Lata's collaboration with S.D.Burman, aka Dada Burman, was an enduring one. It lasted for two and half decades till the death of Dada. It survived various changes in trends, and it survived a huge misunderstanding that kept them apart for a few years. They together created a huge number of unforgettable songs.
Logically, I should have written about Dada Burman around the same time I wrote about Anil Biswas and C.Ramachandra because Dada Burman was very active in the 1950s. I write about him after having spoken about Lata of the 60s because their greatest hits happened more in the 60s. Those songs are famous even to date and are enjoyed by people of all ages even today.
Dada Burman was a unique music director who could morph his style to suit the times. His songs, whether composed in the 50s or 60s or 70s, sound fresh even now. Hindi film music went through multiple trends from the late 40s to the 70s. Many music directors fell by the wayside, unable to adapt to the new trends. On the other hand, Dada was unaffected by the trends and kept producing music that was loved by the masses.
When it concerned Lata, we see some similarities between C.Ramachandra and Dada Burman. Both gave Lata a wide variety of songs: club dances, standard duets, sad solos, and classical music-based tunes. They inherently believed in her ability to do justice to any kind of tune. Unfortunately, both of them fell out with Lata, the difference being that Dada and Lata patched up while C. Ramachandra never got back to collaborating with Lata.
An early collaboration of Dada Burman was a classical based song for the movie, 'Buzdil' (1950). 'jhan jhan jhan payal baje.'
This song is based on a khayal with the same starting words in raag Nat Bihag. We hear Lata's precision when singing the raga and her ability to evoke the raga perfectly. As you can see from the picturization, this is sung for a dance scene. Dada used Lata's whole range effectively. The song also changes raga on the way, and Lata does the change smoothly.
The song that probably put Dada Burman's and Lata's collaboration in the limelight was probably 'tandi hawaein' from 'Naujawan.' (1951)
Lata's voice was perfect for this melody. The young voice of Lata, dripping with honey, made a great contribution to this song being a big hit. Dada Burman's tune is also something to die for, and Lata effortlessly delivers the tune. The voice is still a bit childlike, and that is charming. I love her humming in this song.
In the same year, we see another famous song being delivered for Dada Burman by Lata. The song is.'tum na jane kis jahan mein ko gaye,' from the movie, 'Sazaa.'
As we can see, Dada was giving Lata a range of songs. While 'tandi hawaein' was a happy song, this is a melancholic number. Lata's childlike voice is more pronounced in this right from the beginning. (It is as if someone much younger than the heroine portrayed on the screen is singing it, which is true.)She nails the intended emotion even with her childlike voice. The voice modulation is not too much but just about enough for the song. There is a need to hit the high notes in certain places in the antara and Lata does it with her characteristic precision.
Here is a happy song from the movie 'Mashaal' (1950). 'ankhon se door door.'
As with many of her early 1950 songs, you can clearly hear a young girl singing. The childlike quality is present in the voice. Yet, Lata delivers the song with the exact emotion that is needed. As characterized by Dada Burman's songs in this period, the song uses the range of her voice effectively. The voice modulation is not at the level of Anil Biswas or Sajjad Hussain, though.
Lata was involved in many of Dada Burman's hit duets. Here is one from their early associations. 'yeh raat ye chandni phir kahan,' from 'Jaal' (1953). Lata and Hemant Kumar. This is the sad version.
By this time, most of the childlike quality has vanished from Lata's voice. This is the time when she was finding the 'voice' that we all know and love so much. And there is a great contrast between the voices of Lata and Hemantda. Hemantda has a deep bass voice, while Lata's voice is the exact opposite. Yet, it works well in this song. Lata, as usual, delivers the song perfectly.
Dada Burman calls upon Lata to deliver a folk song in the movie, 'Jeevan Jyoti' (1953), 'chaye kaari badariya'
Although Lata's voice is a bit childlike, it is amazingly sweet in this song. Lata's sweetness of rendition contributes as much to this song as Dada Burman's charming tune. These kinds of songs require a good grip on the laya aspects of the song, and Lata demonstrates her grip on the laya.
Dada Burman not only called upon Lata to deliver folk numbers but in songs like these, he asked her to deliver club dance numbers. 'ae meri zindagi' from 'Taxi Driver'.
I always have mixed feelings when I hear Lata singing such numbers. The tune is good, and there is nothing to complain about her singing from a technical point of view. Yet, the oomph required for such songs is missing in this song, in my opinion. Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle had a good grasp of singing such songs. Lata did a reasonable job, but this was probably not her forte.
Here is one more folk-music based song. This time from the movie, 'Munimji.'(1955) 'nain kohye khoye'
Lata's singing is very restrained in this, and there is a certain polish in her rendition. I just wish it was a bit more rugged and robust. The effect could have been better. On the other hand, Lata can only deliver what the music director and director want from her.
The late 50s saw a split between Lata and Dada Burman over some misunderstanding, and they stopped their collaboration. Dada started using Asha Bhosle more in his songs and Geeta Dutt. In the early 60s, they patched and then started giving one hit after another as if to compensate for the loss of time. The songs from this period are still considered as some of the best Lata - Dada Burman combination songs. You can definitely say these songs are the most loved by the maximum number of people.
Dada Burman's collaboration with Dev Anand is legendary, and it was in this phase, Dev Anand also made some of his iconic films. Dada Burman's music for these films was filled with gems. Here we will look at this beauty from 'Paying Guest' (1957). 'chand phir nikla.'
What a melody. This tune is perfect for Lata. She would have been reminded of songs like 'yeh sham hi tanhayiyan.' The song sounds so wonderful, both because of the tune and because of Lata's voice. Lata's voice has, by now, matured a lot.
