Ramayana’s Rs 4,000-cr song debate: original, qawwali or both?

AR Rahman’s Mangal Rang was meant to be a celebration. Instead, the first major song from Ramayana: Part 1 has become a double-barrelled debate: whether the composer is repeating himself, and whether a qawwali-like texture belongs in an adaptation of the Hindu epic.

What the song actually is

Composed by AR Rahman, sung by Shreya Ghoshal and Arijit Singh, and written by Kumar Vishwas, Mangal Rang tracks the relationship of Rama and Sita—played by Ranbir Kapoor and Sai Pallavi—from the swayamvar to their wedding. It is a union song first, built around grand visuals and lyrics that reference sindoor, saubhagya and maryada.

Two objections, one spotlight

Some listeners say the melody feels too close to Rahman’s earlier work, naming Kun Faya Kun from Rockstar and the Tamil song Enna Solla Pogirai. That raises a fair question: when does a signature sound become self-repetition? A familiar Rahman texture does not automatically make a song unoriginal, but in a project this exposed, it becomes a talking point.

The second debate is trickier. A section of the audience hears qawwali in the repeated “rang” refrain and the arrangement, and has compared the word with Aaj Rang Hai, a well-known Sufi composition. Qawwali does use repeated refrains, group vocals and building intensity—but those elements are not exclusive to the form. The lyrics themselves point elsewhere: they are focused on Rama and Sita’s wedding, with no Sufi or Islamic invocation.

Why a music choice is being held to a different standard

Context matters here. Ramayana is not an ordinary franchise. For millions, it is sacred and intergenerational, so a wedding song may be judged by a stricter cultural and religious standard than a regular romantic number. Add the reported Rs 4,000-crore investment across two parts, including release and promotional costs, and the scrutiny around every pre-release element starts to make sense.

For Hindi film fans, this is also a familiar rhythm of the pre-release cycle: a big soundtrack arrives in pieces, and the first song becomes a proxy for the whole film. Rahman has spent decades building a sound fans trust; that trust makes both the familiarity and the questions louder.

A useful way to weigh the debate is to separate three things:

• Musical vocabulary: shared refrains and group vocals are not proof of qawwali.
• Lyrical intent: the words stay within Rama and Sita’s world.
• Film context: a song can work differently once it plays inside the narrative.

Wait for the full picture

Both views can be true. The makers carry the weight of telling a story millions hold dear, and audiences can leave room for creative choices to make sense in the film. Judging one song before Ramayana: Part 1 arrives is natural—but it is not the same as judging the film.

Ramayana: Part 1 releases worldwide on November 5.

Source: India Today