Lata Mangeshkar's immortal songs of death

It’s been a year since the Nation lost its voice. How does the average Lata Bhakt feel in her physical absence?

“To me she is still very much a part of my every day life. I haven’t even started processing her death in my mind. Her songs play in my head and in my car constantly,” says Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

The same is true of Jaya Bachchan, a diehard fan. “To me she lives through her songs. I listen to her every day and wonder each day how she sang so much and so flawlessly.”

Lataji’s protégé the talented composer Mayuresh Pai says, “She was far beyond a physical being. She has only changed form. It is our misfortune that we can’t see her. But she can see us. Even as we speak she is listening.”

Death strangely enough was a constant part of Lataji’s songs and music. Of course the great Gulzar- R D Burman song. Naam ghum jayega chehra yeh badal jayega meri awaaz hi pehchaan hai. Gulzar Saab wrote the lyrics with Lataji’s immortality in mind.

Lataji joked about the song’s reference to her immortality. “Main jab nahin rahungi yeh gaana log meri yaad main gayenge (when I am no more people will listen to and sing this song). Indeed it is true. Meri awaaz hi pehchaan hai (my voice is my identity).”

Speaking of Lataji’s immortal voice, I always hated the Roshan-Majrooh Sultanpuri composition Rahen na rahen hum mehka karenge banke kali banke sabaa bagh-e-wafa mein (whether I am alive or not I will continue to spread my fragrance…) from the film Mamta.

There is a reason for my unreasonable aversion to this beautiful melody: I knew it would be played ad nauseam on all the radio and television channels when she was gone. But of course I never shared by dread with Lataji about this beautiful song about the footprints on the sand.

Speaking of the songs in which she sang about death, there was Tum mujhse dur chale jaana na main tumse dur chali jaoongi, a simple and elegant melody composed by Sachin Dev Burman in the film Ishq Par Zor Nahin. Lataji can be heard breaking down during the singing.

“Oh that was just acting. Don’t forget I did some acting as a child. That’s when I learnt how to emote,” she confided.

So she was not crying while singing the heartbreaking song? “No, I wasn’t. But everyone else at the recording was crying,” she laughed as we continue to sob each time we hear about her leaving us in the song.

Speaking of songs on mortality, Madan Mohan’s Mujhe yaad karne waale tere saath saath hoon main jo kabhi na khatm hogi wahi dil ki baat hoon main in the film Rishte Naate actually has the singer speaking from her death to her loved ones in the world of the living.Madan Mohan would never listen to this composition of his: the thought of his raakhi (foster) sister singing as a departed soul bothered him.

My favorite song where the Nightingale sang from the dead was Bidaai ki phir ghadi ayee. The uncontrollably emotional song played in the background as Durga Khote , the matriarch in the film Bidaai, is being taken to her pyre.

Each time I hear this song I break down wondering how the supreme songstress could sing about death without a jot of stress.

Over to Lataji: “Death is not to be scared of. Death is not an end. It is actually a new beginning.To me the songs where I had to sing for a person who had left the earth was like getting into the train and waving goodbye to those on the platform.”

We hear you. We see you.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.

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