दीवाना दीवाना

Deewaana Deewaana from Tere Ishk Mein (2025, T-Series) is the album's most unusual track — A. R. Rahman sings it himself. At 5:37, it is the longest song on the album and carries the full weight of a composer-vocalist who rarely sings for films. Rahman's own voice, with its characteristic mix of tenderness and timelessness, gives the track a quality no other singer could replicate.

Rahman's self-produced Deewaana Deewaana uses a flowing harmonic palette — piano, synthesizers, and a gentle percussion that builds gradually. His own voice is not conventionally powerful but carries an intimate conviction that makes the song feel like a private confession recorded for public consumption. The repetition of 'deewaana' creates a mantra-like quality suited to the Sufi register.

Irshad Kamil's lyric for Deewaana Deewaana works in the register of Sufic love — the deewaana is not merely a lover but a mystic driven to the edge of reason by divine love. That Rahman himself is the singer adds layers of meaning: the creator of the music is also its subject.

A. R. Rahman has sung his own songs at key moments across his career — Dil Se, Roja, the Rahman-as-vocalist tradition has produced some of his most personal work. Deewaana Deewaana is the most significant example in recent years, recorded for a film (Tere Ishk Mein) whose theme of all-consuming love demanded the composer's own voice.

When A. R. Rahman sings, it is always an event — the combination of composer and performer in one body produces something that goes beyond the song. Deewaana Deewaana will be treasured by Rahman devotees as a rare statement of artistic autobiography.