When a song that doesn’t subscribe to your personal taste gets popular, the criticism toward it tends to be harsh. I tried to be fair to the title song of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. It still hasn’t— and I don’t think it ever will—justify why people have gone nuts about it. Or why a song of such importance to the film—the first promo was the song video and not the trailer— so mediocre? It seems straight from the Aashiqui 2 assembly line of Arijit Singh songs, the lyrics, at best, ordinary and with a familiar central melody.
Bulleya, the second song, at first, felt like it will follow suit. Its fashionable Sufi design all too apparent and accompanied by visuals of angsty, stubbled Ranbir Kapoor singing on the streets, it was hovering close to a wannabe Imtiaz Ali zone. But after a number of listens of the subsequent songs that gradually softened my views on the album, Bulleya turned out to be pretty good. It is generic Sufi-rock stuff, better versions of which we have possibly heard in Coke Studio, Pakistan. But one that packs in punch at the right moments, such as the charged-up catch line and the perfect electric guitars riffs. But we have Amitabh Bhattacharya to thank for bringing in his trademark light touches. Even in a song packed with Sufi cliches like ‘bulleya’, ‘murshid’ and ‘haafiz’, Bhattacharya balances it out with unusual words like ‘phadphadaye’ and ‘pagdandi’. The album only further improves from here