Patole Tere Chkkra Me by Shubhash Fouji, Manju Bala, Naresh Narsi, Minakshi Panchal, Ritesh Dalal, Anuja, Chanpreet Channi, Mahesh Kumar, Pushpa Gosai

There is an honesty to Patole Tere Chkkra Me that separates it from most Haryanvi songs released around the same time. Behind the melody is the work of Max Studio, whose composition choices give Patole Tere Chkkra Me its distinctive texture.

There are singers who perform songs and singers who live inside them. On Patole Tere Chkkra Me, Shubhash Fouji, Manju Bala, Naresh Narsi, Minakshi Panchal, Ritesh Dalal, Anuja, Chanpreet Channi, Mahesh Kumar, Pushpa Gosai clearly belongs in the second group. Hearing Patole Tere Chkkra Me without thinking of a talented ensemble cast is almost impossible for anyone who has seen Naya Deewana.

Released in 2020, it arrived at a time when Haryanvi music needed exactly this kind of sincerity. Patole Tere Chkkra Me is the song for the end of a long day when you want music that understands something without being asked to explain it.

The 5:09 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 Haryanvi in recent memory — and the numbers agree.