Reliving the magic Of Lataji’s ‘Gori Hai Kalainyan’ in Mudassar’s comedy Mere Husband Ki Biwi in this special Subhash K Jha feature that includes Lataji talking about recording the original song.

Okay, I confess Mudassar Aziz’s new comedy won me over the minute Lataji’s ‘Apna banale mujhe baalma’ from her super-chartbuster ‘Gori hai kalainyan’ played in Mere Husband Ki Biwi. I seriously doubt Lataji would have approved of her song being transcreated so insouciantly: in principle she was against remixes.

“The composer, singer, lyricist have done what they wanted to with the song. Why tamper with a classic?” Lataji had once told me.

That said, I do recall her excitement after recording the song for the very versatile and misunderstood Bappi Lahiri.

Lataji and I had spoken about the 1990 chartbuster. She said, “The recording was long. Almost ten minutes. Since I record all my songs in the standing position,...