Songs of Yore Award for the Best ‘Other’ Female Playback Singer goes to?
In the previous two series for 1953 and 1955, I had one Wrap Up for the best female playback singer, and unlike the question mark for male singers, the by-line for female singer had a straightforward: “And the Award goes to Lata, Lata, Lata, Lata, Lata….Lata Mangeshkar.” But in the write-up and the final ten I made efforts to include about 3-4 songs of other singers too, in the nature of affirmative action. Her dominance is no less pronounced in 1951- Mahesh goes to the extent of saying that the best female playback singer other than Lata is Lata Mangeshkar herself. But several readers gave separate lists of their favourite songs of Lata and ‘other’ female singers, and suggested that I do the female playback singers in two parts. The ‘other’ singers bring immense variety and several of them had their landmark songs in the year. Therefore, let me split the female singers in two parts, and start with the ‘other’ singers first.