Kolkata mourns Lata Mangeshkar, celebrates 225 Bengali gems – Times of India

KOLKATA: Seventy years ago, Lata Mangeshkar began her tryst with Bengal when she first sang in the Bengali version of V Shantaram’s Marathi film titled ‘Amar Bhupali’ (1952).
Vasant Desai had scored the music for her ‘Tua pirite dukhho sada diona more’, penned by Gauriprasanna Majumdar. The film had five more songs by her, among which two were her duets with Manna Dey. Since then her bond with Bengal has only got stronger as she lent her voice to 225 film and non-film Bengali songs. Her passing away on the death anniversary of Ritwik Ghatak, who wrote Bimal Roy’s ‘Madhumati’ that has her immortal songs, has left the music world of Kolkata poorer.

Lata Mangeshkar with Hemanta Mukhopadhyay
According to a popular saying in Kolkata’s music corridors, there is a Lata Mangeshkar song in Bengali for every emotion. For those with heartaches, there is ‘Na jeyo na rajani ekhano baki’. For the happy-go-lucky, there is ‘Chancholo mon anmona hoy’. For the deeply devotional, there is ‘Mongol dweep jwele’. Anyone with an ear for music in Bengal had more than one favourite song of her.
If Madhabi Mukherjee lip-synched to ‘Aaj mon cheyechhe aami hariye jabo’ (‘Sankhabela’), ‘Tomader ashore aaj’ (‘Proxy’) was picturised on Aparna Sen and ‘Ke jeno dekhechhe amae’ (‘Monihar’) on Sandhya Roy. “All the songs that Lataji sang for me were hits,” recalled Madhabi. Back in the 60s, there were no tape recorders to play the songs to the actors for them to memorise the lines. “Sudhin Dasgupta was on the sets of ‘Shankhabela’ and we would have to sing when the song played. Hemanta Mukherjee had composed for ‘Adwitiya’. All the songs were hits. Much later in life, I met Lataji only once at a programme organized in Kolkata by Sourav Ganguly,” Madhabi said.
Among the galaxy of her music directors, Hemanta Mukhopadhyay and Salil Chowdhury shone brightly. If one sang the maximum number of duets with her in his composed film songs for her, the other gave her some exceptionally melodious non-film numbers. Apart from many Kolkata visits for shows, she also attended the Nababarsha programmes at Basusree. Then, there are those anecdotes of personal associations with Pt Ajoy Chakraborty, Vidushi Kaushiki Chakraborty and Haimanti Shukla. Lata also took Bengali diction lessons and insisted on speaking to her close associates in Kolkata in Bangla.
In 1953, she lent her voice to two Rabindra Sangeets – ‘Hriday amar nachera ajeke’ and ‘Shawan gagane ghor ghanta’ – for Naresh Mitra’s ‘Bouthakuranir Hath’. Snehasis Chatterjee, who has compiled 11 editions of ‘Lata Geetkosh’, said, “In the same year, she sang two duets with Hemanta – ‘Modhu gondhe bhora’ and ‘Tomar holo shuru’. Her first popular Bengali film song was ‘Riniki jhiniki chhande’ and ‘Purnima noy ejeno rahur gras’ for ‘Asamapta’ (1956), composed by Nachiketa Ghosh.”
Her last Bengali film song was in Mrinal Bandopadhyay’s ‘Amar Bhalolaga Amar Bhalobasha’ for which she sang ‘Amar bhalolagae amar bhalobashae’ in 2009. “In 2014, she sang ‘Aajkal aami mon diye’. That was the last time she had sung a Bengali song,” he added.

