Progress...

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt
the world to himself.
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Lata Mangeshkar : a brief profile

Lata Mangeshkar was born in the city of Indore in 1929 to a Gujarati mother and noted actor-singer of the Marathi stage, Dinanath Mangeshkar. Her father was also her musical 'guru'. After his sudden demise in 1942, Lata had to set off in search of work at the tender age of 13, in order to support her family. Initially, she performed bit roles in a few Marathi and Hindi films. She made her playback singing debut with Vasant Joglekar's Marathi film Kiti Hasaal (1942), but the song was dropped from the film. Finally, she got her first break with the same director's Aap Ki Sewa Mein, five years later. However, it was Ghulam Haider's Majboor (1948) that actually pushed Lata into prominence. By the time she sang �Uthaye jaa unke sitam� for Naushad in Andaz (1949) and �Aayega aanewala� for Khemchand Prakash in Mahal (1949), she had already obliterated prominent singers of the day like Shamshad Begum and Amirbai Karnataki. And once Noorjehan migrated to Pakistan post-Partition, there was no one left to challenge Lata Mangeshkar's supremacy over the realm of playback singing. A position she has maintained to this day!

The Nightingale : Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar

by,Manek promising

Published on Thursday, September 30, 2004

Accessed 1984 Times.

When Marathi stage actor and singer Master Dinanath Mangeshkar died in April 1942, little could he have known that in the years to come his five children -- Lata, Meena, Asha, Usha, and Hridaynath would make him proud and famous; little could he have known that Lata would become his most illustrious child and would sing her way into a hundred million hearts. He could not have imagined that this child of his would collect so many awards for her songs that his entire home would be too small to accommodate them.
Even if this daughter was to 'frame' not the negative but only the positive comments made about her these frames could spill over from a large living room. Here are some of the comments that come to mind:
'Aasmaan-e-mausiki ka sabse bulandtar sitara' (The highest star in our musical skies) -- Dilip Kumar.
'The voice was God's gift to her; what she made of it is Lata's gift to God' -- Punita Bhatt, Lata's friend and organiser of music shows in USA.
'Kambakht kabhi besuri nahin hoti...kya Allah ki dein hai' -- Bade Ghulam Ali Khan.
'Lata is Saraswati' -- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 'To hear didi sing is to know God exists' -- Ustad Zakir Hussain. 'Her voice is a divine gift she has ably utilised to soothe a tension-filled society' -- Violin virtuoso Lalgudi Jayaraman.
'The nightingale...has done for India what 500 good politicians have never done' -- Sunil Dutt.
'We are there because she is there' -- Madhuri Dixit. 'Noor Jahan would have found the going extremely tough. It was Lata who posed a threat to Noor Jahan and not vice versa -- Talat Mehmood.
'She is the symbol of national integration' -- educationist CD Deshmukh.
Several more of such quotes can be found in many places, including in the two English biographies written on the singer by Raju Bharatan and Harish Bhimani. On the biographical front here are a few basic facts.
Lata was born to a Gujarati mother, Shevanti, and a Maharashtrian father, Dinanath at Indore on 28th September 1929. Her sisters Meena, Asha, Usha, and her brother Hridaynath were all born after her.
When she was an infant, her father observed that she had a musical tone and that she could recall and hum what he sang to her.
At the age of five, she had a severe attack of small pox, which left permanent marks on her face.
She went to school for just one day. The next day she was found singing to the other kids in class. The teacher scolded her. Lata responded by lashing out: “How dare anyone insult the daughter of Dinanath Mangeshkar?” She wanted no more of that school. This is the first record of her many flashes of anger. This temper and unforgiving nature have been adequately covered by the press and conceded even by her friend Punita Bhatt in her article in the cover story of Filmfare of June 1-15, 1987.
At the age of seven, she played Naarad in a stage play, 'Subhadra', when the actor selected for the role fell sick. She knew both the songs and the dialogues, and implored her father who was playing Arjuna's role in the play, to permit her. He relented because the only other option he had was to call off the performance. She performed brilliantly to her father's delight.
Around this time, she used to be fond of listening to music in her home, especially from her maternal grandmother: songs to the rhythm of grinding wheat, the garba dance, etc. She would sing along too, and so when she heard the voices of Noor Jahan and Saigal, she easily sang their numbers as well.
