When Lata Di Refused to Sing

 

The town of Mangeshi in the Goa-Konkan region of the verdant Western Ghats is famous for the powerful Goddess Mangeshi temple and Lata Mangeshkar.

 

In the backdrop of the Sino-India conflict, she rendered the eminently memorable and touching, Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon.  

 

There is however a twist in the tale of this passionate and stirring rendition. The story goes that composer C. Ramachandra dreamed that the song be a duet by the Mangeshkar sisters, Lata and younger sibling, Asha. However, using her clout in the industry, the older sibling converted it to a solo performance.

What could have nudged this dark complexioned and timorous ‘Voice of the Millennium’ to refuse to sing on certain occasions?

It was believed in the industry circles that differences cropped up between Bollywood’s two illustrious and celebrated singers over the issue of royalty on LP records.

 

Following an ugly spat on the subject, Hindi cinema was deprived of duets featuring Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar, for five long years, between 1963 and 1967. A piqued Mohammed Rafi, finally reconciled on the advice of actress Nargis and coined the epithet ‘Maharani’ for Lata Mangeshkar!

Despite her magical voice, the legendary Lata was involved in several controversies, especially in the early part of her career.

It is rumoured that she would threaten composers by opting out of a production in case they provided opportunities to fresh talent. Thus, harried producers and distributors went into a tizzy to placate the singer. She refused to sing for S.D. Burman for seven years as he promoted talent like Geeta Dutt.

Raj Kapoor and his movie Sangam once bore the brunt of her tantrums. One of the songs in the movie was, Main ka karu Ram mujhe buddha mil gaya. The lyrics were penned by Hasrat Jaipuri but Lata Mangeshkar was critical of the words. Shankar-Jaikishen made valiant attempts to convince her to sing the song, which was to be filmed on Raj Kapoor and actress Vyjantimala.

However, the singer found the lyrics childish and refused to budge. It required enormous patience, several entreaties and a lot of placating by Raj Kapoor to make the ‘Maharani’ concede. Eventually, Lata Mangeshkar did sing the song but refused to watch the blockbuster movie!

In her defence, Lata Mangeshkar argues that she never interfered in the working of music barons and was the only singer from the industry, who despite being unwell, went to listen to Bangladeshi singer Runa Laila.

Life is never hunky dory; not for anyone. Having lost her father at a very tender age, she had the onerous responsibility of bringing up the family. The artiste in Lata Mangeshkar may have felt threatened at times by new artistes and perhaps indulged in some politicking, but always the nation danced and swooned to her songs, say the soul stirring Ayega, Ayega from the gripping movie, Mahal or the tender and touching Lukka Chhuppi from the riveting Rang De Basanti.