Naushad · Lata Mangeshkar · 1960
Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya: rejected lyrics, a folk line, and the only colour reel in a black and white film
Naushad turned down two complete sets of words before an all-night session produced the most defiant four minutes in Hindi cinema.
The scene is a courtesan telling an emperor, in front of his court, that she loves his son and is not afraid. K. Asif shot it in the Sheesh Mahal, a hall of mirrors, and it is the sequence that Mughal-e-Azam is remembered for.
The writing
The widely repeated account, which comes from Naushad's own recollections, is that he rejected two complete sets of lyrics from Shakeel Badayuni before the pair sat through the night and arrived at this one. The line at its centre is drawn from a folk song from eastern Uttar Pradesh rather than invented: an old, plain, public statement of defiance, dropped into a Mughal court.
The sound of the room
Naushad wanted the echo of a real hall rather than a studio reverb, so the vocal was recorded to get that ring, with the chorus answering Lata Mangeshkar's line back at her. The effect is that the whole court is repeating what she said, which is exactly what the scene is about.
The colour
Most of the film is black and white. This sequence was shot in Technicolor, and audiences in 1960 sat through two hours of monochrome before the screen suddenly filled with mirrors and colour. The film was later colourised in full and re-released in 2004, which is worth seeing once and is not the same experience.