ऑन द वे

The closing track of Aabeer Gulaal (2025), 'On The Way' is a 3:37-minute duet featuring Raghav Chaitanya and Akanksha Sethi, composed by Amit Trivedi with Kumaar's lyrics, for Saregama. The English-titled closer brings the album full circle: where 'Doriyaan' contemplated separating distances, 'On The Way' embraces the state of still-traveling, still-becoming. It is the album's most contemporary-pop inflected track — guitar-forward, light in texture, designed as an emotionally optimistic resolution to the album's weightier material.

Trivedi lightens the production considerably for 'On The Way' — this is the album's most guitar-forward track, with a contemporary pop sensibility that sits closer to indie Bollywood than to the orchestral richness of 'Doriyaan.' Raghav Chaitanya, a singer-songwriter known for his indie music, brings a naturalistic quality to the male voice; Akanksha Sethi provides a lighter melodic complement. The song functions as an album-closer designed to leave listeners in a state of forward motion rather than suspended grief.

Kumaar's use of the English phrase 'on the way' is knowing — in the context of an album made for a film about an Indian woman finding love abroad, the English title signals that this relationship occupies a hybrid cultural space, and that being 'on the way' is a perfectly valid destination.

Raghav Chaitanya has built a reputation in Bollywood as a singer-songwriter whose indie sensibility translates well into film contexts. His appearance in Aabeer Gulaal's closing track is consistent with Amit Trivedi's practice of sourcing vocalists from outside mainstream playback traditions.

As an album closer following 'Doriyaan,' 'On The Way' demonstrates Trivedi's structural intelligence in sequencing an album: to follow the most emotionally devastating track with something lighter but equally sincere is a compositional decision that respects the listener's emotional journey.