'Manwa Laage' from 'Happy New Year': Shah Rukh's '10-pack' abs makes it a hit!

When Happy New Year’s ‘India waale’ had debuted on the Internet, we had noted how it seems like a bad meal put together from scraping left-overs. The second song to be released is ‘Manwa Laage’, which in just 21 hours managed to get one million views on YouTube. The answer to whether or not you’ll listen to ‘Manwa Laage’ again and again depends entirely on how superficial you are. And how important abs are to your worldview. If the test of a good song is how quickly you memorise the primary refrain in it, ‘Manwa Laage’ fails the test. Ironically, it is possibly also the best we’ll get out of Happy New Year’s music department. Sung by the mush icons of our times - Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal - this composition by Vishal-Shekhar tries to pull out all the romantic stops. It’s not painful to listen to, but it doesn’t quite linger as a memorable tune. [caption id=“attachment_1705727” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A screengrab from Manwa Laage’s video. YouTube.[/caption] Fortunately, however, there is more to the song than what you hear. First, there’s Shah Rukh Khan wearing his pants so low that you have to conclude the force of gravity has weakened because nothing else explains why Khan’s pants aren’t pooled around his ankles. When Khan appears shirtless, the expanse that is bared could make Miley Cyrus blush, we suspect. There’s been a lot said of Bollywood abs in general and the ones Khan has developed for this film in particular. (Curiously, the first time Khan grew a six-pack was for another Farah Khan film, Om Shanti Om.) One article suggested that for Happy New Year, Khan has a 10-pack, which sounds physiologically impossible. The good news is that although the descriptions of Khan’s body sound unnatural, the abs look human. His bare torso does not look like the corrugated asbestos sheets that we’ve seen on some of his colleagues (read:Hrithik Roshan). And then there’s Deepika Padukone, who has turned into a treat to watch. In contrast to Khan, Padukone keeps her clothes on and looks lovely, as usual. She does a little dancing here and there, gazes into Khan’s eyes from time to time, indulges in a few daydreams, sneaks in a little pat-on-the-butt for Khan and generally does an excellent job of looking completely smitten. Farah Khan’s giggly sense of humour is evident in the way she establishes Khan and Padukone have a scorching relationship: every time Padukone touches Khan, something around them catches fire. Literally. It’s the sort of idea that will make deodorant companies curse their ad agencies for not thinking of it before Farah Khan. Overall, ‘Manwa Laage’ scores a perfect ten on ogle value, but almost zero on recall. Watch video here: