RMIM Archive Article "384".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Lata's Best - Quiz
# Questions 3-5
# Posted by: Satish Subramanian
# Source: Illustrated Weekly of India
# Author: Raju Bharatan
#
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Question: 3
Lata's Best?
Raju Bharatan, for Illustrated Weekly of India
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Significant among our master composers who shaped Lata's
singing style and technique is Anil Biswas. In fact, this
stalwart's sense of outrage had to be witnessed to be
believed when Lata found no place for him in her silver
jubilee Ten Best.
Now Lata has made up for that lapse by acknowledging Anil
Biswas's role in her 40 years as a playback singer through
two prize compositions of his:
1. Beimaan tore nainva nindiya na aaye (Taraana)
2. Mere liye woh gham-e-intezaar chhod chale (Anokha Pyaar).
These two Anil Biswas creations, it may be recalled, rank
among those that put the seal on Lata the 'thrush throat non-
pareil.'
Anil summed up the essential different between the two sis-
ters beautifully when he noted that, while Asha's voice had
body, Lata's had soul. He averred:
"With Lata's coming, for the first time since the
advent of the talkie in India, we could feel free to
compose whatever we wanted in the knowledge that her
surpassingly supple throat would take the notes in its
stride."
Among Anil's memorable creations for Lata are:
1. Aankhon mein chitchor samaye (Mehmaan)
2. Aankhon se door jaa ke (Arzoo)
3. Tumhaare bulane ko ji chahta hai (Laadli)
4. Kat ti hai ab to zindagi (Naaz)
5. Baalamva naadaan ho naadaan (Aaram)
6. Badli teri nazar to nazare badal gaye (Badi Bahu)
7. Keh do ki mohabbat se na takraye zamana (Maan)
8. Baras baras badli bhi bikhar gayi (Gajare)
9. Matwale nainonvale ke main waari waari jaaon (Beqasoor)
10. Rooth ke tum to chal diye (Jalti Nishani)
Yet in the face of such a line-up of Lata's evergreens,
Anil Biswas, when asked to name his best one ever for this
melody queen, picked out a solo from a Nalini Jaywant-Dev
Anand starrer.
Which solo from which film?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 4:
Lata's Best?
Raju Bharatan, for Illustrated Weekly of India
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Tart-tongued Sajjad Hussain ranks among those few composers
who could tell Lata off. And Lata took a lot of flak from
Sajjad, because she knew that no other composer could create
for her the calibre of compositions this erratic genius did.
"This is not a composition of Naushad-mian that you can take
it easy," Sajjad would say. "You have to work hard, very
hard, to give me the exact nuance I want."
How highly Lata regards Sajjad should be obvious from the
fact that there are no fewer than three numbers from the
limited repertoire of this composer in her album:
1. Jaate ho to jaao hum bhi yahaan (Khel)
2. Woh to chale gaye ae dil (Sangdil)
3. Ae dilruba nazren mila (Rustam Sohrab)
Each one of these selections is a gem with 'ae dilruba nazren'
rating among Lata's all-time classics.
As you hear this "Rustom Sohrab" 'soulful', you realize what
Lata meant when she noted that she used to shudder every
time there was a Sajjad recording in the offing, since every
number composed by this wizard posed the ultimate test for a
singer.
Sajjad, for his part, is on record saying:
"Allah created Lata and Noorjehan to sing. After that I
don't know why He bothered to create another woman
singer at all!"
One film in which Sajjad had, however, virtually to go
without Lata was R.C.Talwar's "Rukhsana" (1955). Lata fell
seriously ill after recording just one solo for this Meena
Kumari-Kishore Kumar starrer.
Yet that "Rukhsana" solo of Lata's endures as an unforgett-
able in the face of the trail blazed by Asha Bhosle and
Kishore Kumar in the film with "tere jahaan se chal diye."
y Which Lata solo?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 5:
Lata's Best?
Raju Bharatan, for Illustrated Weekly of India
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Lata's choice of "mushkil Her "aayega aayega aayega"
hai bahut mushkil" from ("Mahal"), of course, became
"Mahal" to spotlight the a trend-setter - its aura
compositional artistry of only Salil Chowdhury could
Khemchand Prakash must come match (in "Madhumati") with
as a great disappointment "aaja re pardesi".
to connoisseur listeners.
True, she could not have C Ramchandra, too tried to
picked this composer's do an "aayega aayega aayega"
"aayega aayega aayega through the vocal aid of
aanewaala" from "Mahal" all Lata when he got the chance
over again, since that would to compose for a reincarna-
have made for a chestnut. tion theme in "Meenaar"
(1954). The song emerged as
But surely she could have a beauty on Bina Rai, a real
bestowed her choice on that 'haunter' extending over two
classical Chhaya Nat solo, sides of the N51120 78 rpm
"chanda re jaa re jaa re," record, But "Meenaar"
created by Khemchand Prakash crashed - and with it that
for "Ziddi" (1948), espe- song.
cially, as Lata had once
drawn pointed attention to Can you place that "Meenaar"
how difficult it is to tune haunter of Lata's in which
such a long opening line and the ghost voice of the 'Lady
how tellingly Khemchand in White' was to be felt at
Prakash had done the job. its will-o'-the-wispy best?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
--
bye
satish
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian