She was, she IS, the undisputed queen of melody.There is no one , nothing that can touch her voice.
And yet I see self-appointed experts who have mushroomed since her passing away, claiming all sorts of conjectural slingshots as the truth about Lataji when they plainly know zilch.The biggest hypothetical arrows in the dark are being shot about Lataji’s rapport/relationship/respect vis-à-vis Noorjehan who,according to the mighty musicologists cleared the coast for Lata Mangeshkar by leaving for Pakistan
Are these music experts for real? Did Lataji really need anyone to move out of the way for her to sweep away all competition? As the great Salil Choudhary who once confessed that he made his compositions more difficult by putting in impossible notes just to challenge Lataji, said, “When Lata came we composers were inspired to compose songs that we would have never imagined otherwise, No singer ,I repeat, no singer past or present, was competition for her.”
As For Noorjehan, a great singer no doubt, she too was no competition for Lataji. In fact it was fortunate that she left India. If she had remained she too would have been washed away in the tidal waves of the Mangeshkarian tsunami, like all other female singers.
Lata Mangeshkar is to music what Picasso is to painting and Mozart to the symphony. Such talent and reputation comes with a price. Lataji has often been accused of rendering the other female singers of the era jobless
Geeta Dutt for example, who was the favourite of Sachin Dev Burman suddenly found herself pushed out of favour by the other voice.Or take Lataji’s own sister Asha Bhosle, she was the second choice for all the composers , until O P Nayyar and R D Burman came along.It is said that Geeta would ring up Sachinda and ask him why he had switched to Lataji’s voice. His answer was unchangeable. “Lota(that’s what he called her) is Lota.”
I was once speaking to the great Manna Dey about the so-called competition that Lataji swept away he said, “When Lata emerged as a force to reckon with , the other popular voices of the time like Zohrabai Ambewali and Shamshah Begum began to appear unpolished. They lacked Lata’s sophistication. Lata has a very very rare talent.I wouldn’t say she has been taught music. Woh Sun sun ke bani hai.She learnt from Noor Jehan. She even learnt by listening to Geeta Dutt. But Lata polished all the weaknesses in Geeta’s throat.”
The world may have felt that Lataji ousted Geeta Dutt. But Geeta, a gem of a person, never showed any resentment towards her rival.
Lataji once told me they were close friends. “We sang many duets together. She was very fond of me.And I of her. She used to confide her domestic problems in me. We spent hours chatting and gossiping,” Lataji told me.
Another singer who is said to have been deeply affected by Lataji’s supremacy is Suman Kalyanpur. It is Ms Kalyanpur’s misfortune that she sounded like a feeble version of Lataji and got branded the ‘poor man’s Lata Mangeshkar.’ Not too many people know this. But Lataji actually recommended Suman K whenever she, Lataji, was unable to do a song. And yet there were stories circulated about Suman’s career being sabotaged. On the contrary,Suman Kalyanpur only benefited from her vocal resemblance to the Nightingale. Whenever composers couldn’t get the original they embraced the echo.
Which brings us to Anuradha Paudwal. She came into the 1990s determined to be Lataji’s replacement. With the backing of T Series she re-recorded every single song she could lay her hands on of Lataji in her own voice. She also tried to get Lataji’s replaced with her own voice in the compositions of Laxmikant-Pyarelal.
None of this worked. One can’t “replace” the sun or the moon.
As for her equation with the great Noorjehan here is what Lataji told me, “When I came in to the music industry, Noorjehanji was the benchmark for playback singing. Like everyone else I was told to intone my lyrics like her. Initially I followed the composers’ instructions. Gradually though, I forged my own style. Which is why I tell new generations of singers to eventually sing in their own style. You can copy me initially but you eventually have to be your own person.”
As for her equation with Noorjehan, Lataji said, “She was very fond of me,and I of her.When we met she was so warm and so genuinely affectionate.How can people talk about competition between us? She was my senior. It’s like comparing Dilip Kumar with Shah Rukh Khan.”