Solah Baras Ki - Sixteen by Gaurav Dagaonkar, Shalmali, Shivranjani Singh

Solah Baras Ki - Sixteen works because it does not try to do too much — it finds one feeling and holds it perfectly. The music, composed by Gaurav Dagaonkar, carries the song forward with a confidence that matches the performance.

Gaurav Dagaonkar, Shalmali, Shivranjani Singh's vocal here has a quality that is difficult to describe but impossible to miss — it simply feels true. Featuring Izabelle Leite, Mehak Manwani, Wamiqa Gabbi, Highphill Mathew, the song carries the weight of the film's emotional arc and delivers it with conviction.

2013 marked the release of Sixteen, and Solah Baras Ki - Sixteen was the track that ensured the album would be remembered. It is the kind of track that works at full volume with friends and equally well in a quiet room alone — the mood adjusts without the song changing.

The concision of Solah Baras Ki - Sixteen — just 3:22 — is part of what makes it work. There is nothing here that should not be. It is, simply, one of the better songs to come from Hindi in recent memory — and the numbers agree.