As India turned 75 years old around this Independence Day season, Sunny M.R. dropped a calming patriotic song called Desh Tere Naam. The subtle trumpets and slow pacing of the track along with the obvious feelings of patriotism make it comparable to other ‘Independence Day’ tracks like Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera (Swades) by AR Rahman. 

Sunny M.R. is already an established composer in the Indian musical space so it’s not surprising to find experimenting with different sounds. Des Tere Naam, for instance, is quite different from some of his recent releases like the upbeat Chidiya. All in all, the lyrics (penned by Shloke Lal) do play around familiar themes of endless love and devotion to the country and the urge to even sacrifice oneself for the tricolour. 

At the same time, Sunny M.R.’s gentle vocals attempt to paint a more peaceful picture and his choice of the mood is worth commending. This is because if Des Tere Naam was performed as an anthemic Hindi rock ballad, it might have ended up as yet another cliched and generic ‘deshbhakti’ song. Such patriotic numbers, in fact, have overstayed their welcome as they just seem to play around jingoistic and outdated concepts of hyper nationalism. 

So, even if Des Tere Naam is a song suited for a particular mood, it can always be revisited as a modest expression of one’s love to India. Naturally, Sunny M.R. didn’t produce this track for the numbers and more on the basis of his emotions towards the nation. In that sense, Des Tere Naam perfectly serves its purpose. 

Verdict: A calming tune of patriotic expression that does overturn some familiar nationalist cliches.