Rishtey - Life In A Metro by Pritam, James

Rishtey - Life In A Metro is one of those rare Hindi tracks that manages to feel both fresh and familiar the moment it begins. Credit goes to Pritam for a score that understands exactly what the song needs and nothing more.

Pritam, James's vocal here has a quality that is difficult to describe but impossible to miss — it simply feels true. For fans of Dharmendra, Nafisa Ali, Shilpa Shetty, Kay Kay Menon, Shiney Ahuja, Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Kangna Ranaut, Sharman Joshi, Rishtey - Life In A Metro is one of those songs that immediately conjures specific scenes and emotions.

Released in 2007, it arrived at a time when Hindi music needed exactly this kind of sincerity. The emotional register of Rishtey - Life In A Metro is wide enough to fit celebration and solitude equally well.

The concision of Rishtey - Life In A Metro — just 7:20 — is part of what makes it work. There is nothing here that should not be. The track stands as evidence that Pritam, James and Pritam, working together, are capable of something well above the ordinary.