Lata sings for Shanker Jaikishen

As I am sitting in Buenos Aires airport reading about Lata Mangeshkar’s hospitalization, my thoughts went to her initial forays in Hindi music industry and her steady and sure rise as the finest female singer in the Hindi film world.

She and her sister - the equally great Asha - remain our tenuous links to the golden age of Hindi film music - the fifties and the early sixties.

My thoughts then, as befitting an SJ fanatic, then turned to her incredible association with the peerless Shanker Jaikishen - the finest set of music directors to have graced the Indian film world.  My wandering mind then began considering what would be the finest songs our finest musicians lavished on the finest female voice? Especially as one considers that it took them no time at all to set Lata as their numero-uno female voice while it took them the better part of a decade to decide on Rafi - as our finest male singer of all times - as their primary male voice.

I had written earlier that while SJ experimented with a number of male voices - giving range to some of the finest songs sung by singers like Talal Mahmood (Daag, Shikast) to Manna Dey (Chori Chori, Baaghi Sipahi), from Subir Sen (Seema, Aas ka Panchi) to Mukesh (Awara, Shree 420); before confirming Rafi a good decade after they made their storied debut with Barsaat (1949); it was Lata all the way for them; from Barsaat to the late sixties where they seem to lose a bit of their mojo, just a little bit. In Aurat (1953), Lata sang all the songs, in Aah (1953) and Barsaat (1949), she sang for both of the female leads and she sang for every SJ movie in the first five years except for Boot Polish where the younger sister and Madhubala Zaveri sang for Baby Naaz and others.

So, what would the best 10 songs be; the peerless Diva singing for the peerless SJ? I think this was an extremely difficult pick. These are my choices and last heard, India remains a very vibrant democracy!

One caveat - when we have Lata in the recording room, we only want her, so no duets, no tandems no chorus.

1.     Ye Shaam ki tanhaiyan (Aah, 1953): Silken Soft Lata, the tune is complex; something the irascible Sajjad Hussain would have be proud of composing and telling Lata to ensure she practices before coming for his recording - not just a mere Naushad tune! Nargis looks ethereal in the movie as she waits for Raj Kapoor to come back to her life. There were other contenders for the best Lata number in the movie not least Sunte the naan hum jinka bahaar se pictiurised on the other sister where for a change Lata infuses the lilt that Geeta Dutt had naturally in droves. But Shaam ki tanhaiyan was an incredible piece of music; the tune and the singing perfectly in tune to invoke the wistfulness the scene demands. It was a travesty of justice that Aah happened to be the first commercial failure of an RK movie but that made the music of Boot Polish possible. But then that is another story. You can hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2jsjAiXbZ8

2.     Chandrama madhbhara Kyun jhoome  (Patrani, 1956). Patrani was a musical treasure trove, an album whose songs can easily make up this list on their own. I pick this one over the others - all of which had Lata singing; 7 solos and 3 with chorus or her sisters, 9 written by Shailendra and 1 by Hasrat Jaipuri! A neat 10 songs with everything a music lover will wish for - the happy and the sad, the dance and the wedding; all sung by the Diva set to music by the dynamic duo! This one set to tune in Shivaranjani with SJ using Sarod as the key musical instrument for the interlude music. Just hear the notes Lata reaches effortlessly in lag gaya rog jigar mein
chandrma before coming back to normal notes with the second chandrama. Quite magical isn’t it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L3vQ7Ta3f4&list=RD0L3vQ7Ta3f4&index=1

3.     Mohabbat ki dastaan baj suno, (Mayurpankh, 1953). For me this is the quintessential SJ - Bhairavi tune. Bhairavi features in the SJ repertoire significantly more than any other raag but this one encapsulates eveything great about the SJ's use of Bhairavi. Helen, then all of 15 years old; looks cute as a button in this number singing an ode on love with Kishore Sahu and Odette Ferguson. Simple tune as benefits the sada-suhagan rag, minimal orchestration - this was still 1954 before SJ began using their 100 piece orchestra - and letting Lata’s voice wash over us like gentle rain on a hot summer day.  Hear how effortlessly Lata reaches the pitch of ‘gayi baadshahi ke din..’ Pure magic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktxwQc672to

4.     Ille belle aa re, (Kali Ghata 1951). The song sounds like the gentle patter of rain on a parched surface.  Soft   Melodious.  Silken. Beautiful.  It’s almost as if one meets the chosen other for the first time. The heart fills with laughter with joy with a feeling of lightness. The accordion during the interlude never intrudes – merely brings a restrained rhythm to the melody. That’s precisely what the great SJ bring to this tune & melody and spreading sweetness & light – paraphrasing a certain Earl (pardon the non-PG Wodehouse fanatics).   And Lata does the rest with an effortless rendition. The beauteous Bina Rai in her debut looks ethereal. Gay. Happy. Joyous. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaS_XScG7I8

