In a 2024 interview with Scroll, lyricist Irshad Kamil argued that a song’s central thought matters more than ornate vocabulary or a clever hook. His examples—from “Jo Bhi Main” to “Safar”—show how he thinks film lyrics can carry personal feeling and social change without relying on heavy words.
What Kamil meant by “You don’t need heavy words to save you”
Devarsi Ghosh’s interview with Kamil was published by Scroll on March 30, 2024, amid discussion of filmmaker Imtiaz Ali and the then-upcoming film Amar Singh Chamkila. Asked about writing lyrics, Kamil contrasted a strong underlying thought with dependence on vocabulary. “If your thought is strong, you don’t have to beg in front of the vocabulary,” he said. He also put the point more sharply: “You don’t need heavy words to save you.” Read the interview in Scroll.
That is a preference, not a universal test for songwriting. Kamil was describing the way he thinks about lyrics: words should serve the idea rather than disguise its absence. He summed up his skepticism of hook-first writing with the quip, “I believe hooks are for crooks.” In context, the line is a deliberately provocative way to say he gives priority to the thought beneath a song, not a claim that every memorable refrain is dishonest or artistically empty.
How “Jo Bhi Main” turns a lyric into a warning
A caller tune with a point
Kamil said he uses “Jo Bhi Main” from Rockstar (2011) as his caller tune. He likes the song’s warning that a speaker cannot control how someone else interprets his words: “It gives a heads up to callers that I may say something but you might understand something else, and that’s not my responsibility.” The example neatly illustrates his interest in what a line means beyond its surface wording—and how listeners bring their own readings to it.
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Why “Safar” is more than a journey song
Personal movement and social change
Kamil described “Safar,” from Jab Harry Met Sejal, as a journey on several levels: internal, external and social. Its movement can be understood both as a person travelling through life and as a change in where people live. He connected the expansion of cities and the movement from village to city with loneliness, suggesting that physical proximity in urban life does not necessarily create emotional closeness.
He also discussed the line “Sawere sa, purana bhi, naya bhi hai.” His explanation rests on the idea that a possibility can feel familiar and new at the same time. That is a gloss on his interpretation rather than a definitive word-for-word translation; the line’s effect depends on the surrounding song and its shifting sense of expectation.
Which other songs did Kamil single out?
In the interview, Kamil named “Aise Na Dekho” from Raanjhanaa, “Aur Tanha” from Love Aaj Kal 2, and “Janam Janam” from Phata Poster Nikhla Hero among songs he likes or regards as overlooked. That is his assessment, not an objective ranking of their reception. The examples also show that his comments were not limited to one celebrated collaboration or a single phase of his film work.
How does he judge whether a song is great?
Asked what determines a song’s greatness, Kamil answered, “Time.” He argued that contemporary songs need years before listeners can tell whether they endure, offering roughly 10–15 years as his rule of thumb. This is his qualitative judgment, not a measured threshold: a song’s staying power cannot be established simply by waiting for a particular anniversary.
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The Scroll conversation also addressed Kamil’s long-running work with filmmaker Imtiaz Ali. It places his remarks about lyrics within a collaborative film context: a song has to function in a story while still carrying an idea that can resonate beyond the scene. Apple Music’s artist profile notes that Kamil worked in journalism and television writing before moving into film lyrics, offering brief career context for a lyricist whose work spans different forms of writing. See Irshad Kamil’s Apple Music profile.
The interview records what Kamil said in March 2024; it should be read as an account of his views at that time, not as proof that he holds precisely the same position today.
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