The whole nation is mourning legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar’s passing away.
Hailed as the Nightingale of India, the 92-year old icon has been the recipient of esteemed awards like Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Dadasaheb Phalke & more.
Lata ji was the voice behind the timeless number ‘Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya’ from the Dilip Kumar-Madhubala starrer ‘Mughal-e-Azam’. Both Lata ji and Dilip Saheb have left behind glorious legacies in the world of cinema.
You’d be interested to know that Lata ji’s first meeting with Dilip Kumar was made memorable because of his well-intentioned but rather blunt comment on her Urdu. Which in turn, compelled her to improve her Urdu pronunciation! Lata ji had revealed the anecdote in her book ‘Lata Mangeshkar: In Her Own Voice’ –
“One day Anil Biswas, Yusuf bhai (Dilip Kumar) and I (Lata) were travelling to work together on a train. This was in 1947 or ’48. In those days, Yusuf bhai was able to travel by train as no one really recognised him! We were sitting in a compartment and Yusuf bhai asked who I was,” the late singer had revealed.
When Dilip Kumar came to know that Lata Mangeshkar was a Maharashtrian singer, the actor had commented – “But their Urdu pronunciation isn’t correct and in their singing you can smell ‘daal-bhaat’!”
This remark rather hurt Lata ji but she decided to take it as constructive criticism and chose to hone her skills instead.
“I felt terribly hurt hearing him (Dilip) say such a thing. I knew the composer Mohammad Shafi. He was an assistant to Anil da and Naushad sahib and a few days later, I told him that I wanted to learn Urdu so that I could pronounce it correctly. He found me a maulana, a man called Mehboob, who taught me Urdu.
When I speak, my Urdu isn’t very good but when I sing I make sure there are no flaws in my diction!” the singer had concluded.