सुनो

Sunoh (सुनो) is the opening single from the soundtrack of Zoya Akhtar's The Archies (2023), Netflix India's live-action musical adaptation of the Archie Comics universe set in 1960s Riverdale. Composed by Ankur Tewari with The Islanders, and written by veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar together with singer-songwriter Aditi "Dot." Saigal, the track is sung by Tejas Menon, Shivam Mahadevan and Dot. herself. Released on 19 October 2023 at the Bollywood Hungama OTT Fest — nearly a month ahead of the film's 7 December 2023 Netflix premiere — Sunoh served as the soundtrack's introductory 'friendship anthem,' setting the tone for a soundtrack built almost entirely of original songs rather than needle-drops. A reprise version featuring Dot. and the Shillong Chamber Choir also appears on the album. The cast performed the song live at Netflix's Tudum 2023 fan event in São Paulo, Brazil, giving it an early international stage before the film's release.

Ankur Tewari and The Islanders built Sunoh as a light, hook-driven pop-folk number designed to feel communal and singable — a deliberate contrast to the more polished, orchestral Bollywood soundtrack norm. Tejas Menon carries the main lead vocal with Shivam Mahadevan and Dot. layering in harmonies and call-and-response phrasing, giving the track a group-anthem, campfire-sing-along energy that suits its role as an ensemble-cast introduction number. The arrangement leans on acoustic-forward instrumentation and gentle rhythmic build rather than big-band bombast, in keeping with the retro-yet-contemporary sound Zoya Akhtar and her music team crafted for the whole soundtrack.

Javed Akhtar and Dot.'s lyric frames the song as an invitation to storytelling — 'aao kahaani sunoh, meri zabaani sunoh' (come, listen to a story, hear it in my words) — before turning to the restless, carefree energy of youth ('naujawaani'). The plain, conversational Hindi register avoids ornate metaphor in favour of directness, matching the song's function as an introductory, scene-setting number rather than a romantic or dramatic centerpiece.

The Archies, directed by Zoya Akhtar and produced by Tiger Baby Films for Netflix, reimagines the Archie Comics gang — Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Reggie and friends — as 1960s teenagers in the fictional Anglo-Indian hill town of Riverdale, marking the streaming debut of star kids Agastya Nanda, Suhana Khan and Khushi Kapoor alongside Mihir Ahuja, Vedang Raina, Dot. and Yuvraj Menda. Sunoh plays early in the film's soundtrack sequence, functioning as a table-setting number that introduces the ensemble's camaraderie before the plot's central conflict — a fight to save Riverdale's Green Park from a real-estate development — takes over. The film premiered on Netflix on 7 December 2023.

As the soundtrack's lead single, Sunoh helped establish The Archies as one of Netflix India's most heavily promoted original-music film releases of 2023, with the full cast performing it live at the global Tudum 2023 fan event in São Paulo ahead of the film's premiere. While it did not chart internationally the way some of the film's other tracks did, it remains one of the more recognisable songs from the soundtrack for its role as the album's scene-setting opener, and the reprise version (with the Shillong Chamber Choir) gave it a second life as the soundtrack's closing bookend.