Aaj Ki Raat ( en, Tonight!, hi, आज की रात) is a 2006 Hindi song from the Bollywood film soundtrack for '' Don: The Chase Begins Again''. That film is a remake of the 1978 film, '' Don''. The track is composed by

Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy () is an Indian musical trio consisting of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa. They have composed music for over 50 soundtracks across five languages: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and English. Amongst t ...

trio with lyrics penned by Javed Akhtar. The song became more popular internationally when later used by AR Rahman in the Academy Award-winning 2008 soundtrack '' Slumdog Millionaire''.

Development

The track falls into the genre of 1980s retro-

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

. According to the script of the movie, the song was to be included with Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Isha Koppikar dancing at a private underworld party. Director Farhan Akhtar suggested using a retro rock number. Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy got together with director Farhan Akhtar, who himself was a music enthusiast, to come up with the track which had elements of music styles they listened to in the late 1970s and 1980s. The song fits well in the movie, as the movie in itself is a retro story presented in a modern style. Ehsaan stated that the song was influenced by the

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

music of the late 1970s and 1980s, including musicians such as Ultravox and Cerrone. Live drums were used for the song and Ehsaan experimented with thin guitar riff's to get the ''twanginess'' of The Ventures & The Shadows. The song was performed by

Alisha Alisha (Arabic: علیشا Romanized: 'Alīshā) is cognate of the female given name Alicia, a variant of Alice, which comes from the Old English name Æthelhādas or Æðelhādas, meaning "noble natured" (noble of kind). Variant forms used by no ...

, Mahalaxmi Iyer & Sonu Nigam.

Reception

The song was well received by the critics. It was featured in the ''10 Dances that Made You Flock the Theatres'' list of '' Bollywood Hungama''. It also did well in the music charts and climbed up later on. The '' Don''

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' ...

became the best-selling Bollywood soundtrack albums of 2006, with 1.5million units sold in India.

Music video

Background

Synopsis

The song is illustrated with Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Isha Koppikar. The song features three of the stars dancing to the tunes of ''Aaj Ki Raat'' in an underground night club where the plot takes an interesting twist. Choreography of the song is done by veteran

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

Saroj Khan Saroj Khan (born Nirmala Nagpal; 22 November 1948 – 3 July 2020) was an Indian dance choreographer in Hindi cinema. She was born in Bombay State (present day Maharashtra), India. She was best known for the dance form mujra and the fir ...

''Slumdog Millionaire''

A version of the song was included in the Academy Award-winning soundtrack '' Slumdog Millionaire'' (2008) by

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

. The song features in the climax of the film, when the gangsters and mafia boss Javed dance to the tune while "Aaj Ki Raat" plays on the TV, though it shows the music video of Rahman's "Fanaa" from ''

Yuva ''Yuva'' ( Youth) is an Indian Hindi-language political thriller film directed by Mani Ratnam and released in 2004. The film was simultaneously shot in Tamil as ''Aaytha Ezhuthu'', and it is loosely based on the life story of George Reddy, a ...

'' (2004) being played. The ''Slumdog Millionaire'' soundtrack album sold over 2million units worldwide.

References

{{authority control Songs with music by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy Songs with lyrics by Javed Akhtar Sonu Nigam songs Alisha Chinai songs 2006 songs