Lata Mangeshkar has sung innumerable memorable songs in her long career. Of them, many continue to be remembered as the gems which have remained unforgettable. And one such song is ‘Lag Ja Gale Ke Phir Yeh Haseen Raat Ho Na Ho” which has become a very big hit and is the first choice of the singers from reality shows who want to establish that they are very good at singing.
Even Salman Khan has sung this song now as his tribute to the immortal Lataji. But do you know this song which is now being played almost everywhere after her death was initially rejected by Raj Khosla, the movie director of Woh Kaun Thi when the music director Madan Mohan first made him listen to the song? Throwing light on the incident the lead hero of the movie and eminent producer-director Manoj Kumar had said that this decision of Raj Khosla left Madanji shattered who was a very sensitive artist.
Manoj Kumar loved the song and made Raj Khosla re-listen to it. The director was appalled at himself that how he could reject such a beautiful composition and that is how “Lag Ja Gale” was included in the movie.
The song went on to become such a big hit that its regional versions in Tamil, Telugu, and even in the Bengali language were created. The song was used in the Tamil movie Yaar Nee? as "Ponmeni Thazhuvamal" and in Telugu movie Aame Evaru? as "Andala ee reyi". Both these movies were released in 1966. In Bengali, it was rendered by Shipra Bose as “Shongi je ke e monke amar aaj dolalo" in 1968.
Over the years, it has been recreated even in Pakistan many times and by Indian artists like Jyonita Gandhi and by band Sanam.
Sadhana, the lead actress of Woh Kaun Thi on whom the song was shot was known by the name of his song whereas famous Bollywood actor late Irrfan Khan used to hear this song every day till he succumbed to cancer a couple of years ago.
Listen to her singing this unforgettable song live here!