Author :  Raju Bharatan
Reproduced by : Ajay Nerurkar

The recycled article that follows makes clear how Lata  perfected
her  Urdu  diction,  so much so that Naushad, himself a more than
competent speaker of that language and a stickler in such matters
picked  her  for Andaaz to the consternation of Dilip. Enjoy (and
pardon Raju for going overboard with the title of the piece).

Ajay

This is yet another article from the TOI, Bombay. It  is  an  ex-
tract  from  the  book  "Lata  Mangeshkar  : A Biography" by Raju
Bharatan.

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                         Singer or Saint ?
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Can you believe that Lata Mangeshkar  was  an  itsy-bitsy  teeny-
weeny  532-day-old  as  Wazir  Mohammad Khan brought, on 14 March
1931, the sound of music to Indian cinema with 'De  de  Khuda  ke
naam  pe  pyaare  taaqat ho gar dene ki' in Ardeshir Irani's Alam
Ara ? Those Urdu words of the first Hindustani song in the  first
Indian  talkie  must  have  registered indelibly in the psyche of
Lata Mangeshkar. For she was to take Dilip Kumar at his withering
word  and  prove that Urdu was no less her language of expression
than Marathi.

Lata, as I have already noted, was first  exposed  to  the  dizzy
dazzle  of  Dilip  Kumar on a local train, way back in 1947. "Yeh
nayi ladki hai, achcha gaati hai" ("This is a new girl, she sings
well")  is  how Anil Biswas paraphrased Lata to Dilip Kumar. When
Dilip Kumar was told that Lata was a Maharashtrian, the Pathan in
him  reacted from the gut. "Inka ek problem hota hai", Dilip said
of Maharashtrian Lata, "inke gaane main daal-bhaat  ki  boo  aati
hai"  ("There's  one problem about these people from Maharashtra,
in their singing you get the odour of gravy and rice")!

Stung in the tongue with which she was  going  to  win  over  the
world,  the Honey Bee, from that very day, sat down to lessons in
Urdu from a maulvi called  Shafi.  Lata  notes  that  she  worked
ultra-hard,  from  that  pungent  point,  to "achieve clarity and
proper diction" in an Urdu language made for dialogue delivery by
Dilip  Kumar.  Even so, when Dilip Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar were
brought together some 23 years later  for  that  Khushwant  Singh
"Weekly"  cover  story,  the  first  enquiry from Dilip Kumar, in
preparation for lunch, was, in effect,  whether  Lata  Mangeshkar
was a "daal-bhaat" (vegetarian). Lata was not, but she never for-
got that early "daal-bhaat" odium cast on her  singing  worth  by
Dilip  Kumar.  At  the first opportunity she got to render a duet
with him, she so outsang Dilip Kumar  that  he  realised  sharply
that  the  little  Maharashtrian girl, of whom he was once "daal-
bhaat" dismissive, had, in her singing, mastered the Urdu diction
to a point where even Dilip Kumar was 'easy meat' for her !

In fact, Dilip Kumar now genuinely wondered how possibly he could
have  doubted  her  Urdu credentials when Naushad first let it be
known that Marathi Lata would be singing "Uthaye jaa unke  sitam"
and  "Tod diya dil mera" in his Nargis- Raj Kapoor co-starrer An-
daz. Dilip Kumar, famous by then for his romantic  mop  of  hair,
had  hit  the  roof when Naushad suggested the name of Lata. Lata
then swore that she would one day,  bring  Dilip  Kumar  down  to
earth.  The  one  who  thought he was the greatest acting show on
earth was soon to encounter, in Lata, the greatest  singing  show
on  earth. Lata in Andaz brought to the expression of Urdu poetry
some of the flair Dilip Kumar brought to the expression  of  Urdu
prose. Naushad had worked wonders with the girl.

That for the Andaz class of sustained singing Lata Mangeshkar was
awarded  the  Padma  Bhushan as early as 1969, that for the Andaz
class of  sustained  composing  Naushad  was  awarded  the  Padma
Bhushan  only  22  years  later  in  1991  is  a barometer of the
metamorphosis in climate effected by this megasinger by which she
was  able  to  show  each  pioneer-composer his place. Indeed, by
1991, every single composer who claimed to  have  made  Lata  and
Asha  had  unmade  himself. Neither Naushad and Nayyar counted by
1991, only Lata and Asha did.

Lata and Asha, they are the Corsican Sisters of our  music.  Hurt
Lata by hurling the word 'monopoly' at her and Asha is hit at the
same spot at the same time !  But  Asha,  really  speaking,  only
carries  the  onus  of shouldering half a share of the Mangeshkar
monopoly. All the big credits accruing from  that  monopoly  have
been  to  Lata  -  from  the Padma Bhushan in 1969 to the no less
prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award in 1990. You are  either  born
to  charisma  or you are not.  You cannot achieve charisma. Least
of all can you have charisma thrust upon you.

Lata Mangeshkar at 60 was a milestone. Lata Mangeshkar at 65 is a
speed-breaker.   The  breakneck  pace  at which music is written,
rehearsed, rendered and recorded makes Lata a helpless  giantess.
She  no  longer needs to announce her retirement from films. Hin-
dustani cinema has itself announced how much need it now has  for
her.  There were those moments of high anguish when Lata felt di-
minished by the departure  of  contemporaries  like  Geeta  Dutt,
Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar and Hemant Kumar. Today Lata
is reduced to singing them in her Shraddhanjali series.  This  is
but  a  reminder  that, as far as Hindustani cinema goes, Lata is
treading on her past. On her past and now on the  past  of  other
singing greats.

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Lata Mangeshkar : A living legend...