Melody for Monday - Tanishk Bagchi’s ‘Makhna’

Tanishk Bagchi’s ‘Makhna’ (Sweetheart), from the 2019 film, Drive, is a melody that, when played, hangs in the air, before spreading across like small rain. It’s a tune that seems to have existed long before anyone thought of recording it. Its beauty lies in the exquisite ease with which one phrase slips into another, carrying the listener along as Bagchi, Asees Kaur, and Yasser Desai sing-weaves.

What elevates Makhna just another love song is the marriage of Bagchi's tune with Ozil Dalal's and Bagchi's lyrics. The words are playful, yet immersive when voice-stitched to the music--‘O Makhna ve makhna/ Ab tu hi hai sansaar mera/ O Makhna ve makhna/ Yeh paagal sa hai pyaar mera’—they are much bhajan as love song.

Beneath the song’s glossy surface lies a remarkably moving melodic construction, one that could survive being stripped down simply to a voice. ‘Makhna’ goes straight to that middle-space where both heart and head reside. It’s quite magical how happiness can sound so unsettlingly natural.