When she was twelve, there was a nationwide Khazanchi competition sponsored by producer Dalsukh Pancholi, to celebrate the runaway success of his musical hit film, Khazanchi, as well as to look for new talent. Lata was elated to win the first prize, which included a dilruba (a popular bowed instrument at the time). Her father was out of town, but she was lucky to be heard by the successful composer of Khazanchi, Master Ghulam Haider, who made a mental note of this girl's talent and potential.
In March 1942 she recorded her first song for the Marathi film, Kiti Hasaal? (How much can you laugh?). Her father, who had dreamt of his daughter being a classical singer and not a film singer, was forced to permit her to sing for a film, since he was quite ill. The recorded song, Naachu ya gade, khelu saari (Come friends, let's dance and play), was sadly dropped from the released film.
A few years earlier, Dinanath had started to drink. Complications arising from this habit took his life in April 1942, at the early age of forty-four. Suddenly, everything changed for the Mangeshkars. Who would earn for the family? This responsibility fell on Lata, at 13 years of age, the eldest of five children. All she knew was to sing and act. But just singing in films was not an option for her yet, because her voice was too thin for the heavy-type heroines of the time. Also, playback singing had started in 1935, but the techniques and reproduction were still very crude. So if one wanted to sing, one had to do it for oneself in the film. Left with no choice, Lata put on greasepaint within a fortnight of her father's death, when she got a job as a full-time child artist in Master Vinayak's maiden production, Pahli Mangalagaur. This Marathi film was released in 1942, the same year that her father died. The song was certainly in the picture. The Marathi number was, Natali chaitrachi navalayi'.
Her first recorded Hindi song was also in a Marathi film called Gajabhau. 'Maata ek sapoot ki duniya badal de tu' was picturised on her. Then came her first Hindi song in a Hindi film, 'Badi Maa'; she was a child artiste here, with Noor Jahan as the heroine and K. Datta as the composer. Here she sang the chorus-backed 'Maata tere charnon mein', and 'Tum Maa ho badi maa'.
In 1947, there was a photographer called Papa Bulbule who took Lata to a composer called Bali. She got an advance to sing in this composer's upcoming film called 'Love Is Blind' (or words to that effect, Lata doesn't recall the exact name). The film was shelved.
Her first recorded Hindi solo playback number then came in 1947 for filmmaker Vasant Joglekar, composer Datta Davjekar, and songwriter Mahipal. The film 'Aap Ki Sewa Mein' had this thumri sung by Lata: 'Paa lagoon kar jori re' (I touch your feet with folded hands). (Rafi also sang a song in this movie: 'Meri ankhon ke taare'. These two went on to become the top singers for Hindi films in the '50s and '60s).
During the early and late '40s, Lata acted and sang in eight Hindi and Marathi films, till playback singing found its feet. It is from here, from this point forward that she began to show the world the magic she could create through her singing.
Meanwhile 'Paa lagoon' created no great impact, and worse still, now her benefactor Master Vinayak died. At this time Master Ghulam Haider took her to Filmistan studios where he recorded a trial duet with her and Madan Mohan. The head of Filmistan, S.Mukherjee was unimpressed: “Her voice is too thin,” he said. Undeterred, Ghulam Haider took her in his next venture, Majboor (1948). Lata's song from this film, 'Dil mera toda, mujhe kahin ka na chhoda', was received well. In the same year Khemchand Prakash's Ziddi was released. Here he introduced Kishore Kumar but also made Lata sing the melodious 'Chanda re, ja re, ja re'. A minor bomb was about to explode. Then when Ghulam Haider took her to Naushad, it was her lucky day. The composer was starting work on Mehboob's Andaz, a multi-star cast venture. Mehboob's last two films had flopped, and he wanted to bring in new talents for this film. Naushad auditioned Lata and gave her a break in it.
In Andaz she sang what became her first super hit number, 'Uthaye ja unke sitam aur jiye ja'. The lyrics of this soulfully rendered song were written by Majrooh, not new otherwise, but new to Mehboob. He penned many other good songs for her in the film. Anil Biswas, too, started considering her at this time. He gave her many songs in Anokha Pyaar, including 'Yaad rakhna chand taro is suhani raat ko', and 'Jeevan sapna toot gaya'.
Simultaneously, Shanker and Jaikishen also 'discovered' her and brought her centre-stage in Barsaat. 'Hawa mein udta jaye', and 'Ab mera kaun sahara', as well as many other songs were rendered by Lata in the film. And now came Badi Behen, with music by Husnlal Bhagatram, where she sang 'Chale jaana nahin naen milake'. She did many more films at this stage including Kamaal Amrohi's Mahal, with music by Khemchand Prakash ('Ayega aanewala', and 'Mushkil hai'). The film Lahore happened too, with maestro Sham Sunder's melodies, and in this Lata sang 'Baharen phir bhi ayengi'. Vinod used her voice in Ek Thi Ladki, where she sang the superhit 'Laara lappa' with Durrani and Rafi. By this time it was clear Lata had range and depth, with clarity and breath-control. What's most important, her voice had a soul. After the public heard these songs it was accepted that there was no vocal mountain she could not climb.
