Music And Movies

Part 1: Background - A legend called Gantasala  Part 2: Initial years of struggle Part 3: Baby steps in Tamil land   Part 4: Climbing to numero uno spot in Telugu    Part 5: Tryst with classical music     Part 6: SPB & Raja        Part 7: Non-Raja Tamil songs of the late 70s      Part 8:   SPB, Chiranjeevi and early 80s Telugu film music      Part 9: Illayararaja - Vishwanath - SPB         Part 10: Illayaraja - Vamsi - SPB            Part 11: SPB in Hindi films       Part 12: SPB- Raja - Tamil film music 80s - 1       Part 13: SPB- Raja - Tamil film music 80s - 2      Part 14: SPB- Raja - Tamil film music 80s - 3        Part 15: SPB's domination down south    Part 16: Dominance in Kannada        Part 17: Emergence of Rahman and the Cha...

Here are the links to all parts of the 'Lata Mangeshkar - The Queen' series  Lata Mangeshkar - The Queen : A brief prelude Part 1: Milieu of the 40s Part 2: Start of partnerships  Part 3: Lata - Anil Biswas  Part 4: Lata - Naushad Part 5: Years of consolidation - early 50s Part 6: Lata - Sajjad Hussain Part 7: Lata - C Ramachandra Part 8: Lata - Shankar Jaikishen Part 9: Late 50s Part 10: Early 60s - Undisputed queen Part 11: Lata - S D Burman Part 12: Lata - Madanmohan - Part 1 Part 13: Lata - Madanmohan - Part 2 Part 14: Lata - Salil Chaudhary  Part 15: Lata - Roshan and late 60s Part 16: Lata - Changing landscape of the 70s Part 17: Lata - Pancham (R D Burman) Part 18: Lata - 1980s and 90s Part 19: Lata - Mukesh Part 20: Lata - Rafi  Part 21 : Lata - Kishore Part 22: Conclusion - Lata's legacy

Here is the link to read all parts of this series. In this last part, let us look at Lata's legacy. Lata came into Hindi film music when modernity was creeping into it, and music directors like Ghulam Haider, Anil Biswas, Sajjad Hussain, Shankar Jaikishen and others were pushing the boundaries of Hindi film music. It must be said that she became an integral part of this push towards modernity. The range of her voice and her singing skills enabled music directors to compose music without fear, for they know Lata would give perfect expression to their musical ideas. She was sought after by every music director in the initial days, though later, O.P. Nayyar did not work with her. She was an integral part of the golden generation of Hindi film music that spanned more than two decades, from the late 40s to the late 60s.  Lata has left behind an amazing body of work, that would be extremely difficult for any current-day singer to match. This is due to two reasons: one, music directors ar...

Here is the link to read all parts of this series. Kishore Kumar had tremendous respect for Lata and used to call her Lata Didi. They knew each other from the late 40s, having sung together for Kemchand Prakash and Anil Biswas in the late 40s and early 50s. The story of their meeting is funny, and Lata had narrated it in many places. Kishore's trajectory as a singer was quite different from Lata's, even though he had been singing since 1940s. Initially, Kishore Kumar wanted to be an actor. Most music directors of those times saw him as Ashok Kumar's younger brother who wanted to act, and not many saw him as a singer. His lack of formal training in Hindustani classical music was seen as a handicap, and through the 1950s and most part of the 1960s, he ended up singing only for the films he acted in and the films of Dev Anand.  Dada Burman and Dev Anand had a lot of confidence in Kishore's abilities as a singer, but most other music directors preferred Rafi. Also, during t...

Here is the link to read all parts of this series. Lata Mangeshkar and Rafi were probably seen as a natural pairing due to their being the most in-demand female and male voices, respectively, and also because both were trained in classical music. Their approach to music was different, though. Rafi believed in emoting very explicitly with his voice, while Lata preferred her voice to be under her control all the time. Rafi's tone, too, was different from Lata's. His vocal modulations had a more in-your-face attitude compared to Lata's polished performance in this aspect. Of course, the way they sang depended quite a bit on who the composer was, but overall these can be seen as the major difference in their approach.  Lata and Rafi had some differences in the early 1960s and didn't sing together for a few years. During the rift, Rafi was mostly accompanied by Suman Kalyanpur instead of Lata, while Lata was accompanied by Mahendra Kapoor during that time. (I would say that ...

Here is the link to read all parts of this series. In this part and the next couple of parts of this series, we will talk about Lata's partnership with famous male singers: Mukesh, Rafi and Kishore. We start with the partnership of Lata and Mukesh. It is very difficult to find two contrasting voices than Lata and Mukesh. Mukesh is a mystery for many people. People accuse him of slipping from the 'sur' sometimes; he is accused of being nasal, and it is well known that his vocal range was limited. He also had the reputation of being suitable only for singing sad songs. Lata's voice was in contrast to that of Mukesh. Her range was incredible, her voice dripped honey, and she could sing any song that the music director threw at her. There is another important contrast between the two. For many music directors, Lata was the first choice. Whereas a lot of music directors were not keen on working with Mukesh, maybe they felt his range was too limited for them. So you don't...