APNE EKLAUTE CHOTE BHAI "BAL" KO LATAJI JAAN SE ZYAADA PYAAR KARTI THI .... BY ALI PETER JOHN

I have seen life in all its colours and shades in my long life of seventy years . And if there is one thing I have observed, it is the truth about how difficult it is for the sibling of a legend and any major achiver in any field of life - Ali Peter John

But, I have also seen some siblings growing out of the shadows of their elders and creating a niche of their own. And one of the most incredible stories about one such achiver is the amazing story of Pandit Hridayanath Mangeshkar, the only brother of living legends like Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar, Padmavibhushan Asha Bhosle, Meena Khadikar and Usha Mangeshkar.

On the occasion of Pandit Hridayanath Mangeshkar's 83rd birthday, I take the occasion and the privilege of sharing some stories about Baalsaheb as he is known among his sisters and in musical and socio- cultural circles in Maharatshtra.

According to a story told to me by Baalsaheb himself, he was totally under the spell of his father, Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar and then his eldest sister Lata Mangeshkar and had no other choice but to follow the family in the pursuit of music in all its best and pure forms.

In any other story, Baalsaheb could have just followed the traditions set by his sisters, but he knew and he was conscious about following his own thinking and creating the kind of music that would give him an identity of his own and place him in his own class which would mark him out as a musical genius on his own.

He pursued his passion with the kind of zest and zeal which took him very little time to reach a place where his own sisters would look up to him and even consider him to be their 'strict guru' even though he was years younger than them.

I remember Lataji once telling him how all the sisters including her'self were in awe of Thier 'Baal who was a tough task master who was so well strict when it came to the riyaaz he put them through every morning even after they had grown into legends and queens of singing.

Hridayanath Mangeshkar had attained new heights, so much that classical musicians and vocalists like Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Pandit Jasraj conferred on him the title of Pandit on the basis of his talent alone.

He was and is equally at ease and completely in command in music of various genres like the abhangs, aartis, classical and folk. He is considered as the pioneer of making koli music and even Konkani music of the classical kind popular and accepted by the connoisseurs and the classes and the masses.

He was happy in his world of music that he had created but he was drawn into Marathi and Hindi film music. He gave film music a touch of class when he scored the music for Marathi films like his first ever film "Akash Ganga" and then followed it with outstanding music in Marathi films like "Jait Re Jait" and "Umbertha" among others.

It was only natural for him to make his talent felt in Hindi films and he more than proved his talent with Hindi films like "Lekin" which was a film inspired by Lata Mangeshkar and directed by Gulzar.

There were other big and small films with his music playing a very important part, but it seemed like he was not very comfortable and finally gave up scoring music for Hindi films.

There is this story about how Raj Kapoor had promised Lataji that he would have Hridayanath as the composer of his film, Satyam Shivam Sundaram. Lataji was very happy with "Raj's decision and left for one of her shows abroad and when she returned, she found out that it was Laxmikant - Pyarelal who were the composers of " S S S.

She drove from the airport to the recording studio and sang the title song of the film and returned home without talking to her " brother" Raj or any one else. Hridayanath had lost a grand opportunity. Why ? No one still knows.

Hridayanath is still active at his age and has regular musical shows all over and has a massive audience wherever he goes.

Besides the support of his sisters, he has his family, wife Bharti, sons Adinath and Baijnath and daughter Radha who have been his strongest sources of inspiration.

For the last few years, Hridayanath has been busy with establishing his own " Hridayanath' Award which is given on his birthday, October 26 to men and women for their contribution to music.

The recipients of this award so far have been Lata Mangeshkar, Amitabh Bachchan, Asha Bhosle and A R Rahman. And I feel honoured to say that I have played some small part in the presentation of these prestigious awards.

I still remember my first meeting with him at Prabhu Kunj where the Mangeshkars have been living for the last sixty years. He had told me how he had dedicated his life to good and great music.

And I am happy that his dedication has only kept growing with the passing of time and even today when he is 83, he works on creative new sounds of music all through the night ( nights are the only time he as been working all this years), working when the world is sleeping and all the noise, sound and fury is silenced by the unique sounds of the silence of the night