Dhurandhar 2 revives 37-year-old song with original voice, singer says 'I felt respected'

One of the most recognised songs from the late 1980s is back — and this time it is doing something very different from what it did in 1989.

Oye Oye... Ae Tirchi Topi Wale, originally from the film Tridev, features in Aditya Dhar's Dhurandhar: The Revenge at a key moment in the climax. The song plays when Jameel Jamali — played by Rakesh Bedi — has his backstory revealed, along with his connection to the film's mysterious Big Sahab.

What makes this notable is that the original recording was used. Nobody re-sang it. Nobody remixed it. The same voice, the same music, just placed inside a completely different context.

Sapna Mukherjee's reaction

Sapna Mukherjee, who originally sang the song alongside Amit Kumar for the 1989 film, spoke to the Press Trust of India after the film's release.

She was clearly moved. She said the entire credit for bringing the song back with dignity goes to Aditya Dhar. "Today, my voice was not replaced. It was respected and for an artist, that is the biggest thing," she said.

She also described the experience of hearing her own voice in a completely new setting. Familiar yet fresh, she said. The voice is the same, the soul is the same, but the emotion shifts with time.

In an industry where old songs are routinely recreated with new singers — often without much acknowledgment of the original artists, Sapna's gratitude says a lot about how rarely this kind of respect is shown.

From Dance Number to Storytelling Tool

The original Oye Oye was composed by Kalyanji-Anandji and was essentially a peppy dance number in Tridev. In Dhurandhar: The Revenge, the same song is used as a narrative device — it is not there for entertainment, it is there to tell a story.

That shift in how a song is used, without changing the song itself, is what has drawn attention. Director Aditya Dhar made a deliberate choice to keep the original intact and let the context do the heavy lifting.

The Broader Soundtrack

The music of Dhurandhar: The Revenge was composed by Shashwat Sachdev, with lyrics by Irshad Kamil and Kumar. The album blends original compositions with carefully chosen older classics.

Original songs in the film include Aari Aari, Main Aur Tu, Jaan Se Guzarte Hain and Phir Se — the last one sung by Arijit Singh and among the more emotionally resonant tracks in the film.

On the classic side, apart from Oye Oye, the film also features Didi — Sher-e-Baloch and Hum Pyaar Karne Wale. Each of these has been placed at specific moments in the narrative rather than used as background filler.

Why This Matters

The conversation around Dhurandhar: The Revenge has mostly been about box office numbers — and those numbers are genuinely extraordinary. But the music choices the film made are worth a separate conversation.

Using original recordings of old songs, crediting the artists properly, and placing those songs in dramatically meaningful moments rather than just for nostalgia — that is not the default approach in Bollywood right now.

Sapna Mukherjee waited a long time for a moment like this. Thirty-seven years after Tridev, her voice is being heard by a whole new generation — and this time, everyone knows whose voice it is.

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