Main Sarve Ke Rang - Meera by Vani Jayaram

The Meera album has several strong tracks, but Main Sarve Ke Rang - Meera is the one most listeners come back to first. The music, composed by Ravi Shankar, carries the song forward with a confidence that matches the performance.

There are singers who perform songs and singers who live inside them. On Main Sarve Ke Rang - Meera, Vani Jayaram clearly belongs in the second group. Hearing Main Sarve Ke Rang - Meera without thinking of a talented ensemble cast is almost impossible for anyone who has seen Meera.

1979 marked the release of Meera, and Main Sarve Ke Rang - Meera was the track that ensured the album would be remembered. Listeners have described the experience of Main Sarve Ke Rang - Meera differently — romantic, melancholic, uplifting — which suggests the song is large enough to hold many truths.

Running to 3:28, 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.