Nirmika Singh, lyricist for the song Zara Zara, explains her journey writing songs that form the narrative of the film, Gandhi Talks
Zara Zara, the song composed by AR Rahman and written by Nirmika Singh for Gandhi Talks, stars Vijay Sethupathi and Aditi Rao Hydari. PIC/INSTAGRAM@zeestudiosofficial
When Gandhi Talks was first narrated to Nirmika Singh, it didn’t sound like a conventional Hindi film at all — a silent film, no dialogue, driven entirely by expressions, music and mood. “When Rahman sir called me in and told me it was a silent film, we were struck by how ambitious the project was,” she says. “In a silent film, the artistic responsibility doesn’t just lie with the composer or the writer but with every artist involved and their expression.”
That responsibility shaped every decision she made while writing Zara Zara, the song composed by AR Rahman for Gandhi Talks, starring Vijay Sethupathi and Aditi Rao Hydari. With no dialogue to explain longing, conflict or sacrifice, the lyrics had to carry narrative weight without ever announcing themselves. “There was nothing but expressions to rely on,” Singh says. “So I watched the film to really grasp the characters and build their world.”
Rahman’s brief, she recalls, was deceptively simple. The melody carried “a very sweet sense of nostalgia, an old-world charm,” and the lyrics needed to honour that feeling without overpowering it. “The setting was very simple — two lovers who live across from each other, meeting every day. All their unspoken feelings, sacrifices and romance had to be communicated through the song.” Zara Zara, Singh explains, is about “the little tiny steps that lovers take to make their love possible.”
Nrimika Singh’s favourite line from Zara Zara is, “Do boond leke samandar banaaye” explaining how two drops of love can make an ocean
Rahman’s compositions, often defined by emotional space, demand a lyricist who knows when to step back. “It was a very fulfilling experience,” she says. The collaboration, she notes, is built on mutual trust. “You need a solid understanding of how the composer wants their composition to shape. And the composer has to trust the abilities of the writer. I’m always amazed that sir [Rahman] has that confidence in me.”
Drawing from personal experience is only one part of the process. The harder work, she believes, is emotional translation. “Artistes and writers have to display an extreme amount of empathy to be able to enter a scenario and feel its emotional potency.” That sensitivity took time. “We started writing it three years ago, in 2022,” she says. “So for me, it’s also been a journey of how a human being evolves, how you look back at your own work, how you sit with it, let it go, and then return to it as someone else.” That long gestation is audible in the song’s simplicity. Singh describes it as her “sincerest attempt” to fuse modern songwriting with her own grounding in Hindustani expression.
The experience has also shifted how she sees herself—not just as a lyricist navigating an industry, but as a writer navigating a world that often feels hostile to nuance. “This song makes me want to be a poet full-time,” she says. “It makes me want to be a writer against all odds, against the controversies, against the climate of polarisation we live in.” It’s a striking admission, especially in a moment when music is shaped by algorithms and virality.
Her favourite line from the song captures that philosophy succinctly, “Do boond leke samandar banaaye.” Two drops make an ocean. “Two drops of you and me,” she explains, “can change how we perceive creativity.” In a silent film that trusts small moments to speak volumes, the line feels less like poetry and more like an artiste’s manifesto.
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