The sound of Lata

The way we listen to music has changed but Lata Mangeshkar's magic remains. As the Nightingale turns 80, Sunday MiD DAY does the music trail playing Lata hits across formats gramophone records to tapes to digital

The gramophone was brought out of an almirah in summer holidays and on some lazy Sunday evenings. When the tiny tonearm, which looked like a showerhead, was positioned so that its needle rested on the record, a sort of magical silence crept into the room. Noor Jehan was a huge favourite with my family. The moment the tempo of the song slowed down, at once sounding like a hilarious background score from a gag, with the singer going off on a note that no composer would have ever allowed on record, it was time to quickly crank it up using the tiny steel jack. Everybody wanted to turn the jack everytime, but I preferred playing with the pins that came in a red, tin box. 'Toofan Mail' was my favourite. I learnt much later that Noor Jehan and Lata Mangeshkar formed a sisterhood ruling the Mumbai playback industry for decades, until Lata took over as the reigning super star.u00a0




I go looking for a player to revisit Lata on LP, and Dr Suresh Chandvankar, honorary secretary of the Society of Indian Record Collectors, plays generous host. Chandvankar has done away with the fuss of a bell-flower shaped speaker. Instead, he connects his World War II era player (Garrard 6.400), that plays at four speeds 33, 33 1.2, 45 and 78 rpm, to regular speakers. He's not the kind to obsess over his player. In fact he'll teach you how to use the player "set the speed and gently push the knob to manual mode." We play The Royal Albert Hall performance dating back to 1974. The performance was another battle won for Lata. The singer did not relent until she was finally booked at the prestigious London venue for her first international performance, which was such a hit that she got booked for two other consecutive shows. This was the first-ever time that any Indian had performed here.



When the 33 rpm record starts spinning, Philip Silverman's speech barely registers except for the fact that he pronounces Lata's surname as 'Mungaishka.' Next is a speech by Dilip Kumar. The anticipation builds and it's easy to imagine how the 18,000 seated audience members must have felt. Or even the 35-year-old Lata who was running a raging fever before this first show.

The well-rounded sound of the tabla opens the Pakeezah (1972) hit Inhih logon ne and it's difficult to believe but Lata's voice sounds as if it belongs to a far away time and place. It's easy shutting off everything around and visualising Lata walking onto stage barefoot in her trademark white saree. The scratchy sound and static, explains Chandvankar, is because the equipment has gathered some dust. Dust, and rust works to beautiful advantage here adding a vintage quality to the not-so-vintage number.



To play Lata on a 13-year-old Walkman that hasn't seen too much tape in recent years is a kooky dare. The volume did some mad swings between mono and stereo. I'm not sure what is more grating the whirring as the tape rewinds or moves forward as I search for the track or the jarring sounds that mostly affected the instrumentation. The victim? AR Rahman's soundtrack for the 1998 flick Dil Se. Lata had sung Jiya jale which included the rich, visceral chenda melam, a Kerala folk percussion tradition. The composition was so arranged that not a single note off the vocal parts were affected by the obsolete machine. Lata remained sound perfect.

My Sony Discman has survived the 26/7 and moving homes for the fifth time since I got it. Lata has always been a part of my CD collection. The sturdy CD brings the sound closer, sure, but Jiya beqarar hai from Barsaat isn't as romantic as it sounds on screen. My ears focus on the frantic string section that opens the song and reappears in various parts of the track. Lata's voice is lost so I try Hawa mein udta jaaye from the 60-year-old soundtrack although I rarely brave the track after a live performance I attended. Neeraj Sridhar had slaughtered the Shankar-Jaikishan hit with his dud notes as Lata sat on in the audience, probably wishing she were deaf. Maybe there was something wrong with the transfer because this too didn't touch me or maybe the Sony Discman was just a convenient piece to carry around. The problem was that the sound was neither too close nor too far, and to understand what that means, you'd have to play the music on a better system.

When I played the same CD on an assembled system (harman/kardon receiver, JBL speakers connected to a Philips DVD/CD player) the frenzied string section now filled the room with cheer and Lata's voice held in it what I imagine to be the spirit of the post-Independence era.

Next, I swirled my index finger around to a slim, grey piece of art which made Steve Jobs the biggest man in the music business eight years ago. I rarely use my iPods, and I didn't know that Pani pani from Maachis heard on the iPod Nano would change how I listen to my music. The sound is in my head, behind my eyes, and the chimes that go off in the beginning remind me of Floyd but we'll leave that for another time. The volume control sounded like a pair of mini castanets going kitter-krritt as I move full circle maxing the volume. When Lata's voice comes through, flawless to the last note, there's a mind-altering reality about her voice.
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Composer OP Nayyar felt it was too shrill for his compositions. The two chose to never work with each other.

I'm sure the grand old man also knew that the emotion and force Lata brings to each of her tracks is unmatchable. The iPod has to be the best place to feel the lines in a song. In this one, you may just see the cloud topped mountains stretch out before you when you hear Lata sing: 'Dhuan dhuan kuch vaadiyan bhi aayengi'. Vishal Bhardwaj and Gulzar should know that their composition is an iPod gem.

