Khudaya Ishq' is simply a lukewarm brew of déjà vu

Khudaya Ishq, the debut song from the upcoming contentious film Abir Gulaal, arrived this Monday with the cinematic equivalent of a mic drop — or at least, that's what it thought it was doing. Featuring the powerhouse vocals of Arijit Singh and Shilpa Rao, and the dreamy pairing of Fawad Khan and Vaani Kapoor in the music video, the song sets out to enchant. But what it offers instead is a moody, middling ballad that feels more like a recycled I'm-in-love playlist track than a standout love anthem.

From the first second, the song announces itself with an instrumental palate we've heard countless times: soft strings, a sprinkle of piano, and that slow build we've come to associate with rising Bollywood romance. There's a certain sonic lushness, sure, but it's formulaic to the point of fatigue. The beat doesn't surprise, the melody never veers off its safe path, and the rhythm remains stubbornly constant, like a treadmill set to "love." The arrangement is polished, but polish alone doesn't make for replay value.

Arijit delivers, as expected. His voice pours emotion with precision, never faltering. But even he sounds like he's been handed a song from his 2015 discard pile. There's no emotional arc, no moment where he really lets loose. Shilpa, equally competent, enters like a breeze and exits before leaving any real impact.

Their harmonies are pleasant but predictable, their chemistry barely grazes the skin. For a song named Khudaya Ishq, one would hope for goosebumps. Instead, it's a long, slow sigh. It seems like it's time for big names such as Arijit and Shilpa to start being more selective about which songs they lend their voices to. Flat songs such as Khudaya Ishq stain their otherwise stellar discographies, and for no good reason.

To its credit, the musical composition by Amit Trivedi (who usually delivers stronger work) is thematically consistent. It leans into a soft palette, but the subtlety quickly veers into stagnancy. By the second minute, you know exactly how the rest of the song will unfold. There's no bridge to break the monotony, no instrumental interlude that dares to shake things up and the two minute more-jingle-less-song is over before once could register that it has begun.

In a musical landscape where romantic ballads flood every streaming platform, that too, in Arijit's voice, Khudaya Ishq needed something—a twist, a lyric, a note—to stand apart. Unfortunately, it plays it too safe. Even the lyrics, which attempt poetic yearning, land in that vague zone of "I miss you so much I'm going to say it twelve different ways but mean the same thing."

What feels most calculated is the film's reliance on star power to mask the hollowness beneath. Fawad, making a much-hyped return to Indian screens, looks like he's trying to summon on-screen affection by clenching his jaw at various scenic angles. Vaani Kapoor plays her part with adequate grace, twirling, and dancing around like the typical Bollywood manic-pixie-dream-girl in love.

The music video ticks every visual cliché of a romance: rain, cruises, chai dates, bumping into one another at the airport type boy-meets-girl pretense (seriously?). It's beautifully shot, no doubt — the lighting is warm and muted, the set pieces elegant — but these aesthetics can't salvage a song that never rises above the sum of its parts.

There's an unmistakable attempt to tug at the heartstrings, to convince the audience that this is "a moment". But it's all too engineered—like a perfume commercial pretending to be a love story. The transitions between scenes are too clean, the emotions too on-the-nose. There's no mess, no rawness, no real risk.

If Abir Gulaal hopes to establish itself as a compelling love story or even a musically rich experience, it'll need to do more than toss stars, sadness, and slow motion into the blender. Here's hoping the rest of the soundtrack takes a few more risks — and gives us something to actually feel.