Delighted composers and lyricists were now able to create the very best work for her. In fact they did not want to be the weak link in the chain. Excellent singers who were at the top in those days, Suraiyya, Shamshad, Zohrabai, Amirbai and others had heavier voices than Lata's. Meanwhile both Noor Jahan and Khursheed had migrated to Pakistan. Lata was here with a thinner voice that was more high-pitched and technically perfect. Without a microphone, Lata's voice was deficient, too soft. But with a mike, it was magic, something else entirely. But Lata did not stumble from one song to another; she put in tremendous hard work as she progressed.
Her voice had had some flaws when she was brought in by Ghulam Haider; so polished by new musical jewellers this diamond shone brilliantly. Her first guru, her father, had taught her the importance of open-throated singing. Then from Ustad Aman Ali Khan Bhendibazarwale, Ustad Amanat Khan Dewaswale, and also from Pandit Tulsidas Sharma, she learnt about classical raags, about rhythm and about melody. From Master Ghulam Haider she learnt the importance of the clarity of words as well as how to stress on the beat. Anil Biswas taught her the techniques of breath-control, and also how to fade in and out a line before a mike. A stray remark from Dilip Kumar about her faulty Urdu diction got her to study and practice Urdu from the very next day.
All this in just a year and a half, and that's it. She had arrived. She gave up her acting totally now and began concentrating on singing, singing, and more singing. The only exceptions were two movies she wanted to make but were shelved. One was called Bhairavi, with music by Roshan (he was a good dilruba player), and the other one, Jhuki Jhuki Akhiyan, with music by herself; also overlooking the music she composed for five Marathi films under a pseudonym. Barring these exceptions, Lata embarked upon singing. And what did she do with her singing? Why, she brought about a paradigm shift in our concept of the ideal female voice. Her voice slowly but surely -- and subconsciously changed what we expected from the perfect female voice in Hindi films; the new generations of singers are still attempting to grapple with this reality.
The '50s and '60s were really the musical decades and they 'belonged' to Lata. For two decades she sat center-stage as the top female playback singer. The planets had conspired to help her there: three essential factors played their role in her success: her coming of age in the late 1940's (just when the creative scene was sizzling up), the development of playback and recording techniques around the same time, and the departure of reigning queen Noor Jahan for Pakistan. No one knows what would have happened to Lata had there been no partition, or had Noor Jahan decided to stay in India like Rafi, Shamshad and others.
In the '70s and later, music trends changed with the arrival of the angry young man, with film stories getting more violent and less romantic. Then, in the early and late 80's when melody noticeably reappeared in films like Maine Pyaar Kiya, Lata was singing away again, leading from the front. She went on to sing in the 90's and sings even now, well past the age of 70, even in the 21st century! But although she continues to do so, her best was over long ago. Then, she wasn't going flat or off-key, as she sometimes does now. The soulful numbers, too, are missing. The whole literary and composing scene has changed now with much more emphasis being laid on the visual appeal of songs, since television channels view songs for a television audience and not only for the cinema-goers.
Lata Mangeshkar has received many, many awards and honorary citizenships, etc., too numerous to mention here. But the big ones are the Bharat Ratna, in 2001, Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1989, Padma Bhushan in 1969, and four Filmfare awards for four songs, after which she withdrew from the Filmfare awards scene. Later, in 1994 she accepted a Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.
But perhaps her first award, the dilruba she got after the Khazanchi contest was her most thrilling award. She was young, the recognition was big, and Master Ghulam Haider, the composer of the songs of Khazanchi, in the audience!
There is an annual Rs 1 Lakh Lata Mangeshkar award set up by the Madhya Pradesh Government since 1984. Khayyam, Naushad, Anil Biswas, Asha Bhosle and others have received this award instituted to honour the legend who was born at Indore in the state.
