काली रातें

Kaali Raatein opens the Nikita Roy (2025, Saregama) soundtrack with a 2:37 duet that immediately establishes the film's horror register. Composed and sung by Abhinav Shekhar — one half of the music team alongside Rameez Sohail — with Pratiksha Vashishtha providing the female counterpart, the track uses layered synthesiser beds and restrained strings to build suffocating dread. Its title, meaning 'dark nights', signals the film's preoccupation with forces that emerge when light withdraws. It is the most atmospherically dense track on the album and functions as a tonal overture for Kussh Sinha's horror debut.

Abhinav Shekhar constructs Kaali Raatein around synthesiser pads that swell and recede like breath in a dark room. Strings enter sparingly, creating tension without resolution. Percussion is minimal — barely a heartbeat — forcing the listener's attention onto the vocal. Shekhar's own voice carries restrained menace while Pratiksha Vashishtha's softer timbre creates an unsettling call-and-response. The track avoids a conventional melodic hook, preferring to sustain unease.

The lyric operates in the tradition of Hindi horror verse — images of darkened corridors, shadows with agency, and night as antagonist. Abhinav Shekhar's writing avoids explicit gore in favour of psychological suggestion.

Kaali Raatein was released as part of the Saregama album ahead of Nikita Roy's 18 July 2025 theatrical release, establishing the horror tone of a film in which Sonakshi Sinha's character confronts forces beyond rational explanation.

Kaali Raatein represents a sincere effort to craft original horror music for Hindi cinema — a genre where background score typically dominates over standalone songs.