Lata Mangeshkar - Part 16: The changing landscape of the 70s

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The end of the 60s pointed towards the change in guard regarding Hindi film music. Newer music directors like R D Burman, Laxmikanth Pyarelal, and Kalyanji Anandji started giving big hits. The old guard that included Naushad, Shankar Jaikishen, and O P Nayyar, among others, was starting to fade. Only S D Burman was able to hold his fort during this time. 

Another important development took place during the end of the 60s. The actor called Rajesh Khanna was catapulted into stardom almost overnight due to the success of his movie, 'Aradhana.' In this movie, whose songs were humungous hits, both Mohd Rafi - the dominant male singer of those times - and Kishore Kumar sang songs for Rajesh Khanna. Yet, the public loved Kishore's voice for Rajesh Khanna, and that led to Kishore replacing Rafi as the most in-demand male playback singer. The other association that became a super duper hit was between R D Burman and Kishore Kumar. The combination of Rajesh Khanna - R D Burman - Kishore Kumar ruled the roost in the early 70s. 

All these trends concretized in the 70s, and by the mid-70s, the old guard was almost completely out of the equation. This meant that Lata now had to sing under new music directors. She had to adapt her singing to the demands of these music directors and also to the needs of the changing times. Lata did that admirably. It was also the time that her sister Asha Bhosle started carving a niche for herself under the baton of R D Burman. Asha had earlier proven her capacity to deliver hits under O.P. Nayyar. She started a new inning under R.D. Burman. 

Analyzing a lot of Lata solos of the 70s leads me to conclude that the songs that she sang in the 1970s did not demand as much from her as the songs of the 50s and the 60s. In many songs, there is minimal voice modulation. In many of the songs of Laxmikanth Pyarelal, she was open-throated and direct in her approach, as probably demanded by the music directors. She brought her own finesse to the song, but it was not the finesse that we have heard her come up with when she sang for Anil Biswas, Sajjad Hussain, Madanmohan, Salilda, and others. It is not to say that she did not sing such songs. She did have a few of them, but many other songs were eminently forgettable.

This may sound like a rant of an old timer. I propose to put up songs where I felt Lata was more direct with lesser vocal modulations and also put up songs that required her to control her voice a lot more. I am hoping that you can see my point of view. Since I am planning to write a separate Lata - R.D.Burman post, I will restrict myself to non-R.D.Burman songs from the 70s.

Let me start with 'jane kyun log mohabbat' from 'Mehboob Ki Mehndi' (1971). Music of Laxmikanth Pyarelal.

You can observe that the prelude in Lata's voice is a bit loud. The antaras also demand that Lata be more direct and a bit loud when she hits the higher notes. She does modulate her voice as only she can, but the predominant feature of the song is not her modulation. This directness and loudness would dominate a lot of the 1970s hit songs of Lata. From my perspective, these would have been very easy for Lata to sing. They don't demand too much from her. 

Contrast this with a song from the same year, 'na jiya lage na.' This was for the movie, 'Anand'(1971).

Observe how she controls the volume when she reaches for the heavens in the antara. There is a subtlety throughout the song. It is almost as if she is playing with light and shade throughout the song. The earlier song was more like a scene shot with saturated light. Here the lighting is more aesthetic. To me, this shows how much control the music director has over the way the song sounds.

One more Laxmikanth Pyarelal song from 'Mera Gaon Mera Desh.' (1971). This song 'maar diya jai' was a major hit of those times.

This is also an example of what I would call straight-line tuning. This also doesn't demand too much from Lata. She has to sound melodious, and the approach is quite direct. This had become the predominant sound of Laxmikanth Pyarelal, and they successfully employed it in the 70s and for a large part of the 80s.

It was still the masters who were providing Lata with the challenges that she enjoyed. S.D. Burman gave her this amazing song in 'Sharmilee' (1971), 'megha chaye aadhi raat.'

Though Lata is called to reach the higher points of the octave and beyond, there is amazing control with respect to the volume. Her command over the swara, the pitch, and her ability to create the intended mood remain unsurpassed, and this song was another example of how good she was.

Let us talk about an interesting episode. Raj Kapoor, in whose movie Lata regularly sang, fell out with her over the issue of paying royalty to singers. Consequently, he did not use her in his most ambitious movie, 'Mera Naam Joker.' Raj Kapoor invested a lot of money into this movie. Unfortunately, though the songs tuned by Shankar Jaikshen were hits, the movie flopped badly, leaving Raj Kapoor in a bad state with respect to finances. Raj Kapoor decided to make a new movie with newcomers. He would no longer be the hero. He also decided it was time to change his regular music director, Shankar Jaikishen. He approached Laxmikanth Pyarelal to provide music for his next movie. They agreed to do so under the condition that Lata should sing their songs. Raj Kapoor agreed, and the move, 'Bobby,' was made. It became a hit of gigantic proportions. One of Lata's songs in this movie, 'jhoot bole kavva kaate' blared on every loudspeaker across the country.

'jhoot bole kavva kaate' from 'Bobby.' (1974)  The male voice is that of Shailendar Singh.

This is, again, a typical LP song. While Lata brings her own sensitivity to the song, the song itself demands she sing in a straightforward fashion. 

During the 70s, we also saw the emergence of other new music directors like Rajesh Roshan. In his initial movies, Rajesh Roshan displayed great sensitivity and gave a few lovely melodies to Lata. Here is one such melody from his debut movie, 'Julie.' (1975)  'yeh raatein nayi purani'

While the voice of Lata does not modulate as much as in the 'Anand' song and sounds slightly loud when she is in the upper reaches, there is nevertheless an attempt at keeping the volume under control. The song itself demands voice modulation from Lata. An excellent attempt in a debut movie.

Rajesh Roshan gave another lovely melody for Lata in the movie, 'Swami.' (1977) 'pal bar mere' 

One more song that would have been possible only with Lata. The sensitivity the song demands, the voice control and modulation needed, and the melody in the voice all must work in tandem. An excellent song, sung wonderfully by the nightingale. The volume control is much better than the earlier song cited here. 

The 70s also saw the emergence of Ravindra Jain as a music director. From the movie, 'Fakira' (1976), 'dil mein tujhe bitake'

A song with the sensitivity that we came to associate with Ravindra Jain later. I would not call this a tough song but a song that requires a certain sensitivity to deliver. Lata brings in the required sensitivity. 

Lata was getting such songs less frequently as compared to the bigger hits that did not demand a lot from her. Here is an example of an extremely popular song from those times that would have been a walk in the park for Lata. From the movie 'Roti Kapda Aur Makhan.' Music of Laxmikanth Pyarelal. 'mehengayi maar gayi.'  Other singers being Narendra Chanchal, Mukesh, Jaani Babu Qawwal.

To be fair, Laxmikanth Pyarelal also gave songs like 'main tulsi tere aangan ki' from the movie with same title (1978) but these type of songs were few and far between.

Even in such melodious songs, the voice modulation is not at the Salilda or Madanmohan level. You can hear a certain sharpness in the voice when she hits the higher registers. A nice song, nevertheless, which became a big hit.

She had many hits during the 70s, like 'sun champa sun tara,'  'salame ishq,' 'seesha ho ya dil ho,' and so on. Many of them have now faded from memory. These were from the non-R.D.Burman films. She had a lot of super hits in R.D.Burman movies, and these hits are remembered even to this day. In the next part, we will talk about Lata - R.D.Burman collaboration.

I will leave you with this lovely song from 'Abhimaan.' Music of Dada Burman.

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