We will start with 'mora gora ang lei le' from 'Bandini' (1963)
By this time, Lata's voice had matured, and she had a very distinguishable 'voice' of her own. This song depends a lot on Lata's ability to cover a whole range of notes and her ability to sound consistent across the octave range. We can clearly see why Dada would have wanted Lata to sing this song. The pace is also deceptive. Neither too fast nor too slow. The singer has to have good control of voice and laya to deliver this song, and Lata had both of them.
In 1965 came the landmark movie, 'Guide.'(1965) One of the main attractions was the music of Dada Burman. All the songs were top-class. In the previous part, I had spoken about 'piya tose naina lage re.' So, this time we will look at another Lata solo for this movie, 'aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai.'
This is such a delightful song. A song filled with joy. The song so easily establishes Waheeda Rahman's character in the movie. Lata's voice is filled with energy and joy. This joy is contagious, and we feel energetic when we hear it. By this time, Lata is at her peak, and her confidence shines in this song.
Another huge hit of Dev Anand from those times was 'Jewel Thief,' (1967), another iconic Dev Anand film that had glorious music by Burmanda. 'rula ke gaya sapna mera.'
If Dada Burman used Lata's voice to express the joy of the character in the earlier song, in this song, Dada Burman uses that aspect of Lata's haunting voice. No one sang haunting songs as well as Lata; this song is no exception. Lata enchants her with her voice and her modulation.
While Dada and Lata were creating some incredible melodies in 'Guide' and 'Jewel Thief,' they were also creating standard issue melodies like, 'kahi hai re humne kasam' from 'Talash.' (1969)
The song has the typical beat of Burmanda and sounds melodic, though it would not have been a great challenge for Lata to sing it.
I have been concentrating mainly on Lata's solo with Dada Burman, but he has given her a lot of great duets, which I had not mentioned due to lack of space. We will now see a duet from the movie that changed the lives of many people associated with it. 'Aradhana' (1969) is the movie that saw Rajesh Khanna turn into a superstar, Kishore's career graph zooming, and Rafi ceding ground to Kishore. 'kora kagaz tha' from the movie.
One of the main reasons for the movie becoming a humungous hit was the music of Dada Burman. The songs blared from all loudspeakers in all cities, towns, and villages. The songs were a hit all over India. This song has Kishore and Lata singing together. They would end up dominating duet singing in the 70s. There is a good contrast in their voices. Kishore with his deep voice and Lata with her high-pitched voice, and yet the combination worked together gloriously. You can hear the sweetness that each of them brings to this song. Kishore matches Lata step by step, and their confidence shows clearly in this song.
Another such wonderful duet by the same pair is 'shokiyon mein,' from 'Prem Pujari' (1970). This is another Dev Anand with great songs from Dada Burman.
This is a joyous and vibrant melody. Dada Burman tunes in keeping with the characters' spirit, and he can convey their joy effectively with his tune and orchestration. He is, of course, aided well by the singing of Kishore and Lata. Their camaraderie and mutual respect are clear in this song, each complementing the other wonderfully.
Another Dev Anand movie, 'Gambler' (1971) had this lovely duet, 'churi nahin hai mera'
The song almost reminds you of 'mera sapnaon ki rani' due to its orchestration. Maybe Dada used similar orchestration because both songs are sung while driving a car. Another high energy number that Kishore loves. Lata matches his energy when her turn arrives.
Now we will get back to solos. 'megha chaye aadhi raat' from 'Sharmilee' (1971)
This is one of those 'Lata or no one else' kinds of melodies. The haunting quality of the tune can only be tackled by Lata. It also puts a lot of demand on the singer's range. Her voice modulation, her singing in the upper registers, and her ability to invoke so much emotion make this an evergreen green song and has become a part of her canon.
One more similarly haunting melody, 'piya bin piya bin' from the 1973 movie, 'Abhimaan'
Once again, a song that does justice to Lata's voice. 'Abhimaan' had amazing songs, and this song was used to depict that the heroine's voice was better than her husband's, and she was becoming more famous than him. Dada Burman uses Lata's voice throughout (except for one small piece sung by Anuradha Paudwal). The male playback voices keep changing, though.
We will close this part with another haunting melody. 'chupke chupke' from 'Chupke Chupke' (1975)
Do we hear a slight shrillness in the voice now? I think so. Yet, the melody is undiminished, and the haunting effect she can bring remains effective.
As you saw, Dada Burman and Lata's combination gave many iconic songs in the 60s and 70s that are still remembered and played by people in this age, when songs are forgotten after a couple of months. (Their 50s output was no less, but their 60s output is iconic.)
In the next part, we will look at Lata's collaboration with a music director who was extremely close to her.
(Dr.Rajkumar) "Does Rajkumar sing?" asked the assistant. The music director nodded, "Muthuraju? Yes, he sings." "So why don't we ask him to sing this song in the movie?" suggested the assistant. The music director wasn't sure but the assistant persisted. Finally the music director agreed, Dr.Rajkumar sang in that movie and as the cliche goes, the rest was history. The music director was G.K.Venkatesh and the assistant went by the name of Rasayya. He would later be rechristened by Panju Arunachalam as Illayaraja!!! During my school days I had a classmate who used to love Rajkumar's voice and would tell us that Rajkumar was a great singer. It was not until I moved to Bangalore that I first heard Dr.Rajkumar's voice and the first song that I heard was a stunner. That was 'Nadamaya E Loka'. Later I came to know that this song won Dr.Rajkumar, affectionately called 'Annavaru', the National Award for the best singer. T
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