Lata Mangeshkar

My favourite Lata Mangeshkar songs by C Ramchandra

Birthday greetings to Lata Mangeshkar on September 28

C Ramchandra-Lata MangeshkarPresenting my favourite Lata Mangeshkar songs composed by C Ramchandra, as my birthday greetings to her on September 28, is not a very diplomatic thing to do, given the history of their relationship. As her biographical accounts go, Lata Mangeshkar was more than a muse to C Ramchandra, and central to his music. But when the relationship turned sour, its repudiation (by her) was ruthless and complete. When she gave her famed public performance of Ae mere watan ke logo at Lal Quila on the Republic Day 1963, which brought tears to Nehru’s eyes, its lyricist Pradeep was acknowledged, but its composer C Ramchandra was not. (Note: Please also see comments 49, 51, 52, 54). When in 1967 Lata Mangeshkar selected her best 10 songs for HMV, she did not include any song by C Ramchandra, but her by then favourite boys Laxmikant Pyarelal’s – made it to the list!

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Mukesh’s best happy duets

Mukesh duetsHaving recently done a list of happy songs of Mukesh, I had no intention of doing another Mukesh post anytime soon. But dustedoff, AP Joshi and Subodh Agrawal in their comments entered into an earnest discussion on ‘happy’ duets of Mukesh and requested I do a list of my favourite such duets. This opened the floodgates of my memory and several beautiful duets came streaming in my mind. About the same time another amazing coincidence happened. I heard on radio, after at least four decades, a most fabulous Mukesh-Lata duet lying in deep recesses of my memory. This post is an outcome of all these happenings.

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My favourite Rafi – Lata duets

Remembering Mohammad Rafi on his death anniversary July 31

Rafi-Lata MangeshkarMohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar were two colossus whose comprehensive domination in the golden era of 1950’s and 60’s made them synonymous with playback singing. They were what is described in marketing jargon as the brand becoming the product. What better way than to write on their best ten duets to pay my tribute to Rafi on his death anniversary, July 31.

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Hemant Kumar-Lata Mangeshkar duets

The Ultimate in Melody

Lata Mangeshkar-Hemant Kumar Hemant Kumar in his voice brought the beauty of Bengal and melody of Rabindra Sangeet. When he joined with Lata Mangeshkar the effect was magical. Easily the best duets of Hindi films are of Hemant-Lata. One can also safely say no song of Hemant Kumar was pedestrian. With his deep resonant voice he could be nothing but melody personified. As for Lata, she surpasses any superlative. Here is my selection of their best duets.

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Suman Kalyanpur outshines Lata Mangeshkar

Haal-e-dil unko sunana tha sunaya na gaya

suman_kalyanpur Suman Kalyanur had to remain in the shadows of Lata Mangeshkar because of her uncanny similarity to Lata’s voice. Many of her songs are indistinguishable from Lata’s style, either because she was subconsciously imitating her style or the music directors were viewing her essentially as Lata’s replacement. Yet there are several songs which bear her special imprint. There is one particular song in which she seems to have clearly overshadowed Lata. I am referring to Haal-e-dil unko sunana tha sunaya na gaya from the film Fariyad (1964).

The beautiful lyric by Kedar Sharma is worth reproducing in full:

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Lata Mangeshkar vs Noorjehan

Would Noorjehan have survived the 1949 Lata tornado?

lata-mangeshkar-noor-jehan
Noorjehan’s migration to Pakistan in 1947 left behind the enduring question – if she had stayed back in India, would Lata still have reached the commanding heights as she did in the following three decades? As Lata’s early songs had a distinct Noorjehan tinge, the suggestion is that Noorjehan’s absence from the scene in a way helped Lata’s rise; with her around Lata might have perhaps remained a copy of the original.

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Remembering Mughal-e-Azam’s Music

Travesty of missing the Filmfare award

Mughal-e-AzamThis is the Golden Jubilee year of Mughal-e-Azam (1960), and the media, both print and electronic, is rightly full of the movie. Everything about the film was superlative – its lavish production, awesome battle scenes with thousands of camels, horses and soldiers (there were no computer generated imaging those days), great acting by all the lead players Prithviraj Kapur (Akbar), Dilip Kumar (Salim) and Madhubala (Anarkali), grand ornate dialogues, and above all its timeless music composed by Naushad. But all the stories in the media have missed what Sherlock Holmes would have called the most significant thing about the film – that is, the Filmfare award for the best music director which Naushad did not win. The composers who beat him to it were the duo Shankar Jaikishan for Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayee.

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Chitragupta – Magic Maker with Lata Mangeshkar

When I try to compile the most melodious, the most beautiful songs of Lata Mangeshkar, the following songs invariably come to my mind:

Song Film
Kare kare badra ja re ja re badra Bhabhi (1957)
Na to dard gaya na dawa hi mili Kali Topi Lal Rumal (1960)
Sajna sajna kahe bhul gaye re pukar ke Chand Mere Aa Ja (1960)
Rang dil ki dhadkan bhi lati to hogi Patang (1960)
Main hun gori nagin dekhungi rasiya Nache Nagin Baje Been (1960)
Balma mane na Opera House (1961)
Kajra na dekhe gajra na dekhe Suhag Sindur (1961)
Aaj ki raat naya chand leke ayi hai Shadi (1962)
Dil ka diya jala ke gaya Akashdeep (1965)
Uthegi tumhari nazar dheere dheere Ek Raaz (1969)

Correction: Main hun gori nagin dekhugi rasiya in the above table is a Rafi-Lata duet

All these songs are composed by Chitragupta and they should figure in any list of Lata’s best.

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