Lata Mangeshkar-The Queen: A brief prelude

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 Lata Mangeshkar, whose voice was heard in every household across India, died a few months back. I wanted to start writing a tribute series to her immediately, but due to various reasons - including professional work and general laziness - I couldn't do so. Well, I am starting the series now, and it will be a stuttering series because I am not sure how regularly I will write. I  promise to complete the series, though.

In this part, please indulge me by allowing me to ramble a bit. Lata's body of work is so huge that I don't know how to approach her work. When I wrote my tribute to MSV and SPB, I closely followed their work chronologically. Going by the feedback, that strategy seemed to have worked. But, in the case of Lata, following a single thread may be tough. So I might branch away once in a while into her collaborations with music directors like Madanmohan, Anilda, Salilda, Roshan, and others. I guess the first step in any long-distance trek is critical. I am hoping the trails will reveal themselves once I start the journey.

When did I first hear Lata? I am sure most people of my generation cannot answer this question, for the voices of singers like Lata, Susheela, Kishore, SPB, Yesudas, and Gantasala were always in the air. In the same way, we cannot say when we realized you were breathing; we cannot say when we heard Lata's voice first. She was always with us. 

If someone is with us all the time, we don't appreciate their value immediately. It takes years to realize the gift we have been given. It was during my post-graduate days, spent in the company of my classmate Sivakumar and his brother Anand, that I slowly started realizing the awesomeness of Lata's singing. Both brothers were big fans of Hindi film music, and we tuned to every radio station that was playing Hindi film songs. We started talking about the voice quality of various singers and the signatures of different music directors. Of course, we had our favorites, and each defended our turf with great zeal. Unknown to us, sense these discussions sharpened our hearing and our aesthetic sense. 

It was also a time of discovery. We hunted for more songs from old films. It was then I discovered the enormous output of Lata. Till then, I had heard her popular songs. Now, I started hearing her forgotten songs. I heard names like Anil Biswas, Sajjad Hussain, and Hansraj Behl. Then, I heard more songs of Lata-Salilda, Lata-Madanmohan, Lata-Roshan, and Lata-Anilda combinations. I started appreciating Lata's voice much more now. She had some magic in her voice that enchanted millions of our countrymen. I was now enchanted. 

I will try and share this enchantment with you in the coming days. In the next post, I will talk about the early Lata. The teenager with a thin voice entered an industry dominated by strong female voices. We will try and trace her musical journey starting next episode. 

The link to all parts of this series is given here: Series Links

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