Kaisi Yeh Shaam - Meerabai Not Out by Sandesh Shandilya, Kunal Ganjawala

Sandesh Shandilya, Kunal Ganjawala has delivered memorable performances before, but Kaisi Yeh Shaam - Meerabai Not Out sits comfortably among the very best. The arrangement here is the work of Sandesh Shandilya, and it shows genuine craft in how it builds and releases.

There are singers who perform songs and singers who live inside them. On Kaisi Yeh Shaam - Meerabai Not Out, Sandesh Shandilya, Kunal Ganjawala clearly belongs in the second group. Hearing Kaisi Yeh Shaam - Meerabai Not Out without thinking of Mandira Bedi, Mahesh Manjrekar, Anupam Kher is almost impossible for anyone who has seen Meerabai Not Out.

By the end of 2008, Kaisi Yeh Shaam - Meerabai Not Out had moved well beyond its original audience and into everyday playlists. The song rewards full attention but also works as company in the background — a flexibility that most tracks never achieve.

Running to 3:53, the song is exactly as long as it needs to be, which is the hardest length for a songwriter to find. Years from now, Kaisi Yeh Shaam - Meerabai Not Out will still be the track that plays at the right moment and lands exactly as it did the first time.