Five Songs Of Lata That Choke Me Up. Everytime.

A tribute, on her 89th birthday, not a compile of ‘dard bhare geet’ 🙂

Is there anything left to say about Lata Mangeshkar? According to me, no. Not after Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan remarked ‘kambakht, kabhi besuri na hoti (“[she] is never off-key”). Not after Dilip Kumar declared, “Lata Mangeshkar ki awaaz kudrat ki takhleek ka ek karishma hain,” (“Lata Mangeshkar’s voice is a miracle of God.”) 

On her 89th birthday today, just wanted to share 5 songs that never fail to choke me up (and this coming from someone who is not a big fan of the genre of ‘dard bhare geet’).

To be upfront, it’s not just her flawless singing; it’s also the music, the lyrics, the picturisations, where the song comes in a movie, and how they combine to bring a lump in my throat.

You may have yours, here are mine, in no particular order or ranking:

1. Aap ki nazron ne samjha

(Anpadh, 1962. Lyrics – Raja Mehndi Ali Khan, Music – Madan Mohan)

I believe, Naushad, that illustrious music director, came & told Madan Mohan, that he’d gladly trade in ALL his songs, if Madan Mohan were to grant him the rights to be called as the music director of just this one song.

Just so you know this is a certified classic.

The song comes at a point in the story, when an illiterate girl from a village can’t believe that an urban, educated & a far more cultured boy agreed to marry her. She doesn’t know, that he doesn’t know she’s illiterate (arranged marriage, you see). What I love about it is, that boundless joy in the innocent heart of that demure bride – Lata’s golden voice captures that, in such mellifluous purity.

Just as an aside, here’s a connected scene from ‘Aligarh’. Manoj Bajpayee as Ramchandra Siras, comes home, fixes a drink for himself & sits sipping it, listening to this very song on his tape recorder. In a recent interview, he called this a ‘bizarre’ scene; but even as he’s lost in the song, unknowingly, he realises his own utter loneliness & helplessness. Heart wrenching.

2.Ae maalik tere bande hum

(Do Aankhen Baarah Haath, 1957. Lyrics – Bharat Vyas, Music – Vasant Desai)

V Shantaram, the lead & the legendary director of the movie, briefed his lyric writer Bharat Vyas, saying he wanted a ‘bhajan’, without using the regular ‘God words’ (Bhagwan, Allah, etc.,) asking him to find the most secular name of God. And thus, ‘Ae Maalik…’ was born.

The movie itself was about an upright jailor, who sets out on a brave experiment with 6 hardened criminals, saying that in a place without walls & punishment, but surrounded with love & freedom, these guys could be reformed. Towards the end, when he lies fighting for his life after an accident, the gypsy girl and these criminals sing his own prayer song, hoping he’ll survive the night.

More than the syncretism in the lyrics, the song itself is a prayer for resoluteness. To stay strong & loving, in the face of hatred & injustice – and in doing so, it sounds like an appeal for idealism to be kept alive. It is that fervent plea in her voice that gets me.

3. Lag ja gale se

(Woh Kaun Thi ,1964. Lyrics – Raja Mehndi Ali Khan, Music – Madan Mohan)

The pathos of a last meeting! The fleeting joy, the ticking urgency, the upcoming despair – Lata’s soaring vocals capture that pain effortlessly. The music balances it by keeps things light & breezy, so the song doesn’t turn overtly despondent.

Which is why it feels so apt when Saregama Caravan used it so beautifully in this recent ad.

But unfortunately, both the beauteous Sadhana & this song seem wasted on the decidedly constipated expressions of Manoj Kumar 😉

4. Allah tero naam

(Hum Dono, 1961. Lyrics – Sahir Ludhianvi, Music – Jaidev)

Undoubtedly, one of the famed ‘bhajans’ in Hindi cinema. As the war rages, the women & the families of the armed forces, come together & pray for their menfolk. Which is what the first stanza is about.

But then, it transcends that, and becomes a prayer for peace in the 2nd stanza.

O saare jag ke rakhwale (2)

(Hey, protector of the world)

Nirbal ko bal dene wale (2)

(The giver of strength to the weak)

Balwaanon ko de de gyaan.

(Bestow wisdom on the strong).

I don’t know what it is, but just the way Lata has sung that stanza, that sincerity, that cry from the heart…it just moistens my eyes.

5. Luka Chuppi

(Rang De Basanti 2005. Lyrics – Prasoon Joshi, Music – A.R. Rahman)

I first heard it when the audio of this movie released, and I was delighted that Rahman had composed this beautiful lullaby with Lata. Lata’s voice when she says it’s evening, and I’m worried about you, reminds me of my own mother. The steady tabla beat, and especially the mesmerizing ‘sargam’ crescendo by both of them, at the end – it gives me gooseflesh, every time. Hear that full version, first, here:

But the real penny dropped, when watching the film. The song starts when the mother receives the dead body of her air-force pilot son, draped in the tricolour. And then the import of the lyrics hit me – it’s a duet between a mother searching for her dead son, and the son, seemingly, singing from the heavens! That conceptualisation of a lullaby just blew my mind. Then, and even now. All credit to the team of Prasoon Joshi, Rahman & the director, Rakeysh Mehra. See it here.

Lastly, for having stayed with me through this entire blog piece, here’s a gem from the recording of this same song. I really love that part where Rahman says, he wanted to be the voice of Lata’s son 🙂

Enjoy!