Pehle Ishq Lada Loon — The Beauty of Lyrics in Zara Hatke Zara Bachke

How many times do we get to listen to lyrics which are not only fun, but also talk about the character a little, and then even add some figures of speech, or alankaars, as they are called in Hindi?

The lyrics from Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan starrer Zara Hatke Zara Bachke seem to do that in quite a few places, thanks to Amitabh Bhattacharya's nuanced writing for the film.

I mean there is 'Baby tujhe paap lagega' there in the film too, but interestingly, the two songs which seem to be doing really well are the ones I'm going gaga over — namely 'Tere Vaaste' and 'Phir aur kya chaahiye'.

First of all, I love how Vicky Kaushal's character is accommodated in the lyrics. The lazy/go-with-the-flow character comes out so beautifully in a few places. My top favourite being 'jab tak teri neend na toote, ugta nahi hai sooraj mera' from phir aur kya chaahiye. The line literally means that his sun doesn't rise until she wakes up. It's like using all the lovely poetry to say, "I don't want to wake up before you". 😂

'Tere Vaaste' is even more clear on the objectives, as 'Chaand taaron se kaho ki abhi Thehrein zara, pehle ishq laRaa loon uske baad laaunga' sets up the priorities right from the first line. And then there are the lines 'chehra hai tera chanda/ naina tere sitaare/ ambar tak jaana hi fizool hai'. Of course he's praising her beauty, but the lines also tell that he's not really interested in putting so much hard work if there is not much of a need.

These lines can be considered as showing the character's world, or the fact that he's already married to his love and hence takes her just a little bit for granted in spite of all the love. Either way, they seem to work for the film.

Other than that, of course the alliteration in 'solah-satrah sitaare sang baandh laaunga' and the wait-for-it shlesh (one phrase, two meanings when read/listened two different ways) in 'tu hi re / tu heere' are fun.

The 'tu hi re / tu heere' one is also interesting because 'tu hi re' is an old, immensely popular song, so when you listen to the words for the first time, you pretty much always think of it as 'tu hi re' rather than 'tu heere', but then after three repetitions of the phrase, you suddenly hear 'ni heeriye' and you think of it as 'tu heere', that is 'Heer' too then.

It's like not only adding the figure of speech, but even trying to make you aware of it, something Irshad Kamil had done in 'manwa laage', where he wrote 'khule khwaabon mein jeete hain, jeete hain baawre', where 'jeete hain' worked both as living, and winning. Interestingly, there Kamil used the phrase 'Jeete hain' twice. Whether it was just because of the music, or whether he wanted to stress on the two meanings of the phrase, he'd know better.