Lata Mangeshkar passes away: How the veteran singer became synonymous with Hindi film music for millions

There are two ways of looking at the phenomenon known as Lata Mangeshkar. The first takes into account sheer numbers; where, according to her estimate, the prolific megastar playback singer has lent her voice to over 27,000 songs in 36 languages, dominated the conscious minds of mainstream cinema since the late 1940s, outlived nearly all her contemporaries and scores of playback singers that emerged over the years. The other is the story of a woman, who, given the odds, would barely have survived the cut-throat industry where patronage often decided the extent of success. Not only that, she came to be identified as the pivot point of Hindi film music for over forty years. More than anything else, Lata Mangeshkar not only rose to the dizzying heights of success that wasn’t experienced by many playback singers of the past but also became synonymous with singing for millions of people across the world. To talk about Lata Mangeshkar’s career or even attempt encapsulating it in a single tribute is almost as audacious and impossible as handpicking a bunch of songs that best capture her essence. As in her life, Lata ji, in her death, too, stands leagues apart from the other playback singers. Much like how she came to be identified as the ‘voice of India’ in a career spanning over seven-decades, Lata Mangeshkar’s passing on can never diminish the influence she wielded on Indian cinema in her lifetime. [caption id=“attachment_10143341” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Lata Mangeshkar[/caption] Born on 28 September 1929 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, to Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar, a Marathi classical singer and musician, and Shevanti, Lata Mangeshkar was the eldest of the couple’s five children- Meena Khadikar, Asha Bhosle, Usha Mangeshkar, and Hridaynath Mangeshkar. Named ‘Hema’ at the time of her birth, her name was changed after ‘Latika’, a female character in one of her’s productions Bhaaw Bandhan. She was trained by her father in her early years and also acted in Deenanath’s musicals. Tragedy struck the Mangeshkar clan with Deenanath’s untimely death in 1942 when Lata was 13. The family was helped by Master Vinayak, the Marathi star, who also ushered the young Lata into singing for films. She acted and sang in a few films in the early 1940s. Once the family moved to Bombay in 1945, Lata began formal training in Hindustani classical music under Ustad Aman Ali Khan. In her initial years, Lata sang for composers such as Datta Davjekar and Vasant Desai for Aap Ki Seva Mein (1946) and Subhadra (1946), respectively. She also acted in Badi Maa (1945) that featured Asha Bhosle too. In an era that was dominated by singers such as Noor Jehan and Shamshad Begum, Lata’s voice lacked the heaviness that was the norm. The high-pitched voice was considered ‘too thin’ for leading ladies. This was the reason producer Sashadhar Mukherjee gave for rejecting Lata when composer Ghulam Haider recommended her for Shaheed (1949). Haider had mentored Lata after the death of Master Vinayak and ensured that the young singer did not lose her confidence in the face of such rejection. Haider also gave Lata her initial break in Majboor (1948) with ‘ Dil mera toda, mujhe kahin ka na chhora .’ In the 1950s, Urdu dominated songs in films and Lata was also chastised for her pronunciation. On one occasion, Dilip Kumar mocked her accent, and Lata then undertook diction lessons for a while. A few years later, during the recording of Lata’s first major hit_, ‘ Aayega aanewaala ’_ for Mahal (1949), the legendary Jaddanbai Hussain, a pioneering singer and composer, noted the singer’s diction and complimented her. In Yatindra Mishra’s seminal biography, Lata Sur-Gatha, the singer reminisced Jaddanbai along with her daughter, Nargis, being surprised that she was a Maharashtrian, and telling her the way she enunciated ‘baigair’ in the line ‘deepak bagair kaise parwane jal rahein hai’ was out of this world.

It wouldn’t be incorrect to say that as far as music in Hindi films went, the period between the 1950s up until the early and mid-1990s could primarily be described as the ‘Lata era.’

In a pioneering move, Lata ji changed her style of singing, which was somewhat modelled on Noor Jehan, and perfected her projection to overcome the shortcomings of the period’s technology. What it did was transform Lata Mangeshkar into a force that couldn’t be bogged down by factors such as bad recording et al. If the 1950s was a decade where filmmakers were shaping the story of India through films such as Awara (1951), Deedar (1951), Aan (1952), Do Bigha Zamin (1953) Shree 420 (1955), Madhumati (1958), Paying Guest (1957), Mother India (1957), to name a few, the story of Lata’s rise and success was also penned simultaneously. In the single decade, the 1950s, Lata Mangeshkar sang over 200 songs ! In many ways, the story of Lata and India become interchangeable, and therefore, it’s hardly surprising that she became the ‘voice of India.’ Her voice also became the voice for most A-list actresses from the 1950s till the 2000s, and along with her sister Asha, she would be amongst the handful of playback singers in the world to sing for not only actresses across eras, but at times, also for three generations of actors in the same family. In the 1990s, Lata Mangeshkar sang for Kajol after giving her voice to her mother, Tanuja, and grandmother, Shobhana Samarth . Not surprisingly, the way Lata Mangeshkar dominated also led to stories about her monopolistic attitude. Over the years, there has been a lot of talk about how both Lata and Asha never really allowed competition to blossom and the short shelf life of vocalists such as Suman Kalyanpur, Vani Jairam, Sulakshana Pandit, Priti Sagar, and Hemlata has been allegedly attributed to Lata ji using her clout and popularity to compel music directors into elbowing them out. There is also much industry folklore about the intense rivalry between Lata and Asha, and how at times, Lata undercut her sister. Kavi Pradeep had initially planned ‘ Ae mere watan ke logon ’, the song meant to heal Indians in the aftermath of the 1962 Sino-Indian conflict, as a duet to be sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. Still, according to Raju Bharatan, the author of A Journey Down Melody Lane , Lata expressed her keenness on singing it as a solo. However, in 2013, on the song’s fiftieth anniversary Lata ji said that she had initially refused the song as she was busy and later also suggested it as duet with her sister but despite Herculean efforts, Asha Bhosle refused to participate. In a life that is as remarkable as Lata Mangeshkar’s and a career as far-reaching as she has had, it is only apparent to have ups and downs. Bestowed with nearly every conceivable honour including Indian’s highest cinema and civilian awards the Dada Saheb Phalke (1989) and the Bharat Ratna (2001), Lata ji is indeed India’s pride. In 1974, she became the first Indian to perform at the Royal Albert Hall. Through the epoch-making journey, irrespective of what is true and what is imagined, millions of Indians and music lovers across the world have always had a Lata number handy to best express any moment in their lives. This is genuinely what endears the legend of Lata Mangeshkar, and we should consider ourselves fortunate to have been born in a time where we could hear her voice. The writer is a film historian and author of the bestselling ‘Dark Star: The Loneliness of Being Rajesh Khanna’, ‘The Film That Revived Hindi Cinema’ and ‘Pink: The Inside Story’. His latest book is ‘The Midway Battle: Modi’s Roller-Coaster Second Term’. Views expressed are personal.