KOCHI: Though she has recorded thousands of songs in 36 languages, legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar has sung only one song in Malayalam. It was music director Salil Chowdhury who composed that song for the 1974 movie Nellu directed by Ramu Kariat.
Jayabharathi was the lucky actor to enact the character singing that song -- 'Kadali chenkadali' -- in celluloid. Though the song became a superhit, Lata Mangeshkar’s pronunciation was criticised by song critics of that time. Those criticisms may be one of the major reasons why the nightingale of India did not sing anymore in Malayalam.
Even after four-and-a-half decades, the song is, however, still cherished by Malayalis. Even before 'Nellu', Salil Chowdhury along with Ramu Kariat and producer Kanmani Babu had planned to bring Lata to Malayalam for Chemmeen (1965).
They planned the evergreen song 'Kadalinakkare ponore' initially for Lata Mangeshkar. However, the singer found Malayalam pronunciation very tough and she was not ready to sing a song that she was not fully confident of.
However, Kariat was not ready to leave the dream of bringing Lata to Malayalam. He again persuaded her through Salil Chowdhury to sing for Nellu.