Raju Korti
There was zero home work or research done to describe the life and times of Lata Mangeshkar although there was ample time for the TV channels to do so. There was too much of ennui, too much repetition and to add insult to injury, many who paid 'tributes' got into self-promotion peppered by a pompous description of how they were among Lata's favoured close. For a singer whose voice was god-gifted, it was jarring that they couldn't reel out even a couple of off-beat songs that Lata would herself have felt proud of.
An entire generation has changed since Lata stopped singing publicly in 2001. The epoch that she created in her epic saga -- first for her and her musically inclined family's survival and then to reach the pinnacle of professional glory -- requires a fair bit of study. Almost all her peers and illustrious contemporaries are lost to history which is a crying shame and pity because the quintessential Lata phenomenon will remain shrouded by her larger-than-life shadow.
In my 65 years, 42 of them as a journalist with a marked proclivity towards music, I bumped into Lata five times during the mid-eighties. The first three times were during press meets and a couple of functions. In the maze of people surrounding her, I had managed to get her audience with what I knew could be my ace serves. I mentioned to her the names of Ghulam Haider, Husnlal Bhagatram, Hansraj Behl, Ghulam Mohammed and Sajjad Hussein. Never known to overstate her emotions, Lata just smiled and acknowledged that she understood my musical credentials. That smile was escorted by her universally admired voice that assured me: "Let's meet. We can set up a meeting."
18 years down the line, the opportunity arrived and how. In 2004, Lata had stepped into her 75th year and the Free Press Journal, where I was the Editor then, had planned to devote a full page to her. There were two choice for this onerous task. One was my senior colleague Shireesh Kanekar and the other; me. As it happened, Kanekar was travelling and the mantle fell on me. I gleefully grabbed the opportunity with both hands. The idea of landing up at Mumbai's one of most iconic addresses 'Prabhu Kunj' had sent my adrenaline soaring.
The next evening I called her landline residence with a slight sense of trepidation. Lata picked up the phone herself. I jogged her memory with my past interaction and she seemed to catch on but my first name killed her initial enthusiasm and excitement. "One Raju (Bharatan) has messed up my biography with a pack of lies. I am not sure I should go with your interview." The bitterness in her voice came as resonatingly as the famed strains of her voice. I tried to reason out with her that one such experience didn't mean the same would happen with me as well. It was futile convincing her as she seemed to have taken to heart what she felt was "character assassination" by a journalist who was far more tuned in and much senior. That was the end of the Lata chapter and I genuinely believed the loss was more her's than mine.
No one, least of all an artiste who has carved out a niche for himself/herself is devoid of ego. The best of people have feet of clay. Having followed her career closely since my childhood, I knew Lata had an ego. Even her equally talented male counterpart the late Mohammed Rafi had one. That might have something to do with their hard-earned stature. Remember the royalty dispute in the early sixties followed up by the discordant notes on the mention in The Guinness Book.
My blog here, to be honest, is not an exercise in merely deifying Lata Mangeshkar but a sincere and factual appraisal of her persona - a concoction of justified eulogy and criticism. It is a measure of her strength of resilience that she she so seamlessly blended with her god-gifted talent that got her thus far. History is replete with instances where talent alone hasn't mattered. It needed reinforcement with hard work. I believe that this side of an artiste's character hardly get's the appreciation it pre-eminently deserves. As she told me in my previous interaction, "I do not want to be born Lata Mangeshkar again in my next birth. One lifetime's struggle is enough."
To begin with there is no basis in the argument that Lata would have not made the kind of headway if Noor Jehan, the earlier rage, were to stay back in India. Please do remember even Suraiyya was in her element then. But the conservative Suraiyya did not have the drive to learn classical singing that called for training at all unearthly hours. Composers like Ghulam Haider, Husnlal Bhagatram and Ghulam Mohammed polished her singing as she left no stone unturned to grasp the nuances of various raagas. Hansraj Behl, Anil Biswas, Khemchand Prakash who detected the raw sensuality in her voice. Those were the times, Lata was slowly crafting her way to the top. Shankar-Jaikishen put a seal of approval through Barsaat in 1948.
