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WATCH: Indian Ocean's 'Tu Kisi Rail Si' From 'Masaan', Based On A Ghazal By Dushyant Kumar

The First Song From 'Masaan' Brings Together Indian Ocean And A Legendary Hindi Poet

With a little over two weeks to go to the release of Neeraj Ghaywan's feature film debut 'Masaan', which won two prizes at the 68th Cannes International Film Festival, the first song from the movie was released online on Monday. 'Tu Kisi Rail Si' features actors Vicky Kaushal and Shweta Tripathi, with music by folk-rock band Indian Ocean and lyrics by Varun Grover. It has been sung by Swanand Kirkire.

According to tweets by Grover, who also wrote the film, the lyrics to 'Tu Kisi Rail Si' are based on a ghazal by Dushyant Kumar, who is said to be one of the finest Hindustani poets of the 20th century. A contemporary of Dr Harivanshrai Bachchan (whose elder son grew up to be one of the biggest film stars in Hindi cinema), Kumar was also a dramatist, litterateur, and ghazal writer.

Grover spoke about Kumar in a Facebook post, calling his untimely death at the age of 42 (in 1975) a "big loss to the country and poetry world". He shared a non-film version of the ghazal, sung by Meenu Purushottam, and remarked that the version in 'Masaan' may well be "one rare instance of Dushyant's works coming on records for a film".

Via Pavan Jha: "तू किसी रेल-सी गुज़रती है,मैं किसी पुल-सा थरथराता हूं ।एक जंगल है तेरी आंखों मेंमैं जहां राह भूल जा...

Posted by Varun Grover on Sunday, 5 July 2015

In another Facebook post, director Ghaywan shared pictures of a signed copy of Kumar's 'Saayein Mein Dhoop', addressed to Grover and him and sent by Rajeshwari Dushyant, Singh's widow, as thanks.

Watch the video for the song above. 'Masaan' releases on July 24.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.