Strains gone, stress showing!

Lata and Rafi, the best ever, but....

Raju Korti

Age may have caught up with national icon Lata Manageshkar, but amnesia certainly hasn't. The singer whose name will remain etched in history books, has gone off key yet again. Off the mike though. And if you thought this was a small consolation, ask the fans of another legendary singer Mohammed Rafi and you'll know how mortified they are at the country's deified songstress for exhuming an issue that everyone had thought had been given a decent burial.
Those who have followed Lata closely will tell you in hushed tones that for all the supremacy and sovereign that she has been as a singer, insecurity has been her constant companion. The fabled Lata Mangeshkar ego is widely perceived to have made short work of whatever competition she has had to put up with including that from her own illustrious sister Asha Bhosale.
It has always baffled me as to why a person of her countenance, stature and craft had to find herself on a slippery ground each time even when a no-competition stared her in the face. Contrast this with the smiling mien of the late Mohammed Rafi who had more contemporaries to contend with than Lata. Rafi edged past them with his metier; never even once overstepping the fault line. He was gentleman to a fault, if I may be allowed the pun. Throughout his four-decade career, Rafi was the proverbial banyan tree under whose umbrage other singers grew. Competition made him excel himself and smile more while it made Lata sulk more and more.
This streak in her surfaced visibly when she took on the mighty Rafi on the issue of royalty. There are many who say this as an afterthought: That Lata stands vindicated today as far as appreciation of an artiste's calling is concerned. But then, we are living in brazenly commercial times where business ethics are best read only in text books. Rafi took a principled posturing on an issue which made horse sense to the composers who conglomerated the glorious music of the fifties and sixties. Recall how a furious Lata walked out of the meeting summoned to debate the issue, realising she had been hopelessly isolated. Rafi made people swoon anywhichways. If not with his lung power, with his smile and modesty.
It was Lata and not Rafi who decided unilaterially that she would not sing with the country's best male singer to which the latter's measured response was "if she isn't interested, why should I be." The fact of the matter is the ego issues simmering between the two had come to a boil and the royalty issue was just an impetus. Things hadn't been hunky dory with them mainly because Lata couldn't reconcile to the fact that any other singer could be hailed as more popular, admired and adored. Even today, 32 years after his death, the discerning believe that Rafi's admirers far exceed those of Lata.
Those were the times that if and when a good solo came Rafi's way, Lata would make sure it came her way too. And without sounding biased, as everyone would agree, the Rafi version sounded miles ahead. For that matter, with a few exceoptions, the male version of the song always outbeat the female version. It only worsened things.   
As a historian of film music, I know where the roots of this dispute were and what rankled Lata so much so as to keep her grudges thus far. She fell flat on her face when it came to garnering support of the music directors and producers on the much touted royalty issue. So confident was she of her clout in the film industry that she couldn't believe when she found, she had only few takers on the issue. When Rafi rationalised that once a singer sang a song and got paid his/her remuneration, he had no right to ask for any payment over and above (read royalty). His reasoning and logic was so fair and just that almost all music directors seconded him. Lata was hoping that with Rafi's support, the royalty issue was as good as clinched and no composer or producer could dare defy them. But Rafi's stand upset her calculations. Besides, she suspected that Rafi was tutored by Naushad. Indeed, in on of her interviews on TV she clearly said that Wo (Rafisaab) bahot seedhe the, unko kisine bhadkaya tha. Even at this juncture, the issue would have been sorted out without much heartburn, but the killer punch came soon after. Composers, wised up to her idiosyncracies and mood swings, started taking other female singers like Suman Kalyanpur, apart from her own sister Asha Bhosale, for duets. Nothing changed for Rafi, but everything for Lata. And let's face facts. Both the sisters, despite their phenomenal talent and the advantage of being on their home ground, were always very insecure and wary of competition. So much so that even the internal rivalry/cold war between them wasn't lost on discerning people. With the dice falling in favour of Rafi, Lata got desperate and as was her wont, intensely jealous and spiteful. In his book, senior journalist Raju Bharatan quoted Rajsingh Dungarpur (with whom Lata was believed to be close) about how obstinate and child-like Lata could be if things didn't turn out the way she wanted them to be.
The royalty issue showed Lata who stood where in terms of public admiration and respect. Though legends of singing, there was no dispute as to who was more loved, respected and adored. It is surprising that someone of the stature of Lata, who should never have harboured any fears of being eclisped by anyone, should take recourse to such vicious campaign against someone as godly as Rafi. But then, both Lata and Asha have always shown this blow-hot-blow-cold attitude. Some day they are effusive in their praise of Rafi and some day as mean.
I feel that it is really immaterial whether Lata has a copy of the purported apology letter written to her by Rafi. My gut feeling is she doesn't. And even if she were to have it, it would only be interpreted as Rafi's humility for which he was known all through his career. Lata's claim should be dismissed as the as the ravings and rantings of a fractured ego. Having said that, there is also a limit to which one can stoop. And such an unkind cut to a person who has died 32 years back, and one who is held in such high esteem, is not done at all. One can only feel sorry for Lata who should be actually basking in her independent iconic status rather than trying to put herself on the same keel as Rafi.
But counselling her is a remedy worse than the disease. Only she can be her own doctor.