Are Maa Gauri Maa - Man Ki Aankhen by Asha Bhosle

Are Maa Gauri Maa - Man Ki Aankhen works because it does not try to do too much — it finds one feeling and holds it perfectly. Laxmikant, Pyarelal's arrangement gives the track a layered quality that rewards repeated listening.

Every line Asha Bhosle sings feels considered, as though the performance was thought through long before recording began. Featuring Waheeda Rehman, Dharmendra, Mohan Choti, Sujit Kumar, Fariyal, Manmohan Krishna, Leela Chitnis, Lalita Pawar, the song carries the weight of the film's emotional arc and delivers it with conviction.

Released in 1970, it arrived at a time when Hindi music needed exactly this kind of sincerity. The emotional register of Are Maa Gauri Maa - Man Ki Aankhen is wide enough to fit celebration and solitude equally well.

Running to 5:54, the song is exactly as long as it needs to be, which is the hardest length for a songwriter to find. It is, simply, one of the better songs to come from Hindi in recent memory — and the numbers agree.