Music And Movies

  The link to all parts of this series is given here: Series Links Great music directors like Anil Biswas and Sajjad Hussain showed the world what Lata was made up of musically. They gave her complex compositions that required great vocal range, voice control, vocal dynamics, and the ability to emote perfectly. Lata, though she was in her teens, rose to the challenge and satisfied the demands of the music directors. An important aspect of becoming a great singing star is the ability to deliver blockbuster hit songs and the ability to sing songs that capture the imagination of the masses. The songs may structurally be simpler compared to certain other songs, but these are the songs that filmgoers sing repeatedly, and many visit the cinema hall multiple times to hear these songs. The songs demand a different kind of singing, and singing these songs expands the singer's repertoire. Lata, in her formative years, was lucky to be associated with two music directors who gave her many bloc...

The link to all parts of this series is given here: Series Links This series only looks at Lata's Music. We will not be going too much in Lata's biography. (There are enough resources available for that.) To understand what Lata was up against when she entered the industry, it is necessary to have some idea of the Music of those times. Lata's first breakthrough song with Ghulam Haider was in 1948. So let us look first at the female singers of those days and try to get a sense of how they sounded during those times.  The most famous names of those times were Noorjahan, Kushid Bano, Shamshad Begum, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Amirbai Karnataki, and Rajkumar. Noorjahan was a reigning queen. Noorjahan and Kurshid Bano went to Pakistan after the partition. The others remained in India.  All the above voices were seen as 'strong' voices. Voices with a high volume, some of them had a lot of bass in their voice. The singing was open-throated and, by modern standards, a bit loud. V...