Aamir Khan in Rang De...

Pink was the predominant colour, but a splash of basanti bathed the dance floors on Valentine?s Day. Patriotism, mixed and stirred with the party spirit, was the surprise flavour of February 14 as the city danced all day ? and night. Rang De Basanti, the title track of the Aamir Khan blockbuster sung by Daler Mehndi and composed by A.R. Rahman, blasted at every major disc in town.

It is the purity of the Bhangra number that is making it so big, feels the singer. ?Rang de? has the Punjabi folk feel that has caught on. Punjabi songs nowadays are being punctuated with very funny electronic sounds. That is where this song has scored. It is doing well in nightclubs because it has a very catchy rhythm and catchy lyrics,? Daler Mehndi told Metro from Mumbai.

With no big floor-burner after Kajra re and Dus bahane, the top table-turners in town are raving over Rang de basanti. ?Simply put, the urban youth is connecting with the track,? says DJ Girish of Shisha Bar. ?It?s fast, it?s got a good base line and a patriotic message.?

DJ Vicky of Venom is all for the pace of the track: ?Rang de? has its own pace which should not be disturbed,? he says, refusing to speed it up digitally.

The last Tricolour track that went down well with the party people was Aa ye o sung by Adnan Sami. It hit the airwaves just before World Cup 2003 and the video featured everyone from Sachin Tendulkar to Amitabh Bachchan. ?The track was played in the nightclubs whenever India won a match. The song lost its appeal as soon as India lost the finals,? says DJ Akash of Fusion, at The Golden Park.

Lyricist Prasoon Joshi puts down the popularity of the title track of the super hit film to the unrivalled impact that ?popular culture? can have on people. That was quite visible on V-Day evening, as the young and the not-so-young cheered every time Rang de? punctuated the mush melodies at Shisha or Venom or Fusion.

?A patriotic song is either very weepy or very slow. Rang de basanti is both feel good and fast,? says party regular Randhir Ghosh, 28. Just what the love doctor ordered for Valentine?s Day.