Sonu Nigam's Yeh Dil Deewana - The Turning Point
- Hansa
- Jun 30
- 3 min read
Year of release: 1997
Film: Pardes
Lyricist: Anand Bakshi
Composer: Nadeem–Shravan
Couple of months after the release of 'Sandese Aate Hein,' I hear a catchy number, 'Yeh Dil Deewana.' I crank up the volume. It is a love song full of yearning and raw passion, with a western feel to it. It is astonishing that both these songs, so utterly different from each other, have been sung by the same person.
The song appears at several crucial points in the film and mirrors Arjun's emotional journey. It is not merely a love song. In fact, it becomes one of the film's emotional anchors, resurfacing at key moments throughout the story.
When Subhash Ghai meets Sonu before the recording of this number, he tells him he has to bring three different moods into the song - happiness, sadness and anger. He further adds that the song is simple. To make it special, the word 'dil' has to be sung with so much vigour that it shakes everybody who hears it. He says - sing with such force, that your throat starts bleeding.
Sonu Nigam does exactly that.
He has finally got the opportunity of a lifetime, the type of song he has wanted to sing all along. And there is no way he is going to let this chance slip by.
He believes that unless his body's full of energy and verve, he will not be able to convey it through his voice. So he does as many as fifty flying kicks before recording the song.
And then he sings his guts out. Literally. He knows this song is either going to make him or break him. And he gives it his 200%. When you listen to this song, you can see it, hear it, feel it - that hunger, that passion, that need to be valued and appreciated as a singer. In Subhash Ghai's own words - "He started singing and a new magic was created... By the time he reached the climax, inka band baaja baj chuka tha (his throat had gone for a toss)."
What makes the climax so remarkable is not merely the sheer power of it. Sonu is still a young singer in the early stages of his career, yet he manages to maintain the pitch, emotion and control even while pushing his voice to its limits. The soaring climax eventually becomes one of the song's defining features.
“This song was a rock number and people had billed me as someone who sings only soft romantic numbers,” says Sonu. “I had to convince Subhash Ghai, the director-producer of the film and the film's music composers Nadeem Shravan, that I could do this song. So, I jogged, did flying kicks around the mike, till I got completely exhausted. All this to get into the mood, as I wanted to surpass Shah Rukh Khan's acting with my singing. And I did.”
Sonu's famous 'aaah' in the song is inspired by Michael Jackson's 'Bad.' It is because of this song that he starts getting fast, catchy numbers like 'Ankhiyon se Goli Maare,' 'Jeene ke hein Char Din' and 'What is Mobile Number,' instead of the earlier woeful ballads.
Until then, many music directors tend to associate him with soft romantic and melancholy-filled songs. 'Yeh Dil Deewana' proves that he can bring the same conviction and intensity to energetic, youthful numbers as well.
“Everything changed after 'Yeh Dil Deewana' and Pardes,” says Sonu. “'Sandese Aate Hein' was still a patriotic song. It was not a mainstream mainsteam happy number. Both these songs were like Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs which exploded in the industry.”
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