This song from 1998 film 'Dil Se' is written by Gulzar, composed by A R Rehman and sung by Lata Mangeshkar. This is the first song Lata Mangeshkar sang for A R Rehman'This song was recorded in Chennai in the recording studio of Rehman. It was the first time Lara Di was recording outside Mumbai.
Gulzar in his book has mentioned this song. He said that Lata Ji had not met Rehman before and also not familiar with his style, she asked Gulzar saheb to be present there at the time of recording. He was not only present there but also accompanied her to Chennai. Rehman received her at the airport and took her and Gulzar saheb to the studio. Reman has many studios in Chennai, this was his first studio. Rehman explained the tune to Lata Ji and asked her to sing. Nowadays composers ask singers to sing one line and record it but Lata Ji told him that she will sing the full song in one take but before that she wants a rehearsal. Rehman agreed and took her to the singer's cabin The cabin had a glass on the front side and no glass on the side walls. Unfortunately, Lata Ji could not see the mixing desk from there, nor could she see the musicians. That was a big problem for her, as she was used to having eye contact with the composer.
After one rehearsal, Lataji called Gulzar saheb to her side and said ‘Gulzarji, it feels as though I am blind.’ You kindly sit in front of me. so he sat on a stool outside the cabin’s glass door from where he could see both Lataji and Rahman.
Despite the fact she recorded the whole song in one session, the song itself was not finalized. Rahman then worked on it for about ten days. He usually works out the instrumentation etc., and so the song evolves slowly into its final form.
The next day returned back to Mumbai. After a week Rehman made a call to Gulzar saheb and said ‘Gulzar Saab, I have recorded a male and female chorus and inserted it in between the antaras. The words are in Malayalam, will you translate them into Hindi?
He played the song to him over the phone. It sounded very beautiful, so I suggested we keep the chorus in Malayalam. It’s the impact of the overall sound that matters. Malayalam has its own sound and folk songs have their own kind of music. Lataji and the chorus sounded wonderful.
Another interesting thing about the song was its lyrics. The song is about the description of a wedding night, Lata Ji usually not sing a song that has anything to do with sex or includes vulgar words or expressions. So it was decided that it will not be picturized as a typical wedding night.
This song was picturized on Pritty Zinta and Shahrukh Khan on an outdoor location.
Song of Dil Se 1997
Watch this Video on Gulzar for his work in Bollywood
