Latha Mangeshkar:

The golden voice that broke the shackles of limitations

Vimal Waidyasekera

MUSIC: The early Hindi movies were heavily dominated by the stage and the singing stars that invaded the movies brought with them the theatrical traditions in the art of singing, a slow relaxed mood, an artificial low octave husky voice. This type of singing however was short lived and made way to an open throated style in high pitch national octave.

Still the classical style and the single octave remained, which however exposed the limitations of the singers that compelled the music directors like Anil Biswas, Gulam Haider and Kemchand Prakash to compose melodies to suit their voices, as a result, the compositions were simple.

radical change

The forties, however, brought about a radical change in the style of singing by a new breed of singers like Nurjehan, Suraiya and Shamsad Begum. They were able to adjust themselves to the new medium and the technique of the microphone by singing in the normal, middle scale or normal octave.

In this style of singing Nurjehan excelled and emerged the most popular singing star of such Box-Office hits like “Jugmi”, “Khan Dhan”, Anmol Ghandi”, till she migrated to Pakistan with her music director husband Feroz Hizomi.

The roaring forties also witnessed, the emergence of some of best known music makers like Chitalkar Ramachandra, S.D. Burman, Madan Mohan and Naushad Ali who passed away recently after nearly fifty magical music making years unmatched by any music director in the annals of Hindi film music.

They introduced the full throated singing to fast rhythm first introduced by Gulam Haider in the popular film “Kasanchee” that starred the “imph” girl Ramola.

The sudden departure of Nurjehan created a conspicuous void in the Hindi film industry. Whilst Nurjehan reigned supreme, a teenaged fan of hers was knocking on the doors of destiny in search of employment to support her family. She was none other than the Nightingale of India. She blazed into the realms of play-back singing, breaking the shakles of imitations and setting free the creative genius of the compass to create melodies at their discretion.

melody

She had that inborn trait to beautify the melody many times over. In semi-retirement after nearly five decades of monopolizing the film music scene, she still reigns supreme. Yet her phenomenal rise to the pinnacle of music making was not a bed of rose. It was a grim struggle for a teenager saddled with the responsibility of supporting a family of six Asha, Usha, Uma and brother Hirandranath.

Latha had a shoulder the responsibility of providing for the family at a very tender age due to the sudden demise of her father Master Dinnath Mangeshkar, a veteran singer and actor of the Marathi stage. A few days after her father’s death, Latha made her debut as an actress in a Marathi film “Phili Manglagam” produced and directed by Vinayak and thereafter continued to be a regular member of Vinayak’s Company till his death in 1947.

Once again in search of employment she met a supplier of extras who took her to the veteran music director Gulam Haider who had heard about her intents made an appointment for an audition.

On the day of the audition Latha appeared at the recording studio to find the Maestro in the midst of a long recording session that took several hours.

When a tired and exhausted Gulam Haider came out he saw Latha waiting for him. He had entirely forgotten about her audition.

Very apologetically, the Maestro led her to the recording studio. He was fascinated by her voice and range. He immediately took his new found sensation to meet the Filmstar Studio boss. To his utter dismay he found her voice very thin and not to his liking. A very disappointed and angry Gulam Haider told him “Mr. Mukerjee, work my words, a day will dawn when you will have to queue upto sign her”.

words of wisdom

Very prophetic words indeed from a veteran music director and his words of wisdom came time sooner than expected. A few days later they were travelling to the Bombay Talkies Studio by train when listening to the rattling of the railway carriages, a melody originated in the mind of the music director and a smiling Gulam Haidar hummed the tune to Latha just once and she reproduced it in her own style to the entire satisfaction of the music director.

A few days later she was recording her first play-back song “Dil Mera Toda Toone” for the film “Majboor”. A jubilant Gulam Haidar invited the cream of Bombays music directors to hear his new sensation for the recording. They were all delighted and happy indeed.

‘Majboor’ was the stepping stone to an illustrious carrier spanning over fifty years singing in several languages including Sinhala for Somasekeran’s “Seda Sulang” for which Ananda Samarakoon penned the lyrics. From Majboor onwards it was a never ending sequence of films under every music director except O.P. Nayaar. “Andaz, Babul, Dulari, Mother India, Anokha Pyar, Tarana, Mahal, Buzdil, Saaza and the list grows and goes on.

glittering names

There was a time when she sang for practically every film in spite of such glittering names like Asha Bhonsle, Geetha Roy and Shamshad Begum. Showing every facet of her incandescent talent and equally amazing range, she put a dent in the collective psyche of her challengers till she declined to sing. Having won the Filmfare Award practically every year she refused to be considered any more.

This gifted singer had that unique ability to sing to suit the voice of the actress be it Nargis, Nalim Jayawant, Madhubala or Nutan and this attribute enabled the stars to make their performances memorable like Madhubala’s “Ayaga Ayaga” in “Mahal” and Vijayanthiemalas’ “Ajaray” in the Bimal Roy film “Madhumathi”.

After years of composing simple melodies to accommodate the limited range and ability of the pre Latha era, the music composers now had the freedom to create melodies to their hearts content making the Latha era, the golden years of Hindi film music. The singer who brought fears to a moved Nehin, the voice that has made the most number of songs and sung in the most number of languages is undoubtedly the Nightingale par excellence.

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