RMIM Archive Article "18".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Meet Lata Mangeshkar - an Interview
#
# Posted by: apn@cs.buffalo.edu (Ajay P Nerurkar)
# Source: Illustrated Weekly of India (1967)
# Author: Gangadhar Gadgil.
#
Recently, I chanced upon a collection of old issues of "The Il-
lustrated Weekly of India". This interview was published on the
occasion of Lata completing twenty five years in film music, way
way back in April '67. The interviewer was the noted Marathi
writer Gangadhar Gadgil.
Ajay
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Meet Lata Mangeshkar
-- Gangadhar Gadgil
To me and, I believe, to every Indian, Lata Mangeshkar is not so
much a person as a voice -- a voice that soars high and casts a
magic spell over the hearts of millions of Indians from the
Himalayas to Kanyakumari. It is a voice that is ageless, pure,
vibrantly alive, untramelled in its range and flexibility, haunt-
ingly expressive and enchanting in its sweetness. Above all, it
has a certain ethereal quality, an indefinable something, with a
unique appeal for us Indians.
It would have been in a sense appropriate if a voice such as
Lata's had sung exclusively the ecstatic bhajans of Mirabai. For
these bhajans, apart from their poetic excellence and haunting
melody, are an expression of total surrender to God. They are a
quest which can only be expressed by a voice such as Lata's.
But Lata's voice, which really belongs to a temple or an ashram,
has been in the service of film music for full twenty-five years
now. Film music is inevitably attuned to the requirements of
box-office and box-office seems to require that film music should
have catchy rhythms, swinging, sugary tunes, polyphonous and loud
orchestral accompaniment and an abundance of sentimentality.
It is at least apparently incongruous that Lata should have al-
most exclusively devoted herself to singing songs for films. It
is not a little unusual that, in her case, musical excellence has
attained with the utmost ease a hypnotic popularity. And it is
certainly unprecedented that in the world of films, where
fashions change every couple of years, Lata should have reigned
supreme as the best and the most popular singer for an uninter-
rupted span of twenty-five years.
Lata Mangeshkar is thus a unique musical phenomenon-a phenomenon
that not only arouses one's curiosity but also makes one feel
grateful. The gratefulness is felt because, in the confused and
corrupted world of film music, she keeps alive something that is
pure, essentially musical and uniquely Indian.
*********************************************
I had always wanted to meet Lata and the fact that she was com-
pleting her silver jubilee as a singer provided an ideal occa-
sion for doing so. I had expected her to be rather inaccessible
and reluctant. Actually, she was quite co-operative.
I started the conversation with a reference to the landmark in
her career: "You will soon complete twenty-five years of an
eventful musical career. What are your feelings on this occasion
? It is obvious that you must be experiencing a deep sense of
fulfilment. But do you also have any regrets, a sense of oppor-
tunities missed and lost for ever ?"
Lata shook her head, rejecting, as it were, my question. Her ex-
pression acquired a certain severity and became devout. She said:
"I have no sense of fulfilment and no regrets. The only feeling I
have is one of deep gratitude to God for his infinite kindness."
I looked at her closely to find out if there was any false note
in what she said. I found none. Her words seemed to spring from
her heart. In any case, I was not surprised by her devoutness.
Lata hails from Goa and she has inherited the devoutness that has
been nurtured in that soil by Hindus for centuries. It has become
an essential part of her personality and music. And, if we decide
to leave God out of the picture, Lata`s musical talent is a lega-
cy left to his children by her father, the late Master Dinanath,
a well-known singer and actor on the Marathi stage. Ironically,
he died pennyless.
Naturally, I asked Lata about the influence of her father on her
music in her early years.
"He died when we were all very young. I, the eldest of his chil-
dren, was barely twelve at the time. But I remember him distinct-
ly. He was always so full of music that we all naturally got in-
terested in it. He also taught me music, although only for a lit-
tle while."
"I hardly ever heard him on the the stage though," she continued,
in a reminiscent mood. "He was orthodox in his ideas. He would
not let us, his daughters, watch a play, and he was absolutely
opposed to the idea of my acting in one. He was terribly annoyed
when I once acted in a play behind his back. He did not mind our
learning music, though. In fact, he encouraged it."
