Music And Movies

Here is the link to read all parts of this series. In this last part, let us look at Lata's legacy. Lata came into Hindi film music when modernity was creeping into it, and music directors like Ghulam Haider, Anil Biswas, Sajjad Hussain, Shankar Jaikishen and others were pushing the boundaries of Hindi film music. It must be said that she became an integral part of this push towards modernity. The range of her voice and her singing skills enabled music directors to compose music without fear, for they know Lata would give perfect expression to their musical ideas. She was sought after by every music director in the initial days, though later, O.P. Nayyar did not work with her. She was an integral part of the golden generation of Hindi film music that spanned more than two decades, from the late 40s to the late 60s.  Lata has left behind an amazing body of work, that would be extremely difficult for any current-day singer to match. This is due to two reasons: one, music directors ar...

Here is the link to read all parts of this series. In this part and the next couple of parts of this series, we will talk about Lata's partnership with famous male singers: Mukesh, Rafi and Kishore. We start with the partnership of Lata and Mukesh. It is very difficult to find two contrasting voices than Lata and Mukesh. Mukesh is a mystery for many people. People accuse him of slipping from the 'sur' sometimes; he is accused of being nasal, and it is well known that his vocal range was limited. He also had the reputation of being suitable only for singing sad songs. Lata's voice was in contrast to that of Mukesh. Her range was incredible, her voice dripped honey, and she could sing any song that the music director threw at her. There is another important contrast between the two. For many music directors, Lata was the first choice. Whereas a lot of music directors were not keen on working with Mukesh, maybe they felt his range was too limited for them. So you don't...

The link to all parts of this series is given here: Series Links Every music lover has their own concept of what was the Golden Era of Hindi film music. Some, like me, believe that the late 40s and the early 50s were the greatest time for Hindi film music. Some claim the 60s, and some love the RD Burman era of the 70s. Whatever it may be, when it comes to Lata, as far as popular imagination is concerned, her greatest 'hits' happen to be in the 60s. (Of course, it is not logical to divide musical progress by decades. It is not as if when the decade changed, some changes abruptly happen. This is more for our convenience.) Before some of the lovers of 1950s Lata ger angry with me, I want to state that the decade of the 60s has the most number of hits that are still present in the popular imagination. These songs define Lata to even the current generation of music lovers. The music directors, who were initially responsible for providing Lata with hits and guidance, were slowly fadi...

  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 Though Lata's first Hindi film song, for Ghulam Haider, was in 1948, by 1950, she had already built a reputation for herself in the film industry. She was slowly becoming the number one female singer, with music directors trusting her to carry the film's music on her frail shoulders. Lata showed that she was ready to take on the responsibility and delivered hit after hit. Anil Biswas was to say, "After Lata entered the field, music directors lost their fear. Now they could compose fearlessly, being confident that Lata would deliver whatever they had conceived." By the time we enter the 1950s, we see Lata was already the emerging star. The 1950s also saw the rise was newer music directors, who would later make a great name for themselves: Madanmohan, Salil Choudhary, Jaidev, S D Burman, and O P Nayyar. The other music directors like Shankar Jaikishen, Roshan, and C Ramachandra, who had started their car...

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 hi...

The link to all parts of this series is given here: Series Links In the last episode , we had a look at the milieu of the 1940s Hindi film music and got an idea of who were the major singers of those times. We also got a good idea of the singing style of the 40s. In this part, we look at some of Lata's songs in the 1940s and the partnerships she started building with music directors. In the last part, we saw that Lata got her major breakthrough in Hindi film music in the film 'Majboor'. Ghulam Haider was the music director. This film was released in 1948. Other music directors also started showing interest in her singing that same year. In 1948 and 1949, Lata managed to sing some memorable songs and started a partnership with some legendary music directors. We saw that Kemchand Prakash's 'ayega ayega' from 'Mahal' was Lata's breakthrough song. The song that launched her stardom. This is in the year 1949. In the year, 1948 itself, Kemchand Prakash ma...

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...