पिया बिन नागन काली रात

A song of viraha (separation) from the 1942 social drama Parda Nasheen, written by A. W. Razi and composed by R. A. Atra. The folk image of the title — the dark night coiling like a serpent in the beloved's absence — draws on the long birha tradition of the heroine awake and alone, recast for the film's tale of seclusion and longing.

R. A. Atra most likely renders this in a slow, plaintive folk-melodic setting — sustained harmonium and a soft tabla cycle behind a yearning vocal line — the nocturnal, viraha-coloured idiom the early-1940s social used for its lonely-night laments.