"SWARLATA", SWAR KI MAHARANI AUR MAIN .. BY ALI PETER JOHN

She had broken all records when it came to the number of songs sung by an individual singer more than ten years ago. She had made a public announcement that she would not accept any private awards, except for the National Awards and she was honoured by the Bharat Ratna which is the highest civilian award given by the government of India - Ali Peter John

She was nominated to the Rajya Sabha from where she came back highly disappointed as she felt that her voice was not heard in all the cacophony of sounds made in the House by responsible leaders from different walks of life and most of them behaved like roadside hooligans.

She was in her eighties when she drastically cut down on the number of songs she once sang.The last film she sang for was Yash Chopra's“Veer Zaara"in which Yash who she considered as a younger brother wanted her to sing all the female songs“whether it was for the two heroines or even the maid of the house, because Yash who could never think of making a film without her voice had a feeling that he would never make a film again (that he made his last film“Jab Tak Hai Jaan"without her voice is a matter now in the realm of conjecture and he died soon after the release of the film is another matter ...

Lata Mangeshkar has been living the life of a recluse and spends most of her time in her own private room in “Prabhu Kunj"on Peddar Road where she has been living with her family for more than sixty years.

The only one to leave the family and take up an entire floor of one of the most expensive and exclusive apartments in Lower Parel has been her younger and equally popular and successful singer, Asha Bhosle who has always made news by showing her being not very respectable to her sister and the family.

Lata has not been singing for Hindi films for quite some time, but she is in touch with the latest happening in the industry and especially in the field of music. She has been vocal about the woeful standards to which Hindi film music has fallen.

And while she was happy in her own world, recording some private classical songs for her brother, Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar once in a way, she has been very upset about what our filmmakers these days call “re'creation"of songs made immortal by her, her sisters and even other singers.

She has made her ire open and filmmakers who have upset her and even a director like Indra Kumar and a star like Ajay Devgn are willing and even planning to apologise to her, but sources in her family say that she would like to be left alone and not get into unnecessary controversies at this stage of her life

At this point, I remember the last time I met her in a recording studio in MHADA , Four Bungalows, with the studio name “Shrilata" in honour of her.

She was in high spirits even though she was recording a song which did not have her heart in it because it was like a “re'creation"of the title song of Raj Kapoor's “Ram Teri Ganga Maili".

She told me that she was doing the song only to help the music director, Ram-Laxman with whom she had recorded some of the best songs in Rajshri's big hits like “Maine Pyar Kiya" and “Hum Aapke Hai Koun".
During that quiet evening, I had the pleasure of having her go into a mini-flashback...

She talked about how her father, Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar had put her and her siblings through a tight rigimen to learn music and even the basics of acting for Marathi Theatre.

She had mastered her father's part of singing by the time she was eight and could face any competition as a singer. Her father, however died very young and left Lata with a lot of responsibility to bring up her family which included his wife Mai and her sisters and her only brother.

She was forced by financial circumstances to take up acting and made her debut as an actress who could also sing when she was only twelve and continued acting in five films in which she mostly played the sister of the hero or the heroine.

She lost interest in acting because she realised that acting was not for her and concentrated on pursuing a career in singing and it was this passion that brought her to Bombay and after an initial struggle because of having a very “thin"voice when other stronger singers like Noor Jahan and Shamshad Begum were ruling.

But there were music directors like Ghulam Haider, Naushad and Khemchand Prakash who took her seriously and that was the beginning of a glorious career that was to last for the next sixty years and now for eternity.

She said she was very lucky to find the right people and the right opportunities which she believed was very essential for a creative mind to move in the right direction. In that one short evening “Shrilata", she came out with certain truths which I had never heard of before...

She told me how she was once invited to do a show in Pakistan and how it took her a long time to take a decision and how before she could, the organisers got insecure about her safety after seeing the excitement among the people only when they heard rumours about her coming to Pakistan.

The show was ultimately called off and she felt that there would never be another Lata Mangeshkar show now and now it can positively be said that there can never be another Lata Mangeshkar show in Pakistan or for that matter anywhere else.

She mentioned the names of Nargis, Meena Kumari, Nutan and Sadhana and to a certain extent Saira Banu who she felt enthusiastic about singing for. She said she was always very choosy in selecting the songs she sang.

For her, it was always the lyrics first, then the music composer and the actress and situation in which the song was picturised. She said she even had a showdown with her favourite director Raj Kapoor over the words of some songs, especially the“ka karu Ram mujhe buddha mil gaya song which was to be picturerised on Vyjayanthimala wearing a swimming costume and swimming in a pool in Raj Kapoor's “Sangam".

The lyricists she loved working with were Sahir Ludhianvi, Shailendra, Majrooh Sultanpuri and Gulzar. Among her favourite composers we Khemchand Prakash, Naushad, Ghulam Mohammad and among the new generation of composers, the only one she loved working with was A.R Rehman because of his being original in every song he composed.

When, Lataji came up with a surprise when she said that Hrishikesh Mukherjee wanted her to be the composer of “Anand". She was tempted for a while, but finally gave up because she thought she would not be able to to take up the responsible job.

She had even tried being a producer and had made three films in Marathi and presented Gulzar's “Lekin", but she found that production was not for her and has not dappled with production after “Lekin"Lataji has been very upset about the rapidly falling standards of music not only in India and Pakistan but alive the world.“aise kyon hota hai ki ek hi waqt charro ore sangit ka darza itna kyu girta hai? Humne toh vo sunerra zamaana dekha hai, hum khush naseeb hai. Lekin bohat taqleef hoti hai jab sangeet aur kavita ya shaayari bimaar hotey jaa rahe hai".

Lataji can still be an ardent fan at eighty nine. Of all the young singers, she only likes Sonu Nigam and she proved it when the last time she attended a show organised by her brother and she knew that Sonu Nigam was to sing a whole segment of songs, she made it a point to attend the show and stayed on only till Sonu Nigam finished singing his songs for the evening and then left the auditorium, complaining of ill-health.

She has never attended any show after that, not even the annual show held to honour Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar the show organised by her brother in Ville Parle which he has been doing with his friend, Avinash Prabhawalkar for fourteen years.

She has not been moving of her room under any circumstances and has her sister, Usha Mangeshkar standing “guard"outside her room to prevent anyone from disturbing her“didi".

But, what I find surprising is how inspite of all the precautions being taken to give her the comfort of her piece, she was all best of and meeting Mr Amit Shah, the president of the BJP and Devendra Fadnavis, the CM of Maharashtra.

It really hurts me when I see legends I have grown up watching very closely, Lataji, her “bhai", Dilip Kumar, Dilip Kumar's one time heroine, one who was often romantically linked with him, Manoj Kumar and Chandrashekhar lying in bed in a helpless state and noone having the time to care for them, “jhoota hi sahi".