|
|
|
Home
-->
Lata, The Living Legend! |
|
Lata, The Living Legend!
By: Ms Vatsala Gurunath
Switzerland locales, rich and dream like sets, silk, chiffons and Lata Mangeshkar are the
trademark compulsive musts in a Yash chopra banner movies.
Whether it was CHANDNI or MOHABATTEIN, all of Yash Chopra's productions have at least a
single song rendered melodiously by the queen of Indian playback singing, Lata Mangeshkar.
Music in Indian context is never complete without including the Hindi film industry. And, the
Hindi film industry remains incomplete without the mention of Lata Mangeshkar, the living
legend!
Born on September 28, 1929 in Indore, Lata is the eldest child of the Mangeshkar family.
Dinanath Mangeshkar, her father, owned a theatrical company and was a reputed classical
singer, a disciple of the Gwalior school. He gave her singing lessons from the age of five.
When her father died in 1942, little Lata had to give up her education and stand tall as the
breadwinner for the big family. Between 1942 and 1948 she acted in as many as 8 films in
Hindi and Marathi to take care of the family's economic problems. She also made her debut
as a playback singer in the Marathi film KITI HASAAL (1942) but the song was edited out! It
was in 1945 that Lata set out to firmly set foot on a Bollywood music scene dominated by
the legendary Shamshad Begum. The first Hindi film in which she gave playback was AAP KE
SEWA MAIN (1947) but her singing went unnoticed. Ironically Lata was even rejected for
SHAHEED (1948) by producer S. Mukherjee who complained that her voice was feeble!
However Ghulam Haider unable to use her voice in SHAHEED gave Lata her breakthrough
song with ‘Dil Mera Toda’ from MAJBOOR (1948). 1949 saw the release of four films.
BARSAAT, ANDAAZ, DULARI and MAHAL. The songs of all four films were runaway hits
particularly "Aaega Aanewaalaa" from the last mentioned. By 1950 the Lata wave had
changed the Industry.
All through her reign, Lata's voice has inspired a patriot and a lover alike. It has infused life
to the pangs of first love, fanned the fires of passion, ached with the pain of lost love,
rejoiced with the changing seasons, and, eventually, come to epitomise the very emotions it
has celebrated.
The magic of Lata Mangeshkar has never faded, and she voices the heroines of the present
generation with élan. Some of biggest hits DIL TO PAAGAL HAI, MAACHIS, HUM AAPKE HAIN
KAUN and DIL SE, PUKAR also ONE 2 KA 4, MOHABATTEIN have their best songs sung by the
dear old Lata. From Nargis to Aishwarya she has almost sung for them all.
Lata's voice is divided into two parts. One is of the soul and the other is of the heart. Lata's
most memorable contribution is, however, not from any movie or album. Her soulful rendition
of the patriotic song, "Ae mere watan ke logon", following the 1962 Sino-Indian war.
Lata who has been there and done everything in the field of music ranging from filmi to
bhajan to classical now wants to devote more attention to singing classical-based songs.
Lata is not very happy with the kind of lyrics that are being written these days and recalls
the days of yore when there was emotion in the songs. Also, over the last many years of
her singing career, Lata thought of retiring several times, but it was the undisputed love and
affection of her audience that hasn't let her leave. If we are to talk in terms of the
legendary Raj Kapoor, then shall we say: Lataji, never talk of quitting, The show must go
on...
|
|
|
|
|
