Lata Mangeshkar, the Malikaye Mausiki (Empress of music) is without doubt, the most revered and popular Indian of the present times. She turned 92 years old on September 28 and has expressed her desire to record one more song for her countless admirers and fans. She has dominated the playback singing world for more than six decades; having rendered some of the most memorable songs, under the baton of maestros such as Pandit Shyam Sunder, Khem Chand Prakash, Naushad, HusanLal Bhagtram, Anil Biswas, Shankar Jaikishen, C.Ramachandran, Madan Mohan, Roshan, Sajjad, Hemanta Kumar, Salil Choudhury and many more illustrious composers. She was equally popular and followed in Pakistan and listeners in that country would regularly listen to her songs on the Urdu Service of All India Radio. In fact, a listener from Lahore once wrote a letter to the AIR that Pakistan had no objection over India taking over Kashmir completely as long as they handed over Lata to the music lovers there. Every Prime minister of the country including the current one, has been a fan of the nightingale who has left her indelible mark on the Indian music fraternity. Narendra Modi does not forget to greet her on her birthday and reminds her that he would visit her house in Mumbai to share Gujarati food; Lata’s mother was from Gujarat while her father, the late Dinanath Mangeshkar was from Maharashtra. There is a famous anecdote about how she made Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru cry when she rendered, “Ae Mere Watan ke logo’’ soon after the Sino-Indian conflict in the early 1960s. Although there have been many gifted singers who have contributed to the growth of Bollywood, she stood as the tallest amongst female singers. The biggest competition for her came from her younger sister, Asha Bhonsle, who is perhaps the most recorded artist in the world. Being an ardent fan of Geeta Dutt, I always had my preferences. However, if one takes an overview, Lata has sung some of the most difficult compositions. Her commitment and hard work should serve to inspire youngsters. Despite having no background of Urdu, she engaged an Urdu teacher to help her with pronunciation and diction. In fact, there is no song of Lata’s where one can find fault with either her pronunciation or her being out of tune. Indira Gandhi and Atal Behari Vajpayee, both adored her. She has been a great cricket fan and her knowledge of the game is profound. There have been a lot of unsubstantiated stories about her romantic associations with some composers such as Husanlal, C.Ramachandran, Jaikishen but no one could ever cast any aspersions on her life. Her relationship with Raj Singh Dungarpur, the Cricketer has also been frequently mentioned but that was purely a private matter between the two of them. Lata sang for almost every composer in the country but in a HMV video made on her more than three decades ago, she singled out Shankar Jaikishen as being exceptional. She had a fall out with Raj Kapoor in the 1960s and thus did not render even a single song in his magnum opus, Mera Naam Joker. However, when the film flopped and he embarked on the production of “Bobby’’ by engaging Lakshmikant Pyarelal, they made it clear that they would go only with Lata’s voice. The showman bowed to their wishes and patched up with the nightingale realizing that she was irreplaceable. There is a story of how the film industry got a jolt when Lata and Mohammad Rafi, the most versatile male singer had a tiff and decided not to sing duets. Thankfully this conflict was short lived and the music world heaved a sigh of relief. Lata is also on record for praising Mehendi Hasan, the outstanding Ghazal singer from across the border. She had stated that she loves to hear him before going to sleep every night. Lata has outlived all her contemporaries and thus has many stories to share. In fact some of the most well-known music critics from Mumbai, see the unfolding of the Bollywood music history only through her prism. Lata is a living legend and would live on as long as Indian music lives. Her voice would always continue to bring joy to millions of people of Indian origin, all over the world.
