पहली दफ़ा

Acclaimed by music critics as the Ground Zero album's standout, 'Pehli Dafa' (3:50) pairs Vishal Mishra's signature ache-filled voice with Irshad Kamil's poetry under the composition of duo Rohan-Rohan. Set within Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar's Kashmir counterterrorism thriller (Zee Music Company, 2025), the song exists as the film's intimate emotional counterpoint — a man stationed at ground zero, thinking of the 'first time' as though it might be the only one. Vishal Mishra's rising profile in 2025 Bollywood is confirmed by this performance: nuanced, controlled, and deeply felt.

Rohan-Rohan's composition builds on an acoustic guitar base that keeps the song grounded despite the high emotion of Vishal Mishra's delivery. The strings are used sparingly — entering only to amplify the chorus's longing — and the percussion is barely present, giving the song an almost a-cappella intimacy in its verses. This restraint is what earned it critical favour in the Ground Zero music review: the production serves the lyric rather than the other way around.

Irshad Kamil — one of the most celebrated Hindi film lyricists of the 2000s-2020s — writes 'Pehli Dafa' with characteristic economy: every syllable carrying emotional weight. The phrase 'pehli dafa' accrues meaning through the song because Kamil implicitly sets it against the possibility of 'aakhri dafa' (the last time) — a juxtaposition never stated but always felt.

Vishal Mishra has become one of 2025's most ubiquitous Bollywood voices, appearing on soundtracks including Jewel Thief and Ground Zero in the same year. His ability to inhabit quiet vulnerability distinguishes him from the more projection-driven male vocalists of the previous decade.

'Pehli Dafa' from Ground Zero extends Rohan-Rohan's reputation as composers who understand how to frame a vocalist's strengths. Combined with Vishal Mishra's growing 2025 profile, this song is likely to become a late-night favourite long after the film's theatrical run is memory.