बाबुल

Babul (बाबुल) is the folk-flavored original composition from Dhaakad (2022), Razneesh Ghai's Kangana Ranaut-led action thriller, sung by veteran playback and Sufi-folk vocalist Richa Sharma. Composed jointly by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Dhruv Ghanekar, with lyrics by Ishitta Arun, the track was released as part of the film's five-song soundtrack album on SRE Music (Soham Rockstar Entertainment) on 14 May 2022, days ahead of the film's 20 May theatrical release. Unlike the album's more aggressive, high-energy tracks built around the film's spy-action plot, Babul draws on the traditional 'babul' folk idiom — songs addressing a father or homeland — filtered through an electronic-folk production style. The song received minimal individual promotion, as Dhaakad's marketing focused almost entirely on its action trailers and the film went on to underperform commercially, leaving this track one of the more obscure entries in Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's 2022 filmography.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Dhruv Ghanekar built Babul around a traditional folk melodic base, layering subtle electronic textures beneath Richa Sharma's earthy, classically trained voice. Sharma — known for her work in Sufi and folk-inflected Bollywood numbers across decades — brings a grounded, unhurried vocal delivery that stands apart from the synth-heavy, rock-adjacent production of the rest of the Dhaakad album, giving the track a deliberately traditional register within an otherwise contemporary action-film score.

Ishitta Arun's lyrics work within the well-established 'babul' folk convention — songs of longing addressed to a father or one's native home — using earthy, rooted imagery rather than the urban or aggressive vocabulary found elsewhere on the Dhaakad soundtrack. The song's brevity and restraint suggest it functions less as a plot-driving number and more as a mood or transition piece within the film's background score placement.

Dhaakad (2022), directed by Razneesh 'Razy' Ghai and produced by Deepak Mukut and Sohel Maklai for Zee Studios, casts Kangana Ranaut as agent Agni, tasked with eliminating a coal-mafia and human-trafficking kingpin, Rudraveer (Arjun Rampal), in a mission that turns personal. Made on a reported budget of ₹85 crore, the film leaned heavily on international-style espionage-action marketing, with its soundtrack — including Babul — released via SRE Music on 14 May 2022, ahead of the 20 May theatrical release. The film ultimately underperformed badly at the box office, and songs like Babul, positioned as a mood/folk interlude rather than a marketed single, received little independent attention in the film's promotional cycle.

Babul remains one of the least-viewed and least-discussed tracks from Dhaakad's soundtrack, reflecting both the film's overall commercial failure and the song's positioning as a mood piece rather than a promoted single — its official audio uploads carry only a few thousand views combined years after release. It has not been reported to have charted or received award recognition, and stands today mainly as a footnote in Richa Sharma's and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's respective discographies.