Record buffs will find a treasure house at Past Collection, 317 DN Road, Shop No 23, SK Shopping Centre, Prospect Chambers, Fountain, Mumbai 400001.
Call 9892550678

Lata confidential

A few days ahead of her EIGHTIETH birthday, Lata Mangeshkar gets chatty and announces A new album

Making hits
"ONE of the most important aspects for playback singers is to get a classical base, they must learn so that there is no difficulty in the future. Secondly it's vital to understand the situation of the song, the lyrics and know who it has been picturised upon to gauge how the song has to be sung. The singer shouldn't just focus on how much he/she will be paid. It shouldn't matter. It's important to understand that you have to sing well and to do that it's good to know Urdu. We were Maharashtrians and had to struggle because we Urdu didn't come to us as easily. I've learnt Urdu, Bengali, Tamil for a few days. It was my desire from childhood to sing in every possible language. Today, I'm happy that in all these years I've sung in 36 languages. When I was in Russia, I sang two songs in Russian. In Fiji, I sang in Fiji, I've sung in Suriname. In East Africa, I sung in Swahili and I have an album out in Swahili. So this was my interest, and I don't insist that all singers do all this but at least pay attention to who they are lending their voice to and not just begin with tall dreams that he/she would be a big star the next day. It doesn't work like that. You have to struggle a lot to get there, and one must. All new singers must understand this. It isn't enough if they wear good clothes and make-up."

Toughest to sing
"When I was on stage, I felt Russian was the most difficult to sing in because it's entirely different from our languages. I've sung in Telugu, Malayalam and Sanskrit. Sanskrit is by far the toughest language to sing in but since Marathi is also rooted in Sanskrit, I found little difficulty. I've also studied Sanskrit, and it benefitted me.

Stage performance
"Everybody has their own style. But it's important to sing well. It shouldn't happen that one forgets a line, loses pitch and coordination. Although these things happen on stage a lot. It happened to me once that I was singing a particular song and another song came to mind, and I completely forgot to pick up where I left off. It does happen. But a big drawback of stage performances is that when you do a lot of them, the voice quality goes down because you're singing in a full-throated, loud voice. It's in the character of stage shows to sing loudly because the audiences like the energy. Sometimes it doesn't even matter that the singer sings badly. The audience is caught up in the energy. So if one wants to continue with playback singing, it isn't good to sing on stage a lot."

New albums
"After Saadgi, we worked on a record, which has been lying around for quite a few days, which will eventually be released by Saregama. I have sung two songs, Usha (Mangeshkar) has sung in it, Hariharan has sung, Sonu Niigam has sung. They plan to record with Jagjit Singh, and we're yet to decide on one other female voice. Javed saab has written the lyrics and Mayuresh Pai has composed the music. I've also done Sai bhajans, Sarv Mangal Ganesh and Hanuman Chalisa for T-Series that is doing extremely well. I don't think that the label expected such a response to the album."u00a0

Choosing work
"Even in the early days, if there were songs which had vulgar lyrics, I used to let them pass. I would refuse to sing them. So the industry knew this by then u2014 not to call Lata for a cabaret number or a dance track that wasn't in good taste. In Marathi, we have lavnis. Many a time lavnis have cheap lyrics, but composers wouldn't call me to sing these kind of numbers. But when Shantaramji (V Shantaram) made the Marathi film Amar Bhoopali, all its tracks were lavnis which were sung by me. But the character Honaji Bala who sings the lavnis in the film was original. But I didn't find it difficult because the lyrics were really impressive. The film did really well and I think HMV Saregama made a lot of money off it."

Technique
"My breathing technique is naturally good because I've been learning classical from the age of five from my father. My father's breathing technique was also good so maybe I inherited it. Anil Biswas taught me the breathing technique when rendering film tracks. So you won't know when I've inhaled or exhaled in a track. But it is natural. Everybody doesn't have it. Manna da (Manna Dey) and Hemant da (Hemant Kumar) could also hold their breath for long. I don't think any other female singer had this talent. Nowadays, people want to hear gasps in a track anyway, so it must be an advantage for this generation's singers.u00a0

Playlist
I listen to a lot of classical music greats such as Bade Ghulam Ali Khan saab, Amir Khan saab, Nazhakat Salamat, Pandit Jasraj, Bhimsen Joshi. In ghazals, I listen to Mehndi Hasan,
I've heard a lot of Ghulam Ali, and also our Jagjit Singh. I rarely listen to film music. If I did ever listen to my own music, I prefer my non-film records such as Chala Vaahi Des, or based on the works of Tukaram, Dnyaneshwar and some Marathi bhau gheet and Ghalib.

An 8 CD collection of Lata Mangeshkar hits titled Lata - 80 Glorious Years, is just out on HMV Saregama

Beat this record

How well do you know Lata? Answer these two questions from the gramophone era courtesy Dr Suresh Chandvankar and win records autographed by Lata Mangeshkar

1) Which is the first independent Lata recording on a gramophone disc?

2) Name the record, the proceeds of which were given away to the dependents of those who sacrificed their lives on the Northern borders.

First prize winners will receive two 78 rpm records of the film Do Aankhen Baarah Haath and Anarkalee alongwith a 78 rpm gramophone player worth Rs 3,000

Second prize winners will receive four 33 rpm records of The Royal Albert Hall Performance (double record) and A Tribute To Mukesh By Lata Mangeshkar: Live Recordings of Concerts in USA and Canada- August 1976

TYPE: SMD (SPACE) (your answer). SMS it with your name and number to 53650