Love Is Many A Splendoured Thing - Dard Ka Rishta by Usha Uthup

Love Is Many A Splendoured Thing - Dard Ka Rishta arrived from the Dard Ka Rishta album and quickly became one of the most replayed tracks of 1982. R.D. Burman sets the tone from the very first bar — it is clear from the opening notes that this song means business.

The performance by Usha Uthup is the centrepiece here — controlled where it needs to be, open where it counts. The chemistry of Sunil Dutt, Smita Patil, Satyen Kappu, Reena Roy is embedded in every moment of Love Is Many A Splendoured Thing - Dard Ka Rishta, making it as much a performance as a song.

The song dates from 1982, but nothing about it sounds dated — the emotions it captures are not tied to a moment. The emotional register of Love Is Many A Splendoured Thing - Dard Ka Rishta is wide enough to fit celebration and solitude equally well.

The 2:58 runtime feels perfectly judged — long enough to develop its ideas, short enough to compel a second play. It is, at the end of it, a very good song — and sometimes that is the only explanation that matters.