General facts about Lata
Lata's story is fascinating. People on the street think quite highly of her. Barring her unpopular and peculiar opposition to a fly-over bridge near her home, she is a celebrity who prefers to keep a low profile. She prefers simple living and her life is quite bereft of scandals on the personal front. She is a Member of the Rajya Sabha but she hardly attends the sessions of Parliament. The average listener's mind carries an image of a lady who is respected and worthy of national honour. Indeed in a 1986 survey conducted by India Today on who most deserved to get the Padma Vibhushan for Art and Culture, Lata won hands down over all the other contenders including M.F. Hussain, Mrinalini Sarabhai, Bhimsen Joshi, Raj Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, R.K. Narayan, and Pupul Jayakar. And she was the winner across all age groups of the survey, all economic backgrounds, all zones of India. She was Number One! She has the award now, but even today, if the parameters are altered to ask about whom people respect most in art and culture, she will surely be at, or near the top of the list.
But that's one side of the story. When you get up close to the industry, though, it's not so hunky-dory. The people who have worked with her mention her quality singing of yesteryears, but the same people refrain from talking about her as a person. Whatever they do say is carefully off the record, so much is the fear of upsetting somebody so powerful. One suspects that this is the reason why one doesn't see, at her live music shows, many of the major music composers, songwriters or co-singers, in the audience.
Of course she has had her long list of admirers in the film industry. She has, or had a long brigade of rakhi brothers too: Mukesh, Madan Mohan, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Dilip Kumar, Shivaji Ganeshan, C.H. Atma, Mohan Deora of Detroit, and more. But there is also a list of people Lata has had serious differences with, even if with just a few people these differences were mended later. These people include Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Naushad, Shanker-Jaikishen, Anil Biswas, S.D. Burman, Talat Mehmood, Rafi, C. Ramchandra, Ravinder Jain, Husnlal Bhagatram, Sham Sunder, Khemchand Prakash, Khursheed Anwar, G.M. Durrani, songwriter Naqshab, sound recordist Kaushik, the Filmistan studio group, etc. Big differences with them, all documented.
Over the decades there have been strong rumours of Lata using subtle but powerful methods to scuttle the careers of many singers like Suman Kalyanpur, Vani Jairam and others. Also after a few years of success Lata became the only singer to always come last for recordings. Only when everyone else was already present could she be called over the phone for the recording. Of course, she was known to cancel recordings at the very last minute, much more than other singers, entailing losses for producers.
She is an intensely private person. For example whenever she travels for concert tours, although she travels on the same flight as her musicians, she travels first class while they sit in economy. On the flight she keeps to herself. All this can be misunderstood, and it prevents her from gaining the love and respect she deserves and instead she succeeds in creating fear. So how and why did people allow her to get away with it? It's simple, it's because she sang high quality every time. Films sold because of her voice. Producers laughed all the way to the bank. Composers and writers of songs valued this perfect link -- her vocals -- in their creative chain. Actresses became successful because of her voice; musicians got work. And the public got to hear a divine voice often singing beautiful melodies, many of them unforgettable in our lifetimes. In short, everyone was happy. Because at the end of the day it all went well.
But now one thing happened. There were two Latas now, Lata the singer, and Lata the person. In the minds of many people who worked close with her, Lata, the singer, raised their spirits, while Lata the person depressed them. When you are a public figure you deserve privacy but you are also judged eternally. Newspapers want juicy stories for the public. It isn't enough for a person to be a good actor; he must still never be seen kicking an old man or a dog.
Excellence requires this of public personalities who are always under observation. They pay this price because the rewards are great, excessive adulation being one as well. The knife cuts both ways. This dichotomy of personalities, at the end of the day, is one key reason there isn't a picture of Lata Mangeshkar in many a home. It could have happened. If only...
Also there are rumours of the well-known professional jealousy between the two sisters, Asha and Lata; they don't show up at each other's programmes while the other sisters and brother do. Bhimani's biography of Lata, the official, endorsed version, mostly bypasses Asha, while it does talk a little about the other siblings.
Then there are stories of how Lata would make conditions to producers: that she would sing provided Hridaynath made the music. Of course Lata must have heard all these accusations over the decades, many, many times. If all this is not true, why can't she, for once, set all the rumors to rest by speaking out truthfully about these issues? A high-profile press conference might help clear any doubts people might have about these subjects. If, on the other hand, some of this is true, even then, she wins, because she at least proves that she is human, after all.
Lata once fought with Rafi when he did not support her in her fight with Raj Kapoor. She wanted 5% of royalties for singing in an RK film (finally she managed 2.5% for Bobby). Rafi, backed by the entire industry (including other singers) thought the singer's job was over once he or she sang the song and got a one-time lump-sum payment.
