The Context: Let’s be honest. For 15 years, listening to the Guru soundtrack meant enduring the sonic equivalent of a beautiful painting viewed through a smudged, dusty window. The original 2006 CDs were compressed, brick-walled casualties of the "loudness war." The MP3s? Forget it. You could hear the ambition—Rahman’s lush brass, Gulzar’s weighty poetry—but you couldn’t feel it.

5/5 for the music. 4/5 for the format (minus one point for the confusing counterfeit copies flooding trackers).

Do not listen to "Tere Bina" on earbuds. Put on open-back headphones. Close your eyes. You’ll swear Mithun is playing the charango in your living room.

Enter the 2021 FLAC reissue. And suddenly, the window is not just clean; it’s gone.