 "Dear Uncle Oscar, You Forgot Lata Mangeshkar")
We all love you here in India to a slavish degree. Let me explain. If an Indian actor wins a national award, we say he lobbied for it or he didn’t deserve it. But if the same actor wins an Oscar for Best Sneezing, we look at him with a refreshed gaze: if Uncle Oscar thinks he sneezes well, then we might as well catch a cold.
Really, we love the Oscars. When Bhanu Athaiya, A R Rahman and Resul Pookutty got one, the nation had a collective orgasm. This is why we expect some respect in turn. Sort of like Ukraine expecting some respect from Russia, I know. But we Indians are ever-optimistic. We believe that The Kashmir Files will help Kashmiri Pandits get back to their homes. Oh, you wouldn’t know about The Kashmir Files, would you? But you do know who Lata Mangeshkar is, don’t you? No? Apparently not. You missed out on mentioning her among the cinematic legends whom they lost in the past year. To us Indians this was like staging a tribute to New York without mentioning the Empire State Building.
Do you know what a laughing stock that makes you, Uncle Oscar? How narrow is your worldview and how pathetic is your perception of world cinema if you don’t know who Lata Mangeshkar is? Let me be bold enough to educate you. Lataji is to us Indians the Goddess of melody. She has sung over 35,000 songs in 26 languages in thousands of Hindi films, and many in other Indian languages too. You do know we speak many languages in India, don’t you?
Lataji sang in Hindi films for 75 years before she left us earlier this year. When she passed away, she took away a part of us with her forever. We Indians cannot imagine Indian cinema without the voice of Lata Mangeshkar. When you ignore her death, Uncle, you ignore all of Indian cinema. To us, she defines all that is worthwhile in our cinema.
But then you are not to be blamed. We make so much trash here in the name of cinema. Your jury members must laugh their guts out at some of what we send to you every year for Oscar consideration. Lata Mangeshkar was way above the thousands of Hindi films she sang for. Her voice was infinitely superior to the films where we heard her sing. This is why her singing has outlived and will outlive the films she sang for.
By ignoring our Goddess Of All Melodious things you have insulted all Indians in every part of the world. You also forgot Dilip Kumar, arguably the greatest Indian actor whom we lost last year. But that’s another story.
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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