Cutiepie - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil by Pritam, Pardeep Singh Sran, Nakash Aziz

Not every song from Ae Dil Hai Mushkil lingers, but Cutiepie - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is the one that stays. The arrangement here is the work of Pritam, and it shows genuine craft in how it builds and releases.

There are singers who perform songs and singers who live inside them. On Cutiepie - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Pritam, Pardeep Singh Sran, Nakash Aziz clearly belongs in the second group. Hearing Cutiepie - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil without thinking of Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Fawad Khan is almost impossible for anyone who has seen Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.

The song dates from 2016, but nothing about it sounds dated — the emotions it captures are not tied to a moment. Listeners have described the experience of Cutiepie - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil differently — romantic, melancholic, uplifting — which suggests the song is large enough to hold many truths.

The concision of Cutiepie - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil — just 3:51 — is part of what makes it work. There is nothing here that should not be. Years from now, Cutiepie - Ae Dil Hai Mushkil will still be the track that plays at the right moment and lands exactly as it did the first time.