Sonu Nigam's Satrangi Re - Different Shades of Love
- Hansa
- Jun 16
- 3 min read
Year of release: 1998
Film: Dil Se
Lyricist: Gulzar
Composer: A.R. Rahman
'Satrangi Re' is a masterpiece, a song that has stood the test of time and continues to be regarded as a classic for its music, lyrics, picturisation and rendition.
Such outstanding pieces of work happen when legends like Mani Ratnam, A. R. Rahman, Gulzar, Sonu Nigam, Farah Khan, Santosh Sivan, Shahrukh Khan and Manisha Koirala work together. Shot against stark deserts, snow-covered landscapes and vast open spaces, the visuals give the song an almost dreamlike quality, perfectly matching its emotional sweep.
This song conjures images of the seven different stages of love and takes us through an entire rainbow of raw emotions. It also arrives at a crucial point in the film, when Amar's love has crossed the boundaries of reason and entered far more dangerous territory. The intensity of the situation seeps into every note of the song.
Each and every one of these seven stages, whether it be attraction, infatuation, love, reverence, worship, obsession or death are expressed so accurately and precisely by Sonu, that you get goosebumps listening to it. Gulzar uses colours as emotional metaphors throughout the song, turning the rainbow itself into a language of love, longing and surrender.
It is a long tricky song. During the recording Sonu thinks he's doing a pretty good job. Till he reaches the end and has to sing the line – mujhe maut ki goad mein sone de. These are the early days of his career, when his voice is still a little raw and inexperienced and he is unable to sing this line. So he takes a break, goes outside and practices what he has learned from his guruji when studying voice culture. This enables his throat to get some much needed rest and he's able to go back and finish recording the song.
And this time he totally nails it. The alaap at the end, followed by the above mentioned line, are out of this world.
The song is not just appreciated, it becomes a mega hit. It is one of those songs which people love to listen to even today, almost thirty years after its release.
Years later, Sonu still speaks about the song with enormous affection and admiration, especially when discussing A. R. Rahman's vision for it.
Let's hear it in the maestro's own words - “It was a very different kind of song which stood out then and even now. I don't see anyone making a song like that today also and that time nobody had even conceived a song like that. Hats off to A.R. Rahman to even think of a song like that which had different antaras, different compositions, and he allowed me to belt it out a certain way. Not any preconceived notion that can you can sing like Rafi Saheb, can you sing like Kishore Kumar. He just allowed me to do whatever I felt like to the song. And some things are just meant to happen a certain way.”
“I remember before the song was released, Farah Khan met me. She called me up somewhere and said – 'Oh God, what have you sung?' Then one day Tabu called me up out of the blue – 'Hi, I'm Tabu.' I said – 'What? Asli waali Tabu?' 'Yeah, yeah, asli waali Tabu.' Then she said, 'I've heard the song. I think it's one of the best songs ever.'”
“So before the release I knew the song was going to be appreciated a lot.”
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