I will choose to bisect Lata's career into two phases. One from her initial years from 1943 to 1958 and the other post those years. In the germinal phase, she was an eager performer willing to compete, learn and acknowledge. By 1960, she had already established her supremacy although sisters, especially Asha Bhosale whom Ghulam Ali diplomatically referred to as 'unnees bees' wasn't really far behind. It is in this phase that Lata had come to be convinced that she had a standing that couldn't be denied.
This was also the period of her career when she took on the high and mighty. Although she would be guarded and effusive in her praise of the then legendary composers and singers, there were several occasions when she flatly refused to work with them. Jaikishen, (of Shankar-Jaikishen), S D Burman, O P Nayyar, C Ramchandra, Mohammed Rafi, Raj Kapoor and many more. She worked on her terms and was ruthless about money. There were times when she charged composers the taxi fare and even for signing books.
One one count, this was all understandable as she had grown up insecure after the loss of her father and family patriarch Dinanath Mangeshkar. As a professional she knew she was one of a kind and got away with her idiosyncrasies. That perhaps also explained her alleged obstinate resistance towards any competition with singers like Suman Kalyanpur and even Vaani Jayaram. Apparently, even sister Asha wasn't spared. Recall "Ae mere watan ke logo" that was originally to fall in Asha's lap as she was Cr Ramchandra's considered choice. There are stories how Lata swung it in her favour. It was ironic that on a day when Lata passed away, Suman Kalyanpur broke down in her memory.
Having said that Lata gave full justice to all the composers she sang for even when she had running feuds with them. The differences lay buried beneath the ultimate singing quality. There were composers with whom she struck a phenomenal equation. Madan Mohan, Naushad, Chitragupt, Salil Choudhury, Roshan, Khayyam, S N Tripathi, Vasant Desai and Anil Biswas, Ravishankar, Hemant Kumar, Jaidev, N Dutta, Ravi, R D Burman. If I have missed any name, it is not deliberate.
The tough test was in the initial phase when a finicky and exacting composer like Sajjad Hussein -- believed to be the only original in the industry -- made her sit through multiple rehearsals to get it perfect. Lata herself has gone on record saying how difficult it was to negotiate the Arabic notes of "Ae dilruba nazare mila" (Rustom Sohrab), Salil Choudhury's Indianized symphonies, Hansraj Behl's "Haaye jiya roye" (Milan) or even Shankar Jaikishen's "O jaanewaale mud ke zara dekhte jaana" (Shri 420). These were all exacting and got the tonal gold in her voice. O P Nayyar, always singled out for never using Lata's voice even once, once bowed down and uttered "tauba tauba" when I mentioned her to him
Such is the repertoire Lata has created that it is futile and stupid to single out gems. Even lesser known composers like Dhaniram, Pt Govindram, Vinod Eric Roberts, Lachchiram, Bulo C Rani, Shailesh harnessed her voice as effectively. Who would know that an ethereally beautiful song "Jal ke dil khaak hua" came from Shailesh (Mukherjee) lost in oblivion as fast as he came? Many such gems are lost in the footprints of time and need to be excavated from the debris they lie buried under.
Lata was her pristine best in each of their compositions like they were part of her musical consciousness. I do recall, she had grown skeptical of the kind of songs in the post 90s phase and after a few songs that she probably sang only out of goodwill, she realized she wasn't cut out for the cacophony dished out in the name of music. She preferred to bow out, and that was just as well.
I have deliberately avoided mentioning her co-singers and a host of songs including the Marathi 'Bhavgeets" as it merits a completely different dedication. Every aspect of her life merits a separate book. I don't think anyone else can create the body of work that Lata, Rafi and Asha have created in their marathon professional calling. You can wait for eternity.
I think she deserves a smiling send off. She has lived a life that only few in history have occasioned to get. A long life, a career that is colossal and achievements that become meaningless after a certain period of time and when they are far too many. As I bore earlier in the day, nothing has changed really. Lata has moved from one Prabhu Kunj to another Prabhu Kunj. She continues to live in the same abode. Heaven is an ICU of another kind.
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