"Were there any other musical influences in your formative years
?"
"Yes. I listened to music whenever I could. But it was not really
the external influences that made me a singer. Music was in me. I
was full of it. Tunes floated through my mind endlessly, and I
used to hum them all the time, even when having my meals. I
remember that, once at school, I even counted things in terms of
the notes in the musical scale! And I had an amazing memory as
well as a capacity for musical imitation. I could remember tunes
heard years ago and reproduce them exactly."
"It must have been wonderful to be so full of music. Are you full
of it even now ?"
"Yes, I suppose so. I think up tunes and hum them all the time."
"But didn't you have any regular musical training at all ?"
"Oh, yes, I had. And it was rigorous training in classical music.
I was first taught by my father. Later on, in 1945, I became the
student of Amanali Bhendibazarwale. It was the late Master
Vinayak the famous film director and producer, who insisted on my
having the training and offered to pay two hundred rupees a month
for it. It was a very kind offer, but I was too proud to accept
it. In later years, I got training from Amanatali Devaswale. I
wish I had had more of it. But I soon won recognition as a play-
back singer in our films and I had to devote all my time to this
demanding and fascinating career."
"Do you think that this training in classical music has proved
useful to you in becoming a successful playback singer ?"
"Certainly. The training has made it easy for me to understand
and execute what a music director wants. It has given my voice a
consistency and flexibility which singers of film songs often
lack. I also think that the training has helped my voice retain
its musical qualities all these years. Voices of playback singers
do not generally last that long."
" I am sure", I said, "that the training in classical music has
done you a lot of good. Yet classical music and film music are
two quite different things, and a musician who excels in classi-
cal music can prove a flop in the world of film music."
"Oh, yes, the two are quite different. Film music requires a
voice that has a certain delicacy and a capacity to express emo-
tion in all its richness and variety. Long sessions of rigorous
training in the classical style can deprive a voice of these
qualities. I have to be very careful to avoid overexerting my
voice. And that is one of the reasons why I cannot train myself
in the classical style, although I would love to do so."
"In a way, to sing film songs appears very easy. Almost anybody
with a pleasant voice can sing a film song effectively. Yet very
few manage to succeed as singers in film music. How do you ac-
count for it ?", I asked.
"One has to have and develop a number of qualities in order to
succeed as a singer in films. A film song is sung to express a
mood...an emotion. The singer must have the ability to grasp the
mood and express it through music. Unlike in classical music,
words matter a great deal in film music. The singer has to pro-
nounce them with clarity and in a manner that brings out all the
emotion they carry. The singer also needs a correct understanding
of what a mike does to one's voice. And, above all, the voice has
to be trained to do a lot of things with ease and grace and a
compelling appeal."
I then asked her about her early years and the struggle that she
had to go through to establish herself as a playback singer.
"Those were hard times", she said. "We were very poor and
desperately in need of money. I had, therefore, to work without
respite. I remember occasions when I worked without food and
sleep for two days and more. And then there were prejudices to be
overcome. It used to be said disparagingly in those days that
songs sung by Maharashtrians smelt of dal and rice! I had to
disprove it and cultivate a fine Hindustani accent as well. There
was so much else to learn, too, and I had to do it mostly by my-
self."
"But didn't you have any model before you ? Didn't you, at any
time, say to yourself that you would like to sing like somebody
-- like say, Saigal ?"
I thought of Saigal because I had observed a certain affinity
between that great and popular singer of film songs and Lata.
"Yes, of course. I loved Saigal's wonderful songs. The songs had
no frills. There was no attempt to display musical virtuosity. He
used to sing them simply, from the bottom of his heart. That is
what I wanted to do. That is what I tried to learn from him. That
is what I have been striving to do all along ", she said, with a
certain passionate urgency.
"And have you done it ?" I asked.
"God has been very kind", was all she said.
"Any singer who casts such a tremendous spell on the people must
have something more than a sweet voice and a capacity to express
emotion through her music. She must somehow touch the very soul
of a people. Their deepest yearnings, the very core of their be-
ing, has to find expression in that singer's songs to a degree.
