TUM NA JANEY KIS JAHAN MEIN KHO GAYE

TUM NA JANEY KIS JAHAN MEIN KHO GAYE

The Nightingale of India whose mellifluous voice throbbed in a billion hearts is no more. This morning, an hour after the passage of the Sarasvati Puja tithi, Sarasvati incarnate Lata Mangeshkar left the shores of this world. It was 8.12 a.m.

Rare in history comes a voice that thrills one so, that almost transforms human consciousness and translates it from its material bounds to its spiritual high flights as was made live in Lata. From the forties of the last century to its final decade she sang for a nation just recovering from the horrors of a partitioned independence to its blossoming maturity as a nation.

At the age of thirteen she lost her father, the illustrious Marathi stage-singer Master Dinanath Mangeshkar, a child left to take care of her several younger siblings and her mother, a responsibility she bore with dignity and care for the rest of her long life when from penury she had risen to the pinnacle of prosperity and fame. The Government of India adorned her with the Bharat Ratna in recognition of her priceless services to music, her unimpeachable patriotism and her connect to the lifeblood of the nation.

Lata Mangeshkar made her mark in the early fifties truly when Suraiyya was the rage of the nation in India and Noor Jahan in Pakistan. Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum also were in the forefront. But as the years rolled on Lata replaced all from the hearts of hundreds of millions with such unforgettable melodies from Baiju Bawra, Anarkali, Mahal, Mughal-e-Azam, Pakeezah, Sazaa, Woh Kaun Thi, Guide, Mamta, Tak Mahal and countless other films. Numbers such as 'Aayega aanewala',  'Uthhaye ja unke sitam', 'Lag ja gale', 'Tum na jane kis jahan mey', 'Hum pyar mein jalnewalo ko', 'Rahe na rahe hum', 'Tu jahan jahan chale', 'Thandi hawaayen', 'Jo wada kiya tha', 'Chalo dildar chalo', 'Bekas pe karam kijiye', 'Mohe panghat pe Nandalal', 'Thhare rahiyo' and innumerable others caught the pulse of the nation like the creation of no other cultural icon of the post-independence era did.

Lata Mangeshkar was born on 28 September, 1929 and her earthly life has taken her to this day, the 6th of February, 2022. In the decades that she sang, she was graced with the best of music composers like Anil Biswas, Naushad, S.D. Burman, Roshan, C.Ramchandra, Salil Choudhury, Madan Mohan, Ghulam Mohammed, R.D.Burman, Hemant Kumar, Shankar Jaikishan, Lakshmikant Pyarelal, Pandit Ravi Shankar and others. She sang duets with Talat Mahmood, Mohd. Rafi, Manna Dey, Hemant Kumar, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Mahendra Kapoor, Bhupendra and many others. Indeed, such a sun had to be surrounded by other stellar beings and so it was that we witnessed the golden age of Hindi film music in the fifties, sixties and early seventies of the last century.

What was most memorable about her voice, apart from the divine tonal quality, was the perfection of her pitching, her modulations that never failed in their accuracy, and the overall sensibility of her rendition that transported the audience to ethereal realms. A celibate lifelong, she had as if appeared briefly on earth to breathe life into a nation that was coming into a refreshed beginning.

Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Sahab had shared the same musical platform once in Kolkata as Lata Mangeshkar and was charmed by her rendition. When Lata went to pay her respects to Ustadji in the green room the latter asked her to sing along with a female disciple of his. Initially reluctant, Lata had to comply with the Ustad's persistent request bordering on demand and held her own against the classical artiste who was pitted against her.

Her voice, silken, golden, of fine muslin woven as if, enthralled millions even as they raised consciousness. Her durability is often overplayed, for a slight gradual decline did set in her voice since 1978 or so but she persisted at her art. She maintained consistently her peak, though, in the phase 1949-1973, when her contribution to Hindi film music's golden period was greater than any other. Rafi Sahab admirably complemented her in the period 1949-1969 whereafter for the next few years it was Kishore Kumar who played the role.

It is difficult to define Lata Mangeshkar's genius in language for it was the spirit, that  indefinable entity of the deeper being, that sang through that voice that has been etched in every Indian's memory. The deepest recesses of the human soul are hidden from our sight but it is from there that flow all inspiration. These are past samskaras/impressions that are carried to the present life and such lofty genius cannot be explained in terms of the present alone. Mere genetic inheritance from parents and predecessors cannot be sufficient explanation for it. There is something more to it which men call the gift of God, the gift of Nature etc., but the best explanation is of the theory of reincarnation which talks of transmission of traits across lifetimes, honing talent till perfection is reached. And in this lifetime Lata Mangeshkar had reached that level of musical perfection. 

