Ja Ja Re Mawali - Shiva Ka Insaaf by R.D. Burman, Asha Bhosle

Released as part of Shiva Ka Insaaf, Ja Ja Re Mawali - Shiva Ka Insaaf announced itself as a standout the moment it reached listeners. R.D. Burman has a history of strong work, and the music on Ja Ja Re Mawali - Shiva Ka Insaaf is among the most memorable of it.

R.D. Burman, Asha Bhosle delivers the lyrics with a nuance that turns an already strong song into something genuinely moving. On screen, Jackie Shroff, Poonam Dhillon, Vinod Mehra, Parikshit Sahni, Mazhar Khan, Gulshan Grover, Shakti Kapoor bring the emotional world of the song to life in a way that enhances rather than competes with the music.

The song dates from 1985, but nothing about it sounds dated — the emotions it captures are not tied to a moment. The emotional register of Ja Ja Re Mawali - Shiva Ka Insaaf is wide enough to fit celebration and solitude equally well.

Running to 5:35, 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.