Saigal did this and so have you. "
She was silent.
"There is a difference between the two of you, though", I contin-
ued. "Saigal always sounded like an angel that had fallen. His
was a flawed spirituality; and, because it was flawed, it had a
special appeal. Your voice expresses something pure, unblemished
and yet lonely and sad. In any case, the songs of both of you
move people deeply."
"I remember an occasion when I was in Calcutta", she responded.
"An old man saw me and suddenly rushed forward and fell at my
feet. He was not an illiterate man, he seemed to belong to the
educated middle class. I was so moved by what he did that I
started crying. I cried all the way home, and I cried for a long
time afterwards", Lata laughed, deprecatingly, as if to suggest
that it was rather silly of her to have been so deeply moved.
But this evidence of her being an emotional person was rather in-
teresting. For she had looked quite self-possessed and business-
like in everything she had said and done. Infact, she had to
seemed to me rather an unemotional person, although her songs re-
veal a rare capacity to feel deeply and express emotions with
compelling power.
I asked : "You have been in the world of film music for the last
twenty-five years. What are the changes in popular taste that you
have noticed ? Has it changed for the better of for the worse ?"
"There has been a considerable change in musical taste and it has
not all been for the better. I would not really blame the people
for the vulgarisation of taste. It is the music directors who are
responsible for it. They are the makers of popular taste."
She wanted to say more but didn't, obviously not wanting to hurt
anybody."
"Do you think that the influence of Western music on our film
music has been healthy ?"
"I would not say that such an influence is inherently bad. There
has always been a lot of give and take in the world of music. Our
classical music itself is a blend of many influences; and the
Western Pop singers have borrowed a great deal from Africa and
elsewhere. I do not, therefore, mind it if our music absorbs
foreign influences. What I do mind is indiscriminate borrowing
which creates the kind of hybrid, hotchpotch music we have to-
day."
"Can't something be done about it ?"
"Oh, yes, something can be done, and efforts have been made in
that direction. But it is so difficult to change things in the
film industry. There is a sort of formula of success; and nobody
wants to violate it. So things go on in a groove."
She paused a little and then continued : "A film song must be ap-
propriate to the situation in which it is sung. It must express
the mood, the interplay of emotion, the element of drama that is
inherent in that situation. The words and the tune have to be
apt. The orchestral accompaniment must heighten the effect of the
song and it must fit in with the locale and the situation. But we
don't seem to bother about it. There is a slavery of latest
fashions and trends."
I smiled and said : "In any case, I do hope that something is
done to minimise or cut out altogether those noisy and jarring
orchestral interludes that interrupt every film song at every
step."
She agreed with a smile : "I would like to elaborate the musical
theme myself rather than leave it to the orchestra." She added,
more seriously : "There was a generation of music directors that
used to worry about the appropriateness and unity of their musi-
cal compositions, and I am really grateful to men like Ghulam
Haider, Shyamsunder, Khemchand Prakash, Naushad and Salil
Chowdhury for the music they composed for me to sing. But those
who succeeded them have not worried about the basic things. They
are very talented men who have introduced a number of innova-
tions. But they seem to be overlooking something very essential."
"That brings me", I said, "to a very basic point. Film music is
light music and I do not expect from it the kind of satisfaction
and joy that one derives from classical music. But I do expect
that film music should give pleasure, even to a man with a cul-
tivated musical taste. This does not generally happen, although
there are bits and pieces of film songs that are really nice. Can
anything be done to change this state of affairs ?"
"That is not impossible," said Lata, emphatically. "A great deal
can be done."
"Are you trying to do it yourself ?"
She smiled and said : "I will not say anything about it now."
"What are your plans for the future ?" I asked.
"No plans in particular. I will carry on with my work. But I do
hope that I will be able to devote more time to classical music.
I love to listen to it. I am a great admirer of musicians like
Bhimsen Joshi, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Amir Khan. Pt. Omkarnath and
D.V.Paluskar, who died an untimely death. I want to sing classi-
cal music one of these days, if I can."
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From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian