iPhone Vaarta by Ravinder Grewal

Some songs are made for a single moment. iPhone Vaarta is made for all of them. Credit goes to Preet Hundal for a score that understands exactly what the song needs and nothing more.

The performance by Ravinder Grewal is the centrepiece here — controlled where it needs to be, open where it counts. Hearing iPhone Vaarta without thinking of a talented ensemble cast is almost impossible for anyone who has seen iPhone Vaarta.

By the end of 2017, iPhone Vaarta had moved well beyond its original audience and into everyday playlists. Listeners have described the experience of iPhone Vaarta differently — romantic, melancholic, uplifting — which suggests the song is large enough to hold many truths.

The concision of iPhone Vaarta — just 3:32 — is part of what makes it work. There is nothing here that should not be. Songs like iPhone Vaarta are the reason people fall in love with Punjabi music and never quite fall out of it.