Lata Mangeshkar sings, the others just scream: A tribute to the timeless Nightingale of India

It would be the simplest thing in the world for to say Lata Mangeshkar is a phenomenon, and be done with it. But her talent isn’t that easy to slot or unravel. Nor is her genius easily classifiable or even observable. We don’t need an excuse to pay tributes to Lata ji; it’s not her birthday today nor is it the anniversary of her entry to Bollywood. But I got my excuse the other day at a Mumbai event. The moment she walked in, there was a hushed silence. Heads turn to the entrance when Lata Mangeshkar walks in into a South Mumbai restaurant with her guests. Every single person in the commodious room is on his or her feet noiselessly. This is the magic of Lata Mangeshkar. Devotees stand outside her residence Prabhu Kunj for hours, sometimes days, to get a glimpse of her . Sanjay Leela Bhansali had told me a story of when the she arrived to record a song for Vidhu Vinod Chopra in 1942: A Love Story. [caption id=“attachment_2526462” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Lata Mangeshkar. Image from AP.[/caption] “All of us assistants were on the street outside the studio waiting for her car. I hadn’t slept a wink the night before. When she arrived she gently got out of the car and did a Namaskar and walked into the lift. None of us had the guts to get into the lift with her. We ran up the four flights of stairs to reach the recording floor before her lift,” he said. Mangeshkar turned 85 on September 28. I remember for some reason they had celebrated her 75th birthday with a grand bash where singers of every hue sang her songs as a tribute to the voice that has defined much more than just the melodious progression of Hindi cinema. “74…75…what difference does it make?” she had told me after she had to bear the agony of watching adoring juniors mutilate her classics for a good 4 hours. “As long as everyone was happy,” she adds. This, with a chuckle that qualifies even her most introspective moments. Lataji isn’t really a brooder. From the outside she’d seem to have achieved enough to keep her in a nirvanic state of bliss for seven lifetimes. “I’m a very happy person. Nothing bothers me, nothing ever did. Even when I was going through my normal period of struggle at the beginning I was content. I’d go out there sing in the studios and come home and play with my dolls,” she told me a few days back. Winning her trust isn’t easy. Once you do she surrenders completely. Aspiring musicians have become superstar-composers only through what at one time was known as the ‘one-woman industry’ within the film industry, only to turn on her, trying to promote sub-standard talent just to thumb their nose at her. Shankar-Jaikishan and their pupils-successors Laxmikant-Pyarelal are examples. The first duo virtually piggyrode on her voice to super-success. Suddenly Shankar developed a strange passion for a completely besura singer. “She’s far better than Lata Mangeshkar,” he told the producers, in not so many words. back then. All was well and the new music-making duo worshipped the ground that their Didi walked on, until Laxmiji (may God rest his gifted soul) found a Lata-imitator’s voice more enticing. He brazenly began to promote the fake nightingale and effectually killed the duo’s career. Then there was this roly-poly music director. Some years ago, he turned around to to tell Lataji’s secretary, “She’s no longer THE Lata Mangeshkar. Things have changed.” Things have not changed. People have . The self-serving gold-diggers of the film industry jumped the gun to believe she was gone. They’ve been trying to play down the nightingale’s miraculous genius for over two decades now. I remember 30 years ago, a critic wrote that the 45-year old Lata Mangeshkar singing for a 15-year old Dimple Kapadia in Bobby just won’t work. Hey, Mr Pessimist, who made Dimple Kapadia? Raj Kapoor or Lataji’s songs like “jhooth bhole kauva kaate” and “chabhi kho jaaye”? When she was out of reach for some filmmakers , they invented doppelgangers. First Suman Kalyanpur (who got to sing chartbusters with Mohd Rafi, only because the original nightingale had fallen out with him for two years), then Chandrani Mukherjee, Anuradha Paudwal and finally Alka Yagnik. When Dharamesh Darshan couldn’t get her to sing in Dhadkan, he got her through a her voice on the radio singing “Tu mere saath rahega munne” from the film Trishul. One of the most ardent Lata ji fans in the film industry is Sanjay Leela Bhansali. “I have to listen to her at least for 3-4 hours a day. She is like that beacon of light in the darkest hour. I hold her songs are very close to my heart. In one way or another, all my music scores pay a tribute to Lataji. In Devdas, the song “Hamesha tumko chaha” was inspired by her exquisite “Suniyo ji” in Lekin. I feel she’s the greatest artiste this country has ever produced. We haven’t even begun to measure her contribution to Indian cinema. In every era she has set the parameters for beauty grace and melody.” Many people, believe God lives in Lataji’s soul and makes their way into her throat and outwards in a divine clasp. When you hear her sing a love song like Lag ja gale se (Woh Kaun Thi), Raina beeti jaye (Amar Prem) or Main janoon nahin piya se milan kaise hoye ri(Chand Grahan), you wonder which beloved she addresses the melody to. Could it be the one who created this world? “I believe we’re all here for one purpose. So that Lataji would have an audience,” says Bhansali. Generations and eras have passed. At 75 her divine aura refuses to to wane. Yash Chopra, who loves his ‘didi’, couldn’t have given her a better birthday gift than Veer-Zaara. He was advised by his so-called friends and well-wishers to switch to another voice for Preity Zinta . But Chopra was adamant. “As long as I am there and she’s there, only Lataji will sing for my films.” Every heroine from Madhubala and Meena Kumari to Aishwarya Rai and Preity Zinta owes her career to varying degrees to Lataji’s voice. “Heroines felt they had arrived when Lataji sang for them,” said Jaya Bachchan. Where can the voice go now? Upon asking her, Lata ji has the most humble response, “Honestly I don’t know how I’ve come so far, so how can I say where I’ll go now? I let God guide me wherever he wants to. I don’t question his ways.” At 85, Lata Mangeshkar remains an awesome force to reckon with. As for the others,I want to go back to the prophetic words of one of the earliest Lata-bhakt composers Sajjad Husain. “Lata sings. The others just scream.” Even today when she enters at a social gathering a hush descends in the room. Everyone stops to listen to the melody that she carries in her soul.