5.     Hai mera dil le gaya (Parbat, 1952).  And then the magical duo takes you to the depths of depression as Lata sings for a young Nutan. The video isn’t available but the music, the tune all gives poignant notice to Nutan presumably pining for a then handsome Prem Nath as one of our most bankable stars. But even in the melancholy there is evidence of an amazing tune, the counter melody using the ubiquitous violin - perhaps better used for Talat singing for Agha in Patita (Andhe jahan ke andhe raaste) and letting the Diva do what she does best. Song at an unbelievable pitch. Kabhi besuri hi nahi hoti. How apt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UH_XZSzbZA

6.     Tune hai re mere zakhmi jigar – (Nagina, 1951). Nagina was SJ’s first movie signing outside the Raj Kapoor banner coming right after the international sensation that was Awaara. And it was Nutan’s second film after the home production of Hamari Beti. Hear this and and tell me if Lata ever reached the poignant notes of ‘toone….hai re mere zakhme jigar ko choo liya ‘. SJ keeping pace with an innovative orchestra letting the Diva do what she does best - sing with no blemish! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gic7iVKDnP8

7.     Raisik balma,hai re dil kyun lagaya maine (Chori Chori, 1956) - SJ’s first Filmfare award came for Chori Chori - a remake of It Happened one night in 1956. The album was uniformly exceptional, with Manna Dey crooning for an effervescent Raj and Lata for Nargis. But the pick of the album - a tough choice though - for me was the exceptional Rasik Balma - just hear how Lata manages to transcend the incredible heights when singing Balmaaa..incredible voice. beautiful lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri. exceptional tune and music with sitar forming the leitmotif of the interlude music. How can one get so creative? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF1lNr-LniI

8.     Jao re jogi tum jao re, (Amrapali, 1966). My pick from the music marvel that was Amrapali. I could have picked any of the other - Tadap Ye din raat ki is about as soft and silky as chandrama madbhara, Vyjayabthi looks ethereal as she sings to Sunil Dutt. Neel gagan ki chaon mein reminds you of the Hemant crooner in Badshah, Tumhe yaad karte karte is about as good as ye shaam ki tanhaiyan. Legend has it that Shailendra wrote this song extempore in front of Shanker with no written lyrics; at a time when he was under enormous pressure due to the abject failure of Teesri Kasam; a movie he produced. And this song probably features Shanker’s last individual sitar recital – before his diabetes put a stop to his playing stringed instruments. Amrapali proved that (if it needed any proving) that the SJ of the mid-late sixties could give the quality of melody they regularly gave in the early fifties; the increased focus on rhythm and orchestra notwithstanding. And trust Lata to give the necessary mischief in her voice as she sings - Ye hai premion ki nagri...  brilliant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFRmLkTCTpc

9.     Ruk ja raat thehar ja re chanda, (Dil ek mandir, 1963). I always wonder how Dil Ek Mandir - a remake of a Tamil movie by Sridhar (Nenjil oru Aalayam) didn’t get more musical accolades that it did. Rafi was at his playful self in ‘tum sabko chhodkar aa jaao’; Lata kept pace with ‘hum tere pyaar mein saara aalam’; Suman kalyanpur was evocative in ‘O meri laadli’ while keeping pace with Rafi in the title song and while Rafi reached the depths of pathos in ‘Yaad na jaaye beete dino ki’ and the diva kept pace with ‘Ruk ja raat thehar ja re chanda’. The music is subdued for most part with the occasion sitar providing touching interlude music. Brilliant stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA42s4Q0ikk

10.  Bol ri katputli dori kaun sang, (Kathputli, 1957) - Probably my most difficult choice of the list. Anyone with even a cursory interest in Bollywood of the fifties and sixties would be aware of the quantum of work SJ have done in the dance numbers, even Jao re jogi is a dance number. I could have picked any of the scores of magnificent dance numbers - from Chori Chori to Amrapali, from Dil Apna Preet Parayi to Rajkumar; the SJ firmament is awash with dance numbers. The fact that Shanker was a dancer himself and even showed a consummate trained dancer like Vyjayanthimala a special Todi sequence in Amrapali is the stuff legends are made of. In the end I picked this sweet opening number from Katputli where a young and effervescent Vyjayanthimala dances with gay abandon to Lata’s rendering of a Shailendra tandem. And the sad version provides the icing on the cake, note how the same tune and metre sounds so different in the happy and sad versions, the genius of Shanker Jaikishen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZzTQtyWjhI (happy version), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTlBnGm7vuY (sad version)