KUCHH JHALKIYAAN EK ZAMEEN PAR UTRI HUI AWAAZ KI MALLIKA KI ...

Time has this bad and nasty habit of sparing no one, emperors, kings and queens, saints and sinners, the rich and the poor, the small or the big -Ali Peter John

Time did not spare any one all this time and time has made sure that it will spare no one at any time. The biggest examples today are Dilip Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar.

Time was when both the Shahenshah and the Nightingale swayed the minds and hearts of millions and for generations.

Time is now when only their work lives on, while the two legends who shared a brother and younger sister relationship and time is now when Dilip Kumar is lying in bed suffering from a series of ailments and afflictions and doesn't even recognise his own wife, Saira Banu and Lata is at home in Prabhu Kunj and is to be ninety next month (September 28).

And even as I feel gloriously happy about being a part of the preparations for the grand birthday celebrations of Lataji, I go back to some key moments in her life...

Like when she worked as a child actress soon after her father Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar died leaving behind his wife, Mai and their children, a family of which Lata Mangeshkar was the eldest and had to work since the time she was hardly ten and had to travel to Poona to find some work and was offered the roles of children and even play the young heroine in a couple of Marathi films.

Like the time when she was taken seriously as a singer by composers like Ghulam Haider and Naushad and was the only competition for singers like Noor Jehan who had the added advantage of being an actress too and left India to be a part of Pakistan and literally left the field open to Lata who soon became the unparalleled queen of music in India and wherever Hindi films and Hindi film music was known.

Lata soon had a tough competitor in her own house, her younger sister, Asha Bhosle who after a very grim struggle grew to be second only to her sister and gradually became an entity on her own and there was a constant debate about who was a better singer, Lata or Asha and the debate continues even though Lata has thrown in the towel and has stopped singing for films or for big shows and Asha countinues to sing even though she is eighty-five and is also considered to be one of the richest women in the country, with a chain of hotels and restaurants all over the world, all of them called ‘Asha' in which she has the photographs of every legendary singer and composer except for O.P Nayyar who as history and time know was her mentor and was even said to be married to her till another composer,R.D Burman came into her life and gave her life a new turn and a new twist.

The so called rivalry between the two sisters grew so strong and was so talked about that not only writers and other singers and composers talked about it, but a sensitive filmmaker like Sai Paranjpye even made a film about it called “Saaz" with Shabana Azmi playing the elder sister and Aruna Irani playing the younger sister, a film which both the singers rejected as a piece of fiction.

Lata had her own shows in the sixties and seventies when she had Dilip Kumar as the host and their shows together gave the audience the time of their lives.

In the seventies, Lata was doing a round of shows in America and Canada and Kalyanji-Anandji presented the shows which were presented by a NRI called Kirit Trivedi.

The excess of shows kept the audience away from some of Lata's shows. The proposals who were masters at performing in such shows came up with an idea.

Back home, in India, one of Amitabh's songs, ‘mere angane mein tumhara kya kaam hai' had caught the fancy of the audience and the composers asked Lata if she would mind if they invited Amitabh to perform in some of the last shows and Lata was graceful enough to agree and that was the beginning of Lata taking a great liking for Amitabh who was like millions of others already a fan of Lata.

Lata is said to have wanted more shows with Amitabh, but time came in the way.
Dilip Kumar and Lata, however kept meeting at some private and public events and it was in one of these events that Dilip Kumar is said to have told Lata, “we have now become a part of history" and for reasons best known to her, Lata did not like that statement and there was a sort of cold war between them and it has never been the same again between the ‘bade bhai and chhoti behan'. There has been no efforts made to build relations the same way again.

Lata has always wanted to promote her younger brother, Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar as a composer and it is this desire that made her tell Raj Kapoor, her other ‘brother' to take Hridaynath as the composer of “Satyam Shivam Sundaram".

The matter was almost final and Lata had gone out of the country on one of her concerts.

It was while she was in the US that someone close told her about the developments on the music front on the music of “Satyam Shivam Sundaram".

By the time, Lata was back, it was confirmed that it was not her brother, but Laxmikant-Pyarelal who were scoring the music for the film, the same team which she had promoted with all her heart during their early days.

She was very angry and from the airport she drove to the recording studio and sang the title song and returned home without talking to her ‘Raj bhaiya' or anyone else. She had made her opinion clear. She was very angry with both Raj Kapoor and RK.

One other person she has not been able to forget is the lyricist-director Gulzar who was her choice to direct a film for her (“Lekin") which was a big flop and Lata had decided never to try her hand at producing films.

The reason for her being angry with Gulzar who is eighty-four now and has not yet change his arrogance.

On one particular day Hridaynath wanted to talk to Gulzar on the phone and Gulzar is said to have treated him like he normally treats outsiders or unknown people.

It must be known that Hridaynath had scored the music and Gulzar had written the lyrics for “Lekin".

The association between Lata and Amitabh was now as strong as the association between Dilip Kumar and her once.

It was to be the first Hridayesh Award, name after Hridaynath. Lata was presented with three names who would honour her with the awards and the names were Dr A.P.J Kalam, Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan.

She looked at the name of Amitabh and asked Hridaynath ‘if you have the name of Amitabh Bachchan, why do you have to show me and any other name?"

I feel extremely honoured whenever I think about how I had made Amitabh agree to present the award to Lata Mangeshkar.

The function to present the award was like a solemn and holy ceremony and a competition to praise one another Lata Mangeshkar surrendered to Amitabh when she called him “Hindi bhasha ke Shahenshah".

However, it was decided that the same award would be given to Amitabh after another two years and then Lata would present him with the award.

Amitabh was overjoyed and it was one of those rare function when Amitabh and Jaya came together to show their respect for the queen of melody.

He was however to be disappointed because at the last minute, Lata sent a message that she would not be able to make it to the function, but she spoke to Amitabh and Jaya on the phone and asked the organisers to ask any big celebrity in the audience to do the honours to Amitabh.

I feel flattered again to remember how the organisers approached me to find an alternative to Lata and I could only think about my friend, Subhash Ghai who was not even among the invited guests.

I called him at Whistling Woods and he agreed even though he and Amitabh were not on talking terms after the fiasco of “Deeva",a film they were to do and couldn't because of financial and creative reasons.

Ghai however came within thirty minutes and presented the award to Amitabh and it was a double event for them because they were involved in an event associated with Lata Mangeshkar and they could talk again and Amitabh also recieved the Lifetime Achievement Award of Whistling Woods International...

For the last several months, not many are not not visiting the ailing Dilip Kumar because of his not recognising people, but Lata Mangeshkar who called on him was sure that he had recognised her and felt very happy about it.

Lata Mangeshkar's last opinion about Amitabh was, “he is the only actor who is accepted and respected by four generations".....

A grand celebration has been planned to celebrate the ninetieth birthday of the ‘Sur Samaagri'(the empress of music) and even this time, whenever she comes to know about the celebrations planned for her birthday, she tells her brother and the organisers that the celebration would be meaningful to her only if Amitabh Bachchan is the chief guest.

And can Amitabh who is the busiest actor in India at seventy-six neglect the wish of a queen who wants one of her latest bhakts who honour her with what she feels could be her last major award in this long and ever so eventful life?