Lata Mangeshkar - The Crusader

There has been so much written about Lata Mangeshkar that there is nothing more to add to her gushing biographies and tributes that are already piled at her feet there is therefore so little left unsaid.

Lata Mangeshkar cannot be sized into letter, because, to write something other than the length of a book that would do justice to a musician, a performer and a talent so prodigious and a body of work so astonishing both in its virtuosity and in its size, is almost an impossibility. What has surprisingly not been covered extensively is her rebellious nature that has benefited the entire generations of musicians in the years to come.

Lata's 'aayega aane wala' was a trend setter in every term of the word. The song capitulated Lata to the status of a diva. Interestingly Lata never featured on the cover of the track. The rage that the song created was evident from the thousands of requests that AIR received for the real singer of the song. This led to Lata's first musical embroiling. She insisted on the artist’s name to appear on the cover. She was against none other than Raj Kapoor who was not willing to ascend to her demands. She practically was on the verge of being refused to sing in Barsat that would go on to make her the biggest singing sensation ever. Finally she sang not only for Nargis but Nimmi as well with the name appearing in the credits.

Her next audacious battle was with Filmfare. There was no category before 1958 that awarded the singers and the lyricists. The only category was for the film’s music. In 1956 when Filmfare requested her to sing ‘Rasik Balma’ she bluntly refused (even to the cajoling of her favorite music director Shankar – Jaikishen) in protest that singers and lyricists were equal contributors to a song’s success. Two years down the line Lata was the first Film Fare awardee for the best female playback singer for her song ‘Aa ja re pardesi’ from the film ‘Madhumati’. This sheer act was representative of how Lata understood her sway over the film music industry and how she knew she should leverage it for the benefits of the musician. Lata went on to insist a category for ‘Best Male Playback singer’ in 1959 as the male singers were still not recognized by Filmfare.

Lata’s biggest fight in the film industry was yet to be undertaken. By 1960’s hindi film music had a database of immensely popular songs and a huge fan following. Music companies (as brilliant as they are in their corporate strategies) began to publish compilations of different songs. Lata’s crusade that was to benefit the entire musician community began here. She insisted that every time a compilation is published royalties should be paid to all the concerned including singers. Mohd Rafi famously quoted as saying, ‘our job is to sing the song. That’s it.’ Lata was fighting a lonely battle. She refused to sing for and with anyone and everyone who did not believe in her. Of all she did not sing with Mohd Rafi for 10 long years. Needless to say Lata won this crusade as well. Looking back all the fame and wealth that musicians take these days for granted would not have existed if Lata did not do what she did and with the conviction that she had even if it meant she was standing all alone.

Besides her ever enduring songs the above are symbols of Lata’s towering presence in the film industry, her understanding of the power and leverage that she drew and how to use that not only to benefit herself but to the entire fraternity of Indian film music industry. Hats off to you Lata.