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First Person Singluar

‘HE Should Not Have Bothered To Create Another Woman’

Aroon Sharma
Dec 2010

The headline is NOT by the author. It’s an end comment. By late music director Sajjad Hussain. Said he: ‘Allah created Lata and Noor Jehan to sing and after that He should not have bothered to create another woman’. In its perceptive entirety, it is the most moving tribute any man has given to any woman. Here, to two. Both were in Bombay then. So was he – the most sought after music director of late 1940s.

Of the two, Lata Mangeshkar is alive, and as much a nightingale at age 81 as she was at 16. At sub continental Partition, Noor Jehan shifted base to Pakistan where she was pedestal-ed with all paramount titles the country of her choice could shower. One sobriquet which stuck on was ‘Malik-e-Tarranum’ – ( the Queen Empress of Melody ). Back home, Lata Mangeshkar was conferred the “Bharat Ratna’.

Sajjad Hussain, like his contemporaries, opted to stay back. And flourished. Sadly enough, Noor Jehan, once in Pakistan was left with the same immortal voice but no music directors anymore to immortalize her songs. A compact disc or two of post 1947 Noor Jehan is on the shelves but not worth the buy or the ears. Lata, besides Sajjad Hussain became the preferred choice of late Naushad and late Ghulam Haider.

The trio fine tuned her to fame. The fame spread eternal. Throughout 1950s, 60, and 70s, Lata was running her golden mile under music directors - Anil Biswas, Khemchand Prakash, C. Ramachandra, S.D. Burman, Madan Mohan, Shankar Jaikishen, Salil Chowdhary, Hemant Kumar and Khayyam. The breed of music directors which took over the 80s and 90s onwards have yet to find a match to her.

If readers happen to get hold of a Noor Jehan classic ‘Jeevan Hai Bekaar Tumhare Bina’ from film late 1940s film ‘Wapas’, here’s an anecdote from the author’s archives. On the sets of ‘Badi Maa’ of Prafulla Pictures launched by Master Vinayak, the two -- Lata, then 14, Noor Jehan in her mid-20s came face to face. Lata was desperate for a break. She sang the Noor Jehan’s ‘Jeevan Hai…’ to Noor Jehan.

It was sans accompaniment, sans music director, sans orchestra. It was a voice. It brimmed with melody. The lilt moved Noor Jehan. She prophesised ‘Bahut naam kamaogee agar riyaz barabar karogi’. Within a year or two, C. Ramachandra had picked up Lata, first for ‘Shehnai’ and later ‘Anarkali’ – in which Lata hits defied time. Thereafter, C. Ramachandra never addressed her as Lataji but ‘Marathi Noor Jehan’.

The prefix didn’t stick. Lata came to be known as Lata Mangeshkar. If memory serves right, she returned the compliment in the late 80s. On C. Ramachandra, she said ‘I sang for him very early in ‘Shehnai’ and then came ‘Anarkali’ whose songs became a rage. He has an unusual style which I think, is a curious mix of Hindi and Marathi compositional patterns. It is very sweet and was quite unique in those days.’

Back to the sets of ‘Badi Maa’. But for the fact that Lata was a kid co-star of Noor Jehan, the encounter which launched a thousand ships may not have taken place, at all. Lata had taken to acting ( Marathi films – ‘Pahili Manglagaur’, ‘Gajabhau’, and a Hindi film – ‘Subhadra’ ) because of penury.Her father Dinanath Mangeshkar had died bequeathing her a ‘tanpura’, ‘bandish notations’ and ‘Rs four’.

Her biography ‘Saat Suron ke Saath’, quotes her ‘A month after his ( her father’s death ), I took up a job in ‘Navyug’ films. There was no other alternative except to act in films. I acted in a few. But I didn’t like it at all. I hated putting on make up, mugging up the dialogues and the studio atmosphere. I folded my hands before God in gratitude for rescuing me from an acting career.’ In any case, she wasn’t photogenic.

Fame was at her feet at age 20 with ‘Ayega Aanewala’ in film ‘Mahal’. Her brother Hridaynath Mangeshkar once said in a homage to their father ‘You went away in a hurry. Couldn’t you wait till 1950 ? Then you would have heard didi’s ‘Ayega Aanewala’. And departed a happy, consoled man. Perhaps, a path breaker in the world of music was to be born in didi, that’s why God summoned you so quickly.’

I can’t say if God dislodges one to make way for another. If that’s it, there can’t be a God !

-end-

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