Oye Oye - Azhar by Aditi Singh Sharma, Armaan Malik

Not every song from Azhar lingers, but Oye Oye - Azhar is the one that stays. Kalyan Ji Anand Ji, Dj Chetas built the instrumental foundation carefully here — every element earns its place in the mix.

Every line Aditi Singh Sharma, Armaan Malik sings feels considered, as though the performance was thought through long before recording began. The story told by Emraan Hashmi, Prachi Desai, Nargis Fakhri, Lara Dutta, Huma Qureshi, Gautam Gulati, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Kunal Roy Kapur in Azhar finds its musical expression here — Oye Oye - Azhar is where the film's heart beats loudest.

Released in 2016, it arrived at a time when Hindi music needed exactly this kind of sincerity. There is no right time to listen to Oye Oye - Azhar. There is only the moment you press play and realise it was the right choice.

The 3:52 runtime feels perfectly judged — long enough to develop its ideas, short enough to compel a second play. It is, simply, one of the better songs to come from Hindi in recent memory — and the numbers agree.