Riots - Slumdog Millionaire by A.R. Rahman

Riots - Slumdog Millionaire arrived from the Slumdog Millionaire album and quickly became one of the most replayed tracks of 2009. A.R. Rahman's arrangement gives the track a layered quality that rewards repeated listening.

The vocal on Riots - Slumdog Millionaire is among the better performances A.R. Rahman has committed to record. Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Prem Kumar, Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Imran Hasnee, Madhur Mittal are at the heart of Slumdog Millionaire, and Riots - Slumdog Millionaire captures their dynamic at its most compelling.

Released in 2009, it arrived at a time when Hindi music needed exactly this kind of sincerity. Riots - Slumdog Millionaire is the song for the end of a long day when you want music that understands something without being asked to explain it.

Running to 2:01, 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.