RMIM Archive Article "389".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Lata's Best - Quiz
# Questions 18-19
# Posted by: Satish Subramanian
# Source: Illustrated Weekly of India
# Author: Raju Bharatan
#
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Question 18:
Lata's Best?
Raju Bharatan, for Illustrated Weekly of India
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Lata has opted in this album to hold the scale
even between RDB and LP. If LP have been favoured
with three selections, RDB wins like attention.
Probably, because Lata has always made a point of
the fact that she can effectively sing that RDB
style of compositions too - it is just that she
prefers to leave this genre to Asha!
Now Lata has named, from R D Burman's repertoire,
1. Dilbar dil se pyaare Dilbar (Caravan)
2. Na jaa mere humdum (Pyar Ka Mausam)
3. Tere liye palkon ki jhalar (Harjaae)
Only in the last of these three compositions do we
get the style of Lata vocals we expect from her
under RDB's baton.
Believe it or not, thanks to Lata, RDB was once
even in the running for a Sur-Singar award for the
virtuosity with which he had got her to render, in
the raag Jogiya, a number in "Chandan Ka Palna".
Can you spot out that "Chandan Ka Palna" Lata solo
on the N55264 78 rpm?
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Question 19:
Lata's Best?
Raju Bharatan, for Illustrated Weekly of India
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Lata's historic album has led to the raising of
many eyebrows for the fact that it carries no
fewer than seven compositions by her own brother,
Hridaynath Mangeshkar. Seven!
And five of these seven are 'private' compositions
that HMV could alone have considered including in
an album that, on its own admission, has been
brought out to commemorate '40 Glorious Years' of
Lata as a Playback Singer.
This is not to question Hridaynath's creativity as
a composer. There can be no two opinions about
the fact that he is the Marathi Jaidev.
But only two of his seven songs picked,
1. Om namah shivaye (Mashaal)
2. Yeh aankhen dekh kar (Dhanwaan)
could strictly have qualified for inclusion by
Lata - if this album was supposed to signify her
having completed four decades as a playback
singer.
Just a single choice like "Tum aasha vishwas
hamare" (Subah) would have been sufficient to
bring out the potential of Hriday that has gone
sadly unrealized in Hindi films.
Hriday's first Hindi film was "Prathana" (1969).
His first recording for it was "O baanwri" in the
voice of Asha, not Lata.
But there was a Lata and chorus number by him in
"Prathana". Remember its opening line?
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From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian