Alia Bhatt in Highway
Alia Bhatt in Highway

I was obsessed with Patakha Guddi from Highway (the first song release from the film) after listening to it a few times. However, the second song release – Maahi Ve – is an instant favourite. It’s a fantastic, feel-good track sung by Mr A R Rahman himself, the music composer for this film. You shouldn’t think twice about giving this song a try!

Imtiaz Ali says:

“Maahi Ve is coming more from Rahman sir than from Irshad [Kamil, lyricist] or me. This is one of the songs that Rahman sir makes and one wonders how the hell does he get the soul of the the story so beautifully. Maahi Ve was not a part of the original brief but I cannot imagine the film or the album of Highway without it.”

Alia Bhatt, Imtiaz Ali
Alia Bhatt, Imtiaz Ali

Saying that Rahman captured the soul of the story is high praise indeed, because Imtiaz Ali has always insisted that the ‘soul’ of Highway is something he could never get out of his head. That’s why the story stuck with him for 15 whole years and why he’s making it now. When we interviewed him, he said, “[There’s] something very distinct being said in the film. The soul of the film cannot be expressed in words, which is why we’ve made a film. But there was something that this girl, in this journey, was experiencing. I just couldn’t get that out.”

Alia Bhatt in Highway
Alia Bhatt in Highway

It’s great that this video focuses on the growing, unconventional relationship between these two characters, Veera and Mahabir (Alia Bhatt and Randeep Hooda). Whatever promos we’ve seen so far – including the trailer – have seemed to mostly focus on Alia and her character. This time around, however, we get to see a lot more of Randeep and the love story between the two characters. Even though Highway is going to be a lot about Veera’s personal journey and growth, there will be a romantic angle, because Imtiaz himself said that he keeps getting drawn to love as a concept. He told us, “It keeps happening. I don’t gravitate towards it. I don’t think while making a movie that it’ll be a love story. It’s perhaps my incomprehension of the term love that keeps me drawing towards stories that are then later categorised as love stories.”

That aside, how lovely does the video look? It’s shot across some beautiful parts of the country.

As you can tell, I’m in love, both with the song and the video. What are your thoughts?