नींद के शिकारे

Neend Ke Shikaare is the most intimate and emotionally profound track on the Baramulla soundtrack — a Kashmiri folk-lullaby reimagined by Shor Police and sung by Shilpa Rao, one of Bollywood's most expressive female vocalists. The title — 'the shikaras of sleep' — evokes the iconic wooden boats of Kashmir's Dal Lake as a metaphor for the drifting state between consciousness and dream, grief and rest. Siddhant Kaushal's lyric draws on the Kashmiri folk tradition of the 'Hokhus Bokhus' lullaby, reframing it as a moving meditation on comfort amid sorrow. The song was released as part of the Baramulla (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) EP on 7 November 2025, distributed by Zee Music Company.

Shor Police's production for Neend Ke Shikaare creates one of the most carefully textured soundscapes in the Baramulla album. The santoor — a struck string instrument associated with Kashmir's classical music tradition — provides the song's distinctive melodic voice, while flute and light tabla create a rhythmic cradle-motion that embodies the lullaby form. Ambient electronic pads beneath the acoustic instruments create the subtle sense of unease appropriate to a film that is, after all, a supernatural horror — even in its most comforting musical moment.

Siddhant Kaushal's lyric for Neend Ke Shikaare works on multiple levels: literally, it is a lullaby — an invitation to sleep using the shikara as the vessel of that sleep; metaphorically, it addresses Kashmir's own need for rest after decades of violence; narratively, in the context of Baramulla, it connects to the spirits of the Kashmiri Pandit family and the children at risk. The use of 'shikaare' (plural of shikara) as a dream-vessel is a poetic choice that simultaneously invokes the physical beauty of Kashmir and its history of displacement.

Neend Ke Shikaare is part of the Baramulla (2025) soundtrack by Shor Police — the composer-vocalist duo of Clinton Cerejo and Bianca Gomes — with lyrics by Siddhant Kaushal. The film, a Netflix supernatural thriller about a DSP investigating child disappearances in Baramulla, Kashmir, released on 7 November 2025. The music was released on Zee Music Company ahead of the Netflix premiere.

Neend Ke Shikaare belongs to the tradition of thoughtful film music that uses folk and classical Indian musical resources in service of atmospheric storytelling. Shor Police's reputation for sophisticated sonic world-building gives the Baramulla soundtrack a quality marker that ensures attention from listeners who follow serious film music.