Iconic Lata Mangeshkar – immortal voice that will resonate for generations

By Chaitanya Padukone

Legendary Lata Mangeshkar’s exit into immortality (this morning) has left millions of her ardent fans in mourning grief.   But her mellifluous divine voice is firmly treasured in the hearts of her legion of loyal followers and music-lovers. When you hear  of any of her hundreds of  soul-stirring songs with high-octave-notes, ‘Jahaan Pey Baseraa Ho’ (Baseraa) or the ‘antaraa’ of ‘Ajee Rooth Kar Abb’ (Arzoo) you know it’s got to be Lata-Didi’s’s velvety voice. And you don’t even have to make an effort to remember her rich repertoire of mellifluous songs—they instantly strike an emotional chord and remain etched in your memory for a lifetime.

‘Meri aawaz hee pehchaan hai—agar yaad rahe’; ‘Rahe na rahe Hum, Mehkaa karenge’ are two ideal Hindi film songs which can be dedicated to the ‘late’ supreme singer.   Which is why vocal virtuoso Madame Mangeshkar was conferred with the highest Indian civilian honour of the coveted ‘Bharat Ratna’ by the Indian Government. Not surprisingly, our honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra-ji Modi is among her ardent VVIP fans and is expected to attend Didi’s funeral at Shivaji Park.

Although she was 92 years of age, her graceful dignity, alertness and passion for music was always at its peak. Until recently, when she fell critically sick and was hospitalized.  Always prompt at sharing well-worded timely Tweets on her Colleagues’ birthdays and anniversaries, she had an amazing memory. Known for her penchant for wearing diamond earrings and bangles, and fetish for fragrant perfumes, and flair for photography, Lata was also a keen cricket enthusiast. The soft-spoken ‘nightingale of India’ would converse fluently about the nuances of the ‘ball-game’ and the performances of some of her favourites like batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar. She once jestfully remarked in the recent past, that like in cricket-jargon, even musical notations are known as ‘scores’ and if a song becomes a hit it ‘runs’ and that she will always remain ‘not out’ from the music industry.

Also read: I did not dream I would become an actor : Ramesh Deo

What is commendable about  Lata-Didi, that she has sung for multiple generations of filmy heroines from 1942 till date. Whether it was Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Nargis, Nutan, Tanuja, Nanda, Vyjayanthimala, Waheeda Rehman, Asha Parekh, Sharmila Tagore, Sadhana, Priya Rajvansh, Mumtaz, Rekha, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Jaya Bhaduri-Bachchan, Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Kajol, Preity  Zinta, ‘playback-singer’ ensured that her voice perfectly matched the star-face on the big-screen.

Enthused Lata-Didi when I had interviewed her, “As far as possible, I make every effort to match the tonal voice-quality of the lead actress and add authenticity to the audio-visual. Moreover, I discuss with the music director and the film-director the mood of the song, the situation, the placement of the song in the narrative to blend my voice perfectly with the song-requirement.”

For instance, the westernized number ‘Aaaa Jaane Jaa’ sung by versatile Lata-Didi composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal is picturised on cabaret-dancer Helen . If you watch the song on YouTube’ or in the yesteryear movie ‘Intaqam’ you actually feel Helen is singing the seductive number. Interestingly, Lata is a classy ‘mimic’ and can imitate voices, whenever she wishes to.  It is intriguing that Lata was originally named ‘Hema’ at her birth. Her parents later renamed her ‘Lata’ after a female character, Latika, from one of her father’s plays.

Also read: Bollywood mourns the demise of Lata Mangeshkar

The pretty, petite songstress was born to theatre-drama actor and classical vocal maestro Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar in Indore. Wrapping the ‘pallu’ of her saree around her shoulders, the demure Lata insists, “If the lyrics sound obscene or vulgar, I have declined to sing such songs.” In 1973, she won the coveted National Award for the masterpiece song ‘Beeti Na Bitaai’ (‘Parichay’) composed by R. D. Burman. After winning the Filmfare Award multiple times, the large-hearted Lata-Didi made the magnanimous gesture of  officially ‘renouncing’ being nominated for  the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award, to enable promising new vocal talents to earn accolades as well.

Lata Mangeshkar with film-journalist Chaitanya Padukone during the late ’80s

As celebrity singer-composer-producer Anup Jalota succinctly puts it, Maa Saraswati Devi permanently resided in Lata’s throat and globally there can be ‘one and only one No: 1’ Lata Mangeshkar! The iconic Lata was so modest and co-operative when shared with me the first chapter tribute to Pancham-Da in my authored memoirs book R D BurMania (2016). It was a heart-warming memorable experience for me to converse with the modest melody-queen.