times third lead Arshad Warsi shows up: 0

You can listen to the songs of Ishqiya on Saavn here. Be sure to catch Rekha Bhardwaj's super nasheeli jazz ghazal Ab Mujhe Koi.