Everything you need to know about Mera Dil Yeh Pukare Aaja, the Lata Mangeshkar hit the world is dancing to

It started with an influencer in Pakistan. When Ayesha danced to the lilting song at a wedding little did she know that she was about to flag off a revolution. From Madhuri Dixit to Katrina Kaif to, hold your breath Mr Bean, everyone is dancing to Mera Dil Yeh Pukare Aaja.

And to think that this lovely lilting melody is not even a dance number! It is a mournful melancholic song of birha (parting). The ever-gorgeous Vyjayanthimala recalls several dance number in Nagin like Mann dole mera tann dole and Uunchi Uunchi duniya ki deewaren saiyyan tod ke. She remembers Mera dil yeh pukare aaja as a very sad ballad.

So how did a very sad love ballad about separation from the loved one, become a dance number that everyone is grooving to?

Nagin released in 1954 was a musical blockbuster. It consolidated Vyjayanthimala’s career as one of the top leading ladies of her era. The film was directed by Nandlal Jaswantlal who a year before Nagin had directed another musical blockbuster Anarkali. Nagin contained thirteen songs, of which ten were sung by Lata Mangeshkar, all chartbusters. And none bigger than Mann dole mera tann dole, after which came Jadugar saiyyan chhod mori baiyyan and Oonchi duniya ki deewarein, and then the rest. During one of our conversations, Lataji had recalled the craze for the Nagin songs especially the music which was actually produced on an instrument called the clavioline by composer Kalyanji (of Kalyanji-Anandji). Recalled Lataji, “The songs were among my most popular of the 1950s. Mann dole mera tann dole was especially a rage. Audiences kept going back to the film for this song over and over again.” Lataji remembered a similar craze for another song a year earlier in Nandlal Jaswanlal’s Anarkali. “The song was Zamana yeh samjha ke hum peeke aaye. Audiences would throw coins on the screen every time this song played in Anarkali. My songs in Anarkali (composed by C. Ramachandra) and Nagin (composed by Hemant Kumar) were very important to my career.”

As for Mera dil yeh pukare aaja, even the composer Hemant Kumar would not have been able to find the dance pulse in the composition. Besides the superhit songs of Nagin, Hemant Kumar and Lataji collaborated on many other chartbusters in the 1960s and 70s like Kahin deep jale kahin dil (Bees Saal Baad), Jhoom jhoom dhalti raat (Kohra), Kuch dil ne kaha (Anupama). But nothing that compares even remotely with the popularity of the songs in Nagin. Recalled Nagin. “During those days there used to be 10-15 songs in many films. In Nagin, every song was a hit. Hemantda’s solo Tere dwar khada ek jogi was also a chartbuster.” Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.