आज सखी है रैन मिलन की

“Aaj Sakhi Hai Rain Milan Ki” is one of the seventeen songs of Taj Mahal (1941), the historical drama about Shah Jahan and Mumtaz directed by Nanubhai Vakil. The score was composed by Madhavlal Damodar Master to lyrics shared by Behzad Lakhnavi, S. Khalil and Pandit Anuj. The film is historically notable as an early credit for Suraiya and as the Hindi-cinema debut of S.D. Burman, who sang on its soundtrack.

The opening invocation 'Aaj Sakhi Hai Rain Milan Ki' — 'Today, dear friend, is the night of union' — belongs to the sakhī-sambodhan (address to a female confidante) tradition that runs through Braj Bhasha, Avadhi, and early Hindi-Urdu film poetry. The sakhi is the witness-companion who can be told what convention does not permit the beloved to say openly; her presence allows the romantic climax to be announced with propriety and joy. Behzad Lakhnavi (1900–1974), the primary lyricist whose name is cited first for Taj Mahal (1941), was a distinguished Urdu poet and ghazal writer from a Lucknow literary family, who participated in mushairas from youth and later wrote lyrics for seventeen films including this one and Roti (1942). His verse was noted for its refinement and for the classical Lucknawi skill of oblique emotional communication — saying the most through the most seemingly simple constructions. 'Rain Milan Ki' (night of union/meeting) draws on the Urdu radif tradition where the approaching night is the emotional climax of a long expectation.

Taj Mahal (1941) was a historical drama directed by Nanubhai Vakil, dramatising the love story of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. It was released under Sri Meenakshi Pictures. The film starred Nazir as Shah Jahan; Suraiya, then around twelve years old, appeared as the young Mumtaz — she had been brought to the Mohan Studios by her uncle M. Zahoor, where Vakil was struck by her presence and offered her the role on the spot. Before release, the film attracted protests from some quarters for perceived ahistorical portrayals, but was permitted release by the Bombay Board of Film Censors after minor cuts. The soundtrack carried seventeen songs, with music composed by Madhavlal Damodar Master and lyrics shared across Behzad Lakhnavi, S. Khalil, and Pandit Anuj. The film's principal playback singers were Indurani and Fakir Mohammad, though per-song singer attribution has not survived in available discographies for individual tracks.

Taj Mahal (1941) carries an important footnote in the history of Hindi film music: Sachin Dev Burman — later one of Hindi cinema's most celebrated composers — made his Hindi film debut in this film as a singer, with the song 'Prem Ki Pyari Nishani Jaag Rahi.' This preceded his debut as an independent composer by several years. The film also provided Suraiya with her screen debut, the first step in a career that would make her one of Hindi cinema's most beloved singer-actresses of the 1940s and 1950s. These two historical connections — S.D. Burman's singing debut and Suraiya's acting debut — have kept Taj Mahal (1941) in the footnotes of film history long after the individual songs have receded from memory.