Lata Mangeshkar the singer of the millennium

By: Debasmita Chanda
Thursday, September 28, 2006
She was born with the unique gift of the Almighty. Goddess Saraswati had given her the boon of being popular with a beautiful voice. In Satyajit Ray's movie "Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne" we find that both Goopy and Bagha got the boon from the king of the ghost and then became popular for their songs and music. However, that was totally fictional. Here, we find that Lata Mangeshkar was born with an unbelievable gift. Thus in a way, we find that she is the epitome of a genius who can shake the world with her melodious voice.

Born September 28, 1929 in Indore, Lata Mangeshkar has been active in all walks of Indian popular and light classical music, having sung film songs, ghazals, bhajans and pop. She is the supreme voice of popular Indian music, an Indian Institution. Until the 1991 edition, when her entry disappeared, the Guinness Book of Records listed her as the most recorded artist in the world with not less than 30,000 solo, duet and chorus-backed songs recorded in 20 Indian languages between 1948 and 1987. Today the number might have reached 40,000!!!

Dinanath Mangeshkar, her father, owned a theatrical company and was a reputed classical singer, a disciple of the Gwalior school. He gave her singing lessons from around the age of five. She also studied with Aman Ali Khan Sahib and later Amanat Khan. Her God-given musical gifts meant that she could master the vocal exercises effortlessly on first pass and from early on she was recognized as being highly gifted.

However, when her father died in 1942, the onus of being the breadwinner of the family fell on Lata. Between 1942 and 1948, she acted in as many as 8 films in Hindi and Marathi to take care of the family's economic problems. She also made her debut as a playback singer in the Marathi film Kiti Hasaal (1942) but the song was edited out!

The first Hindi film in which she did playback singing was Aap ke Sewa Main (1947), but her singing went unnoticed. When Lata entered the Hindi film industry, heavier Punjabi voices like Noorjehan, Shamshad Begum and Zohrabai Ambalewali ruled the industry. Ironically, Lata was even rejected for Shaheed (1948) by producer S. Mukherjee who complained that her voice was too thin! However, Ghulam Haider, unable to use her in Shaheed gave Lata her breakthrough song with "Dil Mera Toda" from Majboor (1948).

Her most famous non-film song is "Aye Mere Waton Ke Logo". Tuned by C. Ramchandra and written by poet Pradeep, it was this song that had brought tears in the eyes of our then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

The year 1949 saw the release of four films - Barsaat, Andaaz (1949), Dulari and Mahal. The songs of all four films were runaway hits, particularly 'Aaega Aanewaalaa' from the last mentioned. By 1950, the Lata wave had changed the Industry. Her high-pitched singing rendered obsolete the heavy nasal voices of the day. Only Geeta Dutt and to a certain extent Shamshad Begum survived the Lata onslaught. Asha Bhosle joined in the late 1950s and the two sisters were the queens of Indian playback singing right through to the 90s.

Lata's initial style of singing was reminiscent of Noorjehan, but she soon got over that to evolve her own distinguished style. With her search for perfection she corrected her Urdu by hiring a tutor!

Her phenomenal success made Lata the most powerful woman in the Hindi film industry. She waged battle with Mohd. Rafi in the 1960s and stopped singing with him over the issue of royalty to playback artistes. She refused to sing for S.D. Burman from 1957 - 62 and such was her clout that she had her way and they came back to her.

Though Lata sang under the baton of all the top composers barring O.P. Nayyar and with all the top playback artistes of the day, special mention must be made of her work for C. Ramchandra who made her sound her sweetest and Madan Mohan who challenged her voice like no other music director. The 1960s and 70s saw Lata go from strength to strength even as there were accusations of her monopolizing the field.

From the 80s, Lata cut down on her workload to concentrate on her shows abroad. Lata Mangeshkar sings infrequently now. But even today, the songs of some of the biggest hits of today - Dil To Paagal Hai (1997), Maachis (1997), Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994) and Dil Se (1998) are sung by her. From Nargis to Kajol she's sung for all of them. Lata Mangeshkar is in fact that rare artist who has realised her search for excellence.

A Phalke Award winner for her contribution to Indian Cinema, the latest jewel in Lata's crown is having India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna conferred on her.

Lata Mangeshkar is not just a name, it is a tune undefined. The most popular singer that India has ever known, received the Dadasaheb Phalke award at the 21st renewal of the series in 1990, for the year 1989.

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