Many musicians continue to dominate the collective Indian consciousness, but Lata Mangeshkar’s magic spanned six generations with a career that spanned seven decades. Was it his voice? Lossless jargon? classicalism? or feeling? These characteristics describe some aspects of his music, but to codify his music in such simple details would be to underestimate him.
Often, the femininity factor has been invoked. Theorists said that Lata’s voice was that of the ‘ideal Indian woman’. Almost six years after her debut, Lata took the Hindi film industry by storm in 1949 with the film rain, Did this happen in the absence of other phenomenal singers of the time? Noor Jahan had gone to Pakistan, but Shamshad Begum, Amirbai Karnataki, Suraiya and Surinder Kaur were still singing.
“What was so special about Lata’s voice?” In his essay on Lata Mangeshkar (2010), film music critic Ashok Kumar asks Tyagi, and says, “Let us ask what was special in the voices of Noorjahan, Shamshad, Geeta Dutt or Asha Bhosle. It is easy to answer now. Each of them had something very distinctive that suited a particular style. In fact, various authors have noted how Lata’s ultra-feminine voice was considered better suited to the idea of femininity than the sensual, deep or lively voices produced in the post-independence years.
Still, when you listen to the wonderful song composed by Naushad for the film, aan (1952), a duet by Shamshad Begum and Lata Mangeshkar, you find neither a sense of augmented nor diminished femininity in any of their voices. As Ashok Kumar says, he is beautiful by his strength. Perhaps the argument of ‘the voice of the ideal Indian woman’ also lacks force as one can list the many amazing performances of Lata which were not so. ‘Where shall we come’ continuation could be an example.
over sound
Any such discovery will only serve to associate a good sound with good music. But Lata did not get success only from her voice. The decade of 1940 to 1970 was the golden period of film music. Creeper became the voice that carried forward diverse traditions, imaginations and talents – c. Ramchandra, Srinivas Kale from Maharashtra, Anil Biswas, SD Burman from Bengal, Madan Mohan from Punjab, Dhaniram, Naushad, Laxman Berlekar, Khayyam and Roshan from Uttar Pradesh. His list of film music included khyal, thumri, ghazal, bhavgeet, abhang, bhajan and pop. But to each of these genres she brought the seriousness and rigor of classical music.
Lata belonged to a family of classical musicians. His maternal grandmother Yesubai, a devadasi, had the reputation of being an impeccable musician. His father Dinanath Mangeshkar was trained by Ustad Ramkrishna Bua Waaze of Gwalior. Not only was Lata exposed to the difficulties of classical music by her father, but she also took lessons from Ustad Aman Ali Khan of the Bhindi Bazar gharana. In her early years, she sang and acted in theatre. With such a legacy, it is not surprising that his singing was pure and perfect but with an element of drama when needed. Most importantly, his accuracy of scale and pitch was exemplary. Shubha Mudgal says, “The voice was not only absolutely melodious but also immersed in the music.”
Lata sang many classical-based film songs. ‘Today Aaja Bhanwar’ Rani Roopmati (1957, Raga Brindavan Sarang) is a classic example. The opening note of the song is the upper octave rishabh and mimics a sly bandish. The bandish flows in fast-paced boltas, which in turn flow into climaxes that culminate in the fourth octave. From ‘Sanaware Saaware’ Anuradha (1960, Raag Bhairavi) is another. Composed by Pt. Ravi Shankar, it is an airy composition that opens in the third octave to the fifth note, and consists of short, arrow-like tones packed into a tight rhythmic structure. From ‘Man Mohana’ boundary (1955, Raga Jayjayvanti) shows that she can slip into raga detail and scintillating tones like a proper classical artist. From the movie ‘Cham Cham Nacht Aai Bahaar’ Shadow (1961) is both a ragamala and a talamala. “She could have been another Kesaribai Kerkar or Kishori Amonkar had she chosen to be a classical singer, but life’s compulsions took her to film music,” Pt. Vinayak Torvi.
As debate continues over the versatility and femininity of her voice, Lata’s music still rules millions, shrouded in mystery of the unknowable. There was dedication and perfection in his music. And this is a unique combination.
Journalists from Bangalore write on art and culture.
,