Lata Mangeshkar - The Queen : Part 3. Lata Mangeshkar - Anil Biswas combination - The early years


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

When Lata entered the Hindi music field, Anil Biswas was already a well-known music director. 'Kismet', the movie for which he had scored music, is still considered to be one of the biggest hit movies in Hindi Film history. Anil Biswas is credited with bringing in a full orchestra for composing film music. He was the mentor of C.Ramachandra and influenced other music directors like Roshan and Madanmohan. He was also a guide for many singers, including Mukesh and Talat Mohammed.

Lata said in one of her interviews that Anilda, as he was lovingly called, taught her a lot of things about singing for films in her early days. He taught her how to hold her breath, at which point in the song, and how to move away from the microphone when taking a breath. He seemed to have taught her a lot about voice modulation as well. His songs, even in the 40s, are quite sophisticated and modern. They demand that the singer modulate his or her voice well. Lata was lucky to have a man with such impeccable aesthetics as her guide in her formative years. 

Anilda is supposed to have remarked about Lata, "After Lata's entry, music directors have lost their fear. They can compose whatever they want without any fear. For, they were now confident that Lata would deliver their tune perfectly."  Anilda and Lata created magic and gave us a lot of outstanding melodies.

Let us now look at how Lata's voice changed from the late 40s into the 50s, taking some Anilda songs as examples.

We had already seen a Lata song from 'Anokha Pyar' , 'yaad rakhna chand taron' in Lata's voice. From the same movie, now hear, 'mere phoolon mein chupi hai jawani'

 https://youtu.be/Wcvnlfaqi3I 

Lata's juvenile voice perfectly suits the scene and the heroine here. She is able to bring in the necessary verve to the song. Anil Biswas utilizes a large range of Lata's voice in this song.

Let us now listen to 'tumhare bulane ko jee chahata hai,' from the movie Ladli (1949)

https://youtu.be/2WKKzRexymc

You can see Lata's voice here does not sound the same as it sounds in a Naushad song we heard in the last part. Here Lata's voice has started shedding her child-like tone and the singing is not fully direct. There is a lot of voice modulation involved here.

From the same year, 1949, another wonderful melody. This time from the movie 'Jeet', 'mast pawan hai chanchal dhara'. 

https://youtu.be/0otZpJ32VOw 

Once again observe how Anil Biswas takes advantage of the full range of Lata's voice. He starts by letting Lata sing high notes in the prelude and the mukhda of the song hits the lower notes. While Lata's forte was her ability to hit the high notes, Anil Biswas did not overuse that facility, thus giving Lata's song a well rounded tone.

Lata's voice shed the child-like tone when she entered the 1950s. Here is 'aayi bhor suhani' from the movie 'Beqasoor' (1950)

https://youtu.be/ObtX7SJmO_k

This is a complex song and traverses the full octave. This song shows that Lata was able to take complex songs and deliver them with aplomb. This song also gives us a glimpse of the Lata Mangeshkar of early 50s. An extremely melodic voice that was pitch perfect and delivered the raaga perfectly. 

'aayi bahar' from 'Arzoo' (1950) is a folk-inspired song. Anil da claims that he and SD Burman were responsible for introducing folk music into Hindi film music. Lata can understand the song's demands, which is to provide the required verve and energy for this song. Her voice range helps her a lot in delivering this song. An energy-filled beauty. 

https://youtu.be/7MkPCODkLOk

An example of an explicit raag-based song can be found in Lajawab (1950). I am not an expert in identifying Hindustani music raags. To my ears, this seems to be based on Darbari raag. Song reminds me of Mukesh's debut song, 'dil jalta hain,' which was also an Anilda creation. Lata wonderfully brings out the essence of the raag. Another aspect to observe in this song is the pace of the song. It has a deceptive pace and you require great control over rhythm to stay in beat and not rush forward. Lata superbly controls the pace. Hats off to Anilda for such a lovely composition. Listen to 'is hasti gaati duniya mein' from Lajawab. 

https://youtu.be/FiZztt2bKpA

In the same movie, we can hear her duet with Mukesh. I am not sure which was her first song with Mukesh but this is definitely one of their earliest duets. Mukesh and Lata's voices are contrasting voices but a lot of songs they sung together were big hits. This too is an excellent melody, rendered brilliantly by Mukesh and Lata. 'zamane ka dastur hai ye purana' from 'Lajawab.'

https://youtu.be/7z33QTl-erU

The contrast in their voices adds a lot of color to the song. Anilda ensures that Mukesh does not get to sing much of the high notes. His deep voice shines in the lower registers, while Lata's voice shines in the upper registers. An excellent composing technique that makes use of the strength of the voices while not compromising on the overall melody of the song.

The year 1951 saw the release of the movie, 'Tarana'. The soundtrack was amazing and it was majorly a Lata show all the way. She was the principal singer on this soundtrack. It is difficult to pick a single song from this movie because there are so many gems in it. So I will give you three wonderful songs: two solos and a duet.

First up, is a melodious love song. 'beimaan tore nainva'

https://youtu.be/UpnT4Cth0pQ

What an amazingly delicate composition and Lata doing full justice to the song. Observe the voice modulations in ths song. You can hear the confidence in her voice. The voice is of someone who has realized her potential and her ability to deliver any kind of song.

Next one from 'Tarana' is this sad song, 'woh din kahan gaye bata'.

https://youtu.be/VAJXqTShW3k

If you are not a good singer, you cannot carry the burden of such melodies. Lata easily lifts this heavy-weight song. The sadness inherent in the melody comes out effectively in her voice. This is a personal favorite of mine and I would add this to Lata's top ten melodies any day. 

We will now hear a hit duet from 'Tarana,' in the voice of Lata and Talat Mehamood. The wonderful, 'seene me sulagthe hai armaan'

https://youtu.be/vQFaVHf3NdU

Once again, contrasting voices. Talat's voice with a slight quiver against Lata's rock-steady tone. Once again, Anilda utilizes individuality to great effect. Aided by some amazing lyrics, this is easily one of the best Lata Talat duets. 

'Aaram' is also a 1951 movie and this movie had the lovely melody, 'man mein kisi ka preet basa le' in Lata's voice.

https://youtu.be/ucXcBU5wijQ

Anilda was fond of using a lot of Piano passages and he does that effectively in this song. We hear a confident and maturing Lata in this song. The voice control is perfect and Anilda as usual utilizes the full range of her voice. The song has many delightful twists and turns that Lata negotiates melodiously. 

From the same movie, 'Aaram', a playful, 'roota hua chanda hai'

https://youtu.be/30mlI4BqXwM

if you listen carefully you can realize how such songs inspired music directors like C Ramachandra (Ramachandra was Anil Biswas's assistant.) The song utilizes the melody in Lata's voice fully. 

We will close this song with another song from 'Aaram.' 'balma ja ja ja'

https://youtu.be/KgatWOZ-QMw 

This is a mujra like Lata. Anilda was giving Lata a range of songs and she was delivering them the way he wanted. 

We will look at the collaboration of Lata and Anil from 1952 onwards in a different post. Let me end this part with a quote of Vish Krishnan about Anil Biswas. "The grandmaster laid the foundation of orchestration in Indian movies, mentored an entire generation of master composers, helped guide Lata's voice into the dulcet tone that one uses to define good singing, and God alone knows what else." 

https://www.angelfire.com/film/anilbiswas/questions.html

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

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