Mitwa is a popular

Popular music

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

 Hindi song from the 2006 Hindi film Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna commonly known as KANK is a 2006 Bollywood film directed by Karan Johar and produced under the Dharma Productions banner...

directed by Karan Johar

Karan Johar

Karan Johar is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter and Television host. He is the son of Hiroo Johar and Yash Johar. He is one of the most successful filmmakers in Bollywood. He is most known for directing and producing some of Bollywood's highest grossing films in India and the...

, starring Shahrukh Khan

Shahrukh Khan

Shahrukh Khan , often credited as Shah Rukh Khan, is an Indian film actor, as well as a film producer and television host. Often referred to as "the King of Bollywood", Khan has acted in over 70 Hindi films....

, Rani Mukherji, Abhishek Bachchan

Abhishek Bachchan

Abhishek Bachchan is an Indian actor and producer. He is the son of Indian actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan and is married to actress and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai....

, Amitabh Bachchan

Amitabh Bachchan

Amitabh Bachchan is an Indian film actor. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Hindi cinema, and has since appeared in over 180 Indian films in a career spanning more than four decades...

 and Preity Zinta

Preity Zinta

Preity Zinta is an Indian film actress. She has appeared in Hindi films of Bollywood, as well as Telugu, Punjabi and English language films. After graduating with a degree in criminal psychology, Zinta made her acting debut in Dil Se in 1998 followed by a role in Soldier the same year...

. The song is composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy are an Indian musical trio consisting of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa. Record producers, musicians and multi-instrumentalists, they have composed music for over fifty soundtrack across four languages...

, while the lyrics are penned by Javed Akhtar

Javed Akhtar

Javed Akhtar is a poet, lyricist and scriptwriter from India. Some of his most successful work was done in the late 1970s and 1980s with Salim Khan as half of the script-writing duo credited as Salim-Javed...

.

Development

Shankar Mahadevan

Shankar

Shankar or Shamkar is a Sanskrit noun, and means "Beneficent" or "Giver of Bliss". It generally refers to a Hindu descriptions of one of the chief gods, Lord Shiva.It may also refer to:-People:...

 had previously heard the song "Ankhon Ke Sagar" by Shafqat Amanat Ali

Shafqat Amanat Ali

Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan is a Pakistani classical singer belonging to Patiala Gharana lineage. He is the youngest brother of the late Asad Amanat Ali Khan. He was the lead vocalist of the Pakistani rock band Fuzön...

's on radio and gathered details about him. When they composed Mitwa, they decided to opt for Amanat instead of Shankar himself, since they wanted the song to be different.

The song is a Sufi rock

Sufi rock

Sufi rock is a subgenre of rock music that combines rock with classical sufi music traditions. It emerged in the early 1990s and became widely popular in the late 1990s in Pakistan. The term "sufi rock" was coined in 1993 by writer Nadeem F...

 ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

, which is first of its kind in a Karan Johar film. The trio had used the traditional Indian instruments

Indian musical instruments

Indian musical instruments can be broadly classified into four categories, mainly classical, western and folk. See Carnatic music and Hindustani music. The instruments are further sub-classified into the type based on the science behind the same....

 Santoor

Santoor

The santoor is an ancient stringed musical instrument, native to Kashmir and Iran. It is a trapezoid-shaped hammered dulcimer often made of walnut, with seventy two strings. The special-shaped mallets are lightweight and are held between the index and middle fingers...

 and Sarod

Sarod

The sarod is a stringed musical instrument, used mainly in Indian classical music. Along with the sitar, it is the most popular and prominent instrument in the classical music of Hindustan...

 which was played by Shankar.

Reception and performance

The song received excellent feedback from critics and audience alike. The song ruled the charts in coming days. Bollywood Hungama

Bollywood Hungama

Bollywood Hungama is a leading Bollywood entertainment website, owned by hungama.com....

, in its half-yearly music roundup, remarked, "The song that rocks most is 'Mitwa', that has so far been responsible for the good opening of KANK."

Trivia

Actress Vidya Balan

Vidya Balan

Vidya Balan is an Indian actress, who appears in Hindi films. After graduating with a degree in sociology, she started her career starring in music videos, television shows and commercials, before appearing in feature films....

 is admittedly a fan of the song. "When Mitwa plays, my hands go out like Shah Rukh Khan's". She insisted that the song be played when the romantic sequences between her and Shahid Kapoor

Shahid Kapoor

Shahid Kapoor is an Indian actor who appears in Bollywood films. He is also a trained dancer.Starting off his career by working in music videos and advertisements, Kapoor made his Bollywood debut as a background dancer in Subhash Ghai's Taal . Four years later, he made his acting debut in Ishq...

 were shot for the movie Kismat Konnection

Kismat Konnection

Kismat Konnection is an Indian Bollywood film directed by Aziz Mirza who previously directed films like Yes Boss , Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani and Chalte Chalte . The film stars Shahid Kapoor and Vidya Balan in the lead roles with Juhi Chawla in a supporting role. Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan is...

.

Awards

Shafqat Amanat Ali won the GIFA Best Playback Singer Male Award for Mitwa Revisited.

See also

• Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (soundtrack)
  Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (soundtrack)
  Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is the soundtrack album to the 2006 Bollywood film Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna directed by Karan Johar, starring Shahrukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Rani Mukherji and Preity Zinta...
  
  
• Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna
  Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna
  Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna commonly known as KANK is a 2006 Bollywood film directed by Karan Johar and produced under the Dharma Productions banner...
  
  
• Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
  Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
  Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy are an Indian musical trio consisting of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa. Record producers, musicians and multi-instrumentalists, they have composed music for over fifty soundtrack across four languages...