ग़म न होने

Gham Na Hone (ग़म न होने) is track four on Sukoon, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's debut non-film studio album, released via Saregama on 7 December 2022 (album out 30 November 2022). Written by A. M. Turaz — who penned the bulk of the album's lyrics — and set to a Bhansali composition, the song is sung by the celebrated Hindustani classical vocalist Ustad Rashid Khan, one of the biggest names of the khayal tradition to lend his voice to a contemporary studio recording. Bhansali conceived Sukoon during the pandemic-forced halt in Gangubai Kathiawadi's production, describing the album as an ode to Lata Mangeshkar and the ghazal legends of his childhood, and framing each of its nine tracks as a standalone composition without any film's narrative to lean on. Rashid Khan's participation gave Gham Na Hone a distinct classical gravitas within an album otherwise built around playback and pop-adjacent voices.

Bhansali frames Gham Na Hone around Rashid Khan's classical khayal-trained voice, keeping the arrangement restrained — harmonium and string textures that give space for Khan's characteristic vocal control, meend (glides), and taan-like ornamentation without pushing the piece into full classical recital territory. It sits as one of the more overtly classical-leaning tracks on Sukoon, reflecting Bhansali's stated intent to bring ghazal and semi-classical music to a new generation via marquee classical voices.

A. M. Turaz's lyric builds on a classic ghazal paradox: the singer insists there is no sorrow ('gham na hone'), yet cannot explain how to celebrate that supposed peace when the beloved is remembered constantly and involuntarily. The repeated rhetorical question — 'kaise?' (how?) — mirrors a familiar ghazal device where the couplet resolves nothing, leaving the listener suspended in the same unresolved ache the singer describes.

Sukoon is Bhansali's standalone studio album, not tied to any film, developed during the pandemic halt in his Gangubai Kathiawadi shoot. Alongside Gham Na Hone, the nine-track record features Shreya Ghoshal (on two songs, including Qaraar and Tujhe Bhi Chand), Armaan Malik, Pratibha Singh Baghel, Papon, Madhubanti Bagchi and Shail Hada — assembling classical, playback and contemporary voices under one ghazal-forward concept. Rashid Khan's presence on the album was among its most-discussed casting choices, given his stature as one of India's foremost khayal vocalists taking on a Bollywood-adjacent studio composition.

As part of Sukoon, Gham Na Hone contributed to an album that received notable critical attention, with Subhash K. Jha praising its blend of tribute and innovation, even as some critics like Suanshu Khurana felt certain tracks lacked emotional depth. The song's official audio has drawn a steady six-figure viewership on YouTube, and its inclusion in the full-album jukebox (which has itself crossed well over half a million to nearly two million views across different uploads) reflects continued listener interest in hearing a classical maestro like Rashid Khan within a modern ghazal-album format.