Some people also feel that she should not have done the Shraddhanjali recordings in the '90s, her 'tribute' to departed singers. All the melodies were created by composers, and the songs that were sung in Shraddhanjali were originally hits rendered by other singers who are no more. Lata actually only picked up the singing charges (and the royalties) for singing other people's melodies! When one uses the word, 'tribute' it is understood that the person is doing it gratis or will donate the proceeds to a good cause. This was a strange tribute where the proceeds went back to her.
This is also why people don't discuss her on record, because she is seen to be so commercial. But they do mention, for example Rafi's utter humility and music-above-all qualities. Industry people speak with passion when they recall O.P. Nayyar fighting with producers and winning for musicians -- violin players, harmoniumwallas, the lot -- their right to get paid, and not tomorrow, but today. K.L. Saigal, too, did many things that might make one cry on hearing them. All these people including Lata are or were institutions in their own right.
Let's take one look at the sorry business about the Guinness book entries, so delightfully penned by Raju Bharatan in his unendorsed biography of Lata (the two are not on speaking terms). Through unfounded calculations, Bharatan had estimated, in those days before documentation happened, that Lata had sung some 16,000 songs in films. This was a piece he wrote in The Illustrated Weekly of India of March 12, 1971. The Guinness Book editors then extrapolated this information years later and somehow 'adjusted' this to a figure of 25,000 songs recorded by her. This featured under 'Most Recordings Made', and the number was updated by them over the years to make it 30,000 recordings. They never checked the facts, which was irresponsible. But Lata was her usual silent self. Perhaps she should have asked them how they got these figures. The fact is that it took a Pakistani musicologist to prove to the Guinness editors that those numbers were wildly outlandish. That by 1989, barring a few hundred regional and non-film songs, Lata's total number of recordings was less than 5100. Not just that, it was her own sister Asha Bhosle who had the highest recordings till then, at 7500! The incorrect entry was removed, from the 1991 and subsequent editions of the Guinness Book.
Meanwhile in August '90, Bombay-based music lover Vishwas Nerurkar brought out a book called Gandhaar, containing the full list of the first lines of all of Lata's recorded Hindi film songs between 1945 and 1989. The exact number is 5066. The book is well cross-indexed. Nerurkar was on speaking terms with Lata earlier. Towards the end... it was over. The book was released at a high-profile function at Birla Auditorium, Bombay, but the crooner did not go, nor did any of her sisters or brother. It was composer Khayyam who did go as the Chief Guest.
Many wonder too, of course as to why she sings nowadays at all. There was a beautiful piece written on Lata by S Suchitra Lata in the Deccan Herald of November 15, 1998. Some of it makes for compulsive reading: “...there are none (Lata's close friends) today who will talk warmly about the legend”, and, “At least Lata must now talk about her eventful career. And if she still wants to sing, she must choose songs which do not rob her age of its dignity”. Further, “Lata has never treated criticism as an artiste's inevitable reward. She has either been cold and grim, or dismissive, but I wonder if deep within her she has asked herself when she should retire, though it might be too late to do so gracefully”.
And now before we look at some of the finest songs delivered by this amazing singer, let's just see her hobbies and habits. In western music she is very interested in classical symphonies, but doesn't care too much for operas. She loves the voice of Barbara Streisand, and thinks the Beatles and Nat King Cole were very good. She loves to travel, first class of course, and specially to London and USA. She is very good at photography, and loves to cook and eat, especially Kolhapuri mutton. She loves diamonds and wearing white sarees (with a border on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays). She loves fragrances and even has one named after her. She likes to watch cricket (her father had his own cricket team, in his better days). She prays everyday, and when her father expired they said his soul was in a coconut. That coconut is sacred even today. She sometimes goes to the Mahalaxmi temple, just a little away from her Peddar Road, Bombay home. She always appears barefoot on the stage or in the recording room. She is fabulously wealthy, but apart from her diamonds, lives unpretentiously.
Lata Mangeshkar never married, even though she could easily have done so. She is not a devadaasi, as some believe (her sisters are married), but in her own words: “The fact is... when I was young I had to shoulder many responsibilities and later... well, it (the marriage) just did not happen, that's all.” She is a firm believer in destiny and astrology, and is a very private person, almost never letting her hair down. Very rarely, when she does let her hair down, she says she would not like to be born as Lata Mangeshkar. She believes in an afterlife.
A good song can transport us to heaven, after-life or not. And what can be better than the heaven-on-earth feeling you get when you hear Lata Mangeshkar reaching for your soul from hers to bring you close to heaven? Lata has not only changed the Hindi film industry after her arrival, she is inclined to leave it like that for a long time to come.