When in an interview Lata was asked as to which of her tens of thousands of songs stood in her memory as her favourite most, she instantly replied that it was her 1949 number 'Aayega aanewala' of the film 'Mahal'. This was strangely in coincidence with my most favourite one as well. Unfortunately, today's generation is largely oblivious of the very best songs of Lata Mangeshkar and merely harp on her later renditions when she was way past her best. A revisitation of her golden days is the need of the hour.

Our lives were made by Lata; they are made of Lata. This encapsulates her place in the heart of the nation. My own efflorescence I owe to her when early on in adolescence her songs enraptured my soul. I remember the years 15 to 22 she filling my life with pulsations of love even as Tagore coloured up my being with his poetry. This was what provided for me the platform before I could take the spiritual plunge in the ocean of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda.

Lata Mangeshkar regretted that the music of Hindi films of the current generation has degenerated, alas! She was not happy about it.

Ustad Bismillah Khan Sahab once remarked in wonder that Lata never sang a little too high nor a little to low in her pitching of a musical note but that she always sang exactly to note. This was unique.

It is said that Pandit Ravi Shankar had once remarked that instrumentalists like him had to tune their sitars with a tuning fork but they could have easily tuned them with the voice of Lata Mangeshkar as God had Himself tuned it and sent it to grace the earth. This was the respect the Nightingale of India drew from such a legend as the world-famous sitarist.

Salil Choudhury who she sang to such delightful melodies composed by him had said that a voice like Lata comes once in several centuries.

Lata Mangeshkar's devotion to her father was profound. Master Dinanath Mangeshkar, her father, had imparted initial musical lessons to her in the Hindustani vocal musical genre. But after his sudden demise she along with her younger siblings, Asha, Usha, Meena and Hridaynath were as if orphaned. Lata took upon herself at the young age of thirteen the responsibility of fending for her family economically and in doing so she entered upon this phenomenal career journey, first as a child actress in the Mumbai film industry which after a few years she gave up for good as she never felt comfortable doing her roles before the camera, and then as the musical legend she became.

In memory of her father Lata Mangeshkar built the Dinanath Mangeshkar Memorial Hospital in Pune where he had passed away with poor medical treatment as medical facilities in Pune in those days were poor. So, in compliance with her mother's wishes she finally got this hospital constructed in Pune, though her mother did not live to see it in her lifetime. Lata Mangeshkar also instituted the annual Master Dinanath Mangeshkar Award which was conferred on musical stalwarts such as Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and the like. Thus, this dedicated daughter lived her life to fulfil her father's dreams about his children and perpetuate his memory in a befitting way.

The blossoms did come forth. Asha Bhonsle developed into a musical wizard herself enthralling millions like her even more illustratious elder sister. Hridaynath Mangeshkar became a distinguished music director. Usha and Meena Mangeshkar also distinguished themselves as singers. 

There is something called effort-singing and there is something called free-flowing song of the soul like a river flowing, a dainty brook rippling over shiny cobble-stones that impede its motion only to make the flow delightful all the more. Such a voice was Lata's about which the doyen of Hindustani classical music, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Sahab had affectionately remarked to another great, Pandit Jasraj, "Kambakht kabhi besuri nahi hoti." This was the highest accolade from one who has often been compared to Mian Tansen. Incidentally, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Sahab had charged Rs. 25,000 for each of the two songs he rendered in the film Mughal-e-Azam at a time when Lata Mangeshkar and Mohd. Rafi were being paid in the hundreds only. 

There was a phase in her life when Lata drew enemies in her field who went to the extent of attempting to extinguish her life's flame for good. Lata became incapacitated owing to a mysterious illness which was soon diagnosed to be a case of slow poisoning of her daily meals. The cook who worked at her place disappeared once she fell ill and was never seen again. It was suspected that he had been hired by powerful adversaries and was being laid to rest. Fortunately, the doctors could cure her, though it was months that she lay in bed. She had narrowly escaped the ultimate fate.

The tonal quality of Lata Mangeshkar's voice kept changing through the decades as is but natural. From the exquisitely youthful, innocent voice in the forties and early fifties it matured into the golden, silken, almost refined glass-like fragile yet holding voice that captivated millions with its mellifluous tenor even as they carried them to sublime heights and subliminal depths of consciousness. The golden period lasted till 1973 or so and then her voice shifted gear once again for four more years when it produced a marvellous new tenor of music. But by 1978 her voice for the first time showed faint signs of decline, known of course to her but remaining unnoticed by the lay listener, although connoisseurs must have gauged the difference from her earlier tonal quality. From now on Lata Mangeshkar's voice became slightly shriller and the strains became increasingly noticeable as she had to gradually make way for fresher voices in the late eighties and early nineties when Alka Yagnik, Anuradha Paudwal, Kavita Krishnamurthy and the like replaced her largely.

Written by Sugata Bose