Ni Vanjaran Kudiye by Hans Raj Hans

Ni Vanjaran Kudiye is the kind of song that earns its place in a playlist and then refuses to leave. Credit goes to Abv Group for a score that understands exactly what the song needs and nothing more.

Hans Raj Hans's vocal here has a quality that is difficult to describe but impossible to miss — it simply feels true. Hearing Ni Vanjaran Kudiye without thinking of a talented ensemble cast is almost impossible for anyone who has seen Ni Vanjaran Kudiye.

Released in 2009, it arrived at a time when Punjabi music needed exactly this kind of sincerity. The song rewards full attention but also works as company in the background — a flexibility that most tracks never achieve.

Running to 6:12, the song is exactly as long as it needs to be, which is the hardest length for a songwriter to find. It is, at the end of it, a very good song — and sometimes that is the only explanation that matters.