मस्कारा

"Maskara" is the peppy first-love track from Main Vaapas Aaunga (2026), sung by Nilanjana Ghosh Dastidar and Vedang Raina over A.R. Rahman's composition for Tips Music. Running 3:53, it accompanies the film's flashback sequences of young love in pre-Partition Punjab, with Irshad Kamil's breezy verses blending Hindi and Punjabi. The track features a 'quirky, sprightly flute' alongside dhol, guitars, and piano — a sonic signature of joy before catastrophe. Critics praised its infectious lightness as the perfect counterweight to the film's grief.

Rahman uses a decidedly lighter palette here than in the rest of the soundtrack — the composition's primary voice is a quirky folk flute that evokes the folk traditions of undivided Punjab. The dhol grounds it in Punjabi wedding and harvest music, while Raina's untrained freshness sits beautifully against Dastidar's more classically inflected delivery. The song changes tempo mid-bridge, momentarily slipping into a jazz-café swing before the flute pulls it back.

Kamil's lyrics celebrate the small vanities of first love — the word 'maskara' (mascara) becomes a metaphor for the way lovers decorate themselves for each other. The title itself is a clever bilingual pun: maskara in Hindi also carries a tinge of 'mischief' (mazaak-kara), encoding playfulness into the very title.

Vedang Raina, who plays the young Ishar in the film's 1940s sequences, was cast partly because of his background as a trained vocalist in semi-classical music. Director Ali wanted the love song to feel spontaneous and unpolished — 'like real young people singing, not professional playback singers performing youth.' The pairing with Dastidar was finalised after Rahman heard her in a late-stage audition session.

Though overshadowed by the more intensely discussed 'Kya Kamaal Hai' and 'Dheere Dheere', 'Maskara' emerged as the surprising streaming sleeper of the soundtrack, particularly popular on wedding playlists where its Punjabi folk energy placed it alongside contemporary haldi-ceremony anthems.