Zindagi Yeh Kaisi Hai - Swami Dada by Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar, Amit Kumar, R.D. Burman

There is an honesty to Zindagi Yeh Kaisi Hai - Swami Dada that separates it from most Hindi songs released around the same time. R.D. Burman has a history of strong work, and the music on Zindagi Yeh Kaisi Hai - Swami Dada is among the most memorable of it.

Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar, Amit Kumar, R.D. Burman delivers the lyrics with a nuance that turns an already strong song into something genuinely moving. Dev Anand, Mithun Chakraborty, Rati Agnihotri gave the film its soul, and Zindagi Yeh Kaisi Hai - Swami Dada is the song that most directly channels that feeling into music.

The 1982 release gave fans something to hold onto — a track built for repeated listening rather than a single play. There is no right time to listen to Zindagi Yeh Kaisi Hai - Swami Dada. There is only the moment you press play and realise it was the right choice.

Running to 8:00, the song is exactly as long as it needs to be, which is the hardest length for a songwriter to find. It is, at the end of it, a very good song — and sometimes that is the only explanation that matters.