इश्क़ या थरक

Ishq Ya Tharak is a 4:03 multi-voice track from Side B of Metro... In Dino (2025, T-Series), notable for featuring actor Aditya Roy Kapur as a vocalist alongside playback singers Nikhita Gandhi, Antara Mitra, and Shashwat Singh. Composed by Pritam with lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya, the song poses the provocative question of its title: is this feeling love (ishq) or merely physical attraction (tharak)? The multi-voice format and more energetic arrangement make it the most socially dynamic track on the Side B album.

Pritam gives Ishq Ya Tharak a more energetic rhythmic foundation than most of the album's ballads — electric guitar, contemporary drums — suiting a song that asks a more confrontational question. Aditya Roy Kapur's singing voice is used here functionally rather than technically, his contribution serving the dramatic and narrative context of the film rather than showcasing vocal ability. The professional singers — Gandhi, Mitra, Singh — provide the melodic core, with Kapur's contribution adding a character dimension.

Amitabh Bhattacharya's lyric for Ishq Ya Tharak is his most direct and colloquially playful contribution to the album — the question-as-title format giving the song an immediate conversational hook. The word 'tharak' (usually used colloquially for lust) is chosen deliberately for its provocative quality, making the song's central question feel genuinely uncertain rather than rhetorical.

Aditya Roy Kapur singing as part of an ensemble vocal track is relatively rare in contemporary Bollywood — while actor-sung songs are not unusual, the ensemble format here makes his participation feel more integrated into the film's storytelling than a typical promotional item number.

Ishq Ya Tharak is one of the more distinctive tracks on the Metro... In Dino album for its multi-voice format and for giving Aditya Roy Kapur a singing role alongside professional vocalists in a film that takes music as seriously as any of its characters.