Singers have genre associated with them, but Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar who left the mortal world on 06 February 2022 has left a treasure trove of compilation for the music aficionados to be enthralled in the octaves of harmony. Yes, harmony was the key ingredient that defined the renditions of Lata Mageshkar from the time when she started playback singing back in 1943.
Naushad Sahab had written that he kept on postponing the debut of Lata Mangeshkar under his baton, as he desired that Lata Mangeshkar should polish on her Urdu to be able to perform. And she did and went on to become the female voice for all the songs for times to come.
Lata Mangeshkar was the only singer who had performed in all the genres of singing and left an indelible mark, which no other singer would be able to emulate. In fact, as the day breaks one can begin the life with bhajans of Lata Mangeshkar playing in the background and go to sleep with the evening songs that she sung.
Her voice had the ability to climb on to the senses and engulf the listener just as the creeper (lata) climbs on to a support and keeps on growing. Her voice had that enigma which kept on solidifying its presence for the listener.
Her glorious era of playback singing began post-Independence when Noorjehan along with Shamshad Begum went to Pakistan and Suraiya slowly ebbed away after her fling with Dev Anand. Lata Mangeshkar was the voice for launch of a female face and across generations heroines have been launched using Lata Mangeshkar’s voice for playback. Be it a Kajol, who crooned to a ‘mere khwabon mein jo aaye’ in DDLJ as did her aunt Nutan crooned ‘ban Ke panchi gayein pyar ka tarana’ in ANARI, one cannot discern the age difference in rendition though both these songs are more than 36 years apart.
Her gifted vocal faculty had such finesse that for each of the actresses that she sung for, it appeared as if the actress is singing in her own voice and this finesse most of the times was achieved when the tools and devices for voice correction were not available! May be, such was the finesse that she had achieved in her rendition through her riyaz she could perform on such a wide spectrum of octaves. It was manifest in BOBBY where Dimple Kapadia was launched and in SAAGAR where Dimple Kapadia was relaunched and on both occasions it was the voice of Lata Mangeshkar that paved the way for Dimple Kapadia to gain her moorings.
One always wonders whether ‘ye kahan aa gaye hum’ from SILSILA would have become such a cult song, were it not for the vocal rendition by Lata Mangeshkar. She was the first singer who stirred the consciousness of the Nation after China attack when she sang ‘aie mere watan ke logon’. During one of the interviews on the eve of her birthday with a Radio Channel (93.5), she had gone on record to proclaim her sense of respect and awe that she had for the soldiers of our country.
The songs rendered by Lata Mangeshkar catalyzed the success that Salman Khan trail blazed post MAINE PYAAR KIYA. In total there were 11 songs in the film, of which Lata Mangeshkar had sung 8. This was an era when the music channels were yet to be conceptualized and the repeat footfall by the audience were primarily to view the songs on the screen and the enticement of repeat footfalls was contributed majorly by the magic of Lata Mangeshkar.
The iconic images that actresses of an era gone by could acquire- the likes of Meena Kumari, Madhubala, Nargis or Mumtaz or even a Suchitra Sen (whose claim to fame was ‘rahein na rahein hum’ from MAMTA and ‘tere bina zindagi se koi shikwa to nahi’ the songs through which she is immediately discerned) that they could acquire was owing majorly to the songs picturized on them and the voice over obviously was of Lata Mangeshkar.
One always wonders whether SADHANA could have become an enigma but for Lata Mangeshkar through WHO KAUN THI’s ‘Naina barse rimjhim’ or through ‘Tu jahan jahan chaelga’ from MERA SAYA. The element of haunt of the character would actualize owing to the rendition of the songs by Lata Mangeshkar. The same haunt was created when Lata Mangeshkar crooned ‘yaara sili sili’ for Dimple Kapadia in RUDALI epitomized a wet night slowly smoking away to loneliness and a sense of void.
The sense of pride that Madhuri Dixit could evoke in Jackie Shroff when she crooned – ‘O Ramji tere Lakhan’ would not have been possible but for Lata Mangeshkar and it was one of the defining turnarounds of the movie. Only a rendition of the song by Lata Mangeshkar had the prowess of her vocal chords to create that magical moment.
A tribute to Lata Mangeshkar would be incomplete without dwelling on the oeuvre of bhajans that she left behind. Be it the ‘Allah tero naam’ from HUM DONO or all the songs of SATYAM SHIVAM SUNDARAM or ‘O palan hare’ from LAGAAN, it seems as if from 1960 for HUM DONO to LAGAAN in 2001, Lata Mangeshkar just continued from 1960 to 2001 without missing any node in between.
She was the living epitome of Goddess Saraswati and therefore she left the mortal world on the day of Basant Panchami, when goddess Saraswati is worshipped across the country. She is irreplaceable for all times to come.