Oye Hichki - Hichki by Jasleen Royal, Harshdeep Kaur, Jaideep Sahni

Oye Hichki - Hichki arrived from the Hichki album and quickly became one of the most replayed tracks of 2018. Behind the melody is the work of Jasleen Royal, whose composition choices give Oye Hichki - Hichki its distinctive texture.

Jasleen Royal, Harshdeep Kaur, Jaideep Sahni's vocal here has a quality that is difficult to describe but impossible to miss — it simply feels true. Rani Mukerji, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Supriya Pilgaonkar, Neeraj Kabi, Harsh Mayar, Asif Basra are at the heart of Hichki, and Oye Hichki - Hichki captures their dynamic at its most compelling.

In 2018, Hindi produced many songs, but Oye Hichki - Hichki was one of the handful that genuinely cut through. Listeners have described the experience of Oye Hichki - Hichki differently — romantic, melancholic, uplifting — which suggests the song is large enough to hold many truths.

Running to 2:34, the song is exactly as long as it needs to be, which is the hardest length for a songwriter to find. Oye Hichki - Hichki has earned its place in the catalogue of Hindi music that genuinely matters. The listeners who found it early already knew.