Lata Mangeshkar with Salil Chowdhury
Salil Chowdhury’s daughter, Antara, is spoilt for choice while talking about her father’s non-film compositions for her Lata-didi. The list includes ‘Aaj noy gungun’, ‘Aaj tobe ei tuku thaak’, ‘Ei jiban’, ‘Runner’, ‘Ogo aar kichhu to naai’, ‘O banshi keno hai’, ‘Ja re ure jare pakhi’, ‘Dharanir pathe pathe’, ‘Sabar aarale’, ‘O mor moyna go’, ‘Nishidin nishidin’, ‘Keno kichhu katha balo na’, ‘Jodi baran karo tabe gabo na’, ‘Kichhu to chahini ami’, ‘Keno je kandao bare bare’, ‘Na mon lage na’, ‘Ke jabi aay’, ‘Antabihin kate na aar jeno’, ‘Pa ma ga re sa’, ‘Ki je kori dure jete hay’ and ‘Ore o mon mayana’.
The composer-singer relationship, Antara recalled, was “adorable”. The nightingale had listened to ‘Runner’ which her father had composed for Hemanta and requested him to record a version of it with her. “Baba was only too happy to oblige and did a different arrangement for her. Once Latadidi had told me that no one had ever sung Baba’s song as well as she did. In Baba’s diary, he had written that Lata-didi seemed like Maa Saraswati. Baba said she understood and delivered exactly what he wanted,” Antara said.
Among her countless studio memories is that of recording for ‘Aaj noy gungun’ in Mumbai. Watching her record was a learning experience too. Younger musicians learnt from her how to use microphone and breathing techniques. Unlike many who exhaust themselves during rehearsals, she would always preserve her voice and hardly be audible when the song was being taught. “During the actual recording, she would sing in full-thorated ease to give a one-take OK,” Antara added.
Once her parents were going on a picnic to Powai Lake when midway, Salil rushed back to their Peddar Road home to compose a Puja song for Lata. “Baba started singing the tune of ‘Na jeo na’ and played the tabla to set it to the rhythm. Then, he asked Maa to record the scratch. Maa was like a tape recorder. Baba would teach the song to Latadidi,” Antara said.
Sabita would sometimes get upset and complain that her husband reserved the romantic songs for Lata and gave her the message-oriented or folk-based ones. “But Maa also knew that if Latadidi sang the song, it would be the best for Baba’s compositions,” Antara said.
Singer Arati Mukherjee, who has vivid memories of her first meeting with the icon when she won the all-India Metro-Murphy music contest in 1958-59, believes that Salil and Lata complemented each other. “I have always been a great fan of her songs. ‘Ja re ure jare pakhi’ is a favourite. So is ‘Na jeo na’. Salil Chowdhury was a great composer but I believe it needed Lataji to enhance his tunes,” she said.
Mumbai meant Lata Mangeshkar, for Arati. She would wait to listen to Lata’s songs on ‘Binaca Geetmala’ and ‘Anurodher Ashor’. Lata ruled the airwaves in the non-film category with one song after another. There was RD Burman’s ‘Amar malotilata’, Hemanta Mukhopadhyay’s ‘Prem ekbari eshechhilo’ and ‘O palash o shimul’, Satinath Mukherjee’s ‘Akash pradip jwale’ and Bhupen Hazarika’s ‘Rangila banshite ke dake’. In 1977, Hridaynath Mangeshkar composed two immortal songs penned by Gauriprasanna Mazumder – ‘Padmapattae bhorer shishir’ and ‘Doore aakash shamiyanae’. The latter was from the album ‘Ki likhi tomai priyotama’. One of her most poignant Sharad Arghya or Puja songs, ‘Bhalobashar aagun jwele’, was composed by Kishore Kumar.

Lata Mangeshkar at a Basusree programme
Kolkata has been over-awed at the success rate of Hemanta’s film compositions for her including ‘Nijhum sondhae pantho pakhira’ (‘Monihar’), ‘Jadio rojoni pohalo’ (‘Baghini’), ‘Ke jege acho’ (‘Kuheli’), ‘Ore mono pakhi’ (‘Anindita’) and ‘Oi gaacher patae roder jhiki miki’ from (‘Raag Anurag’).
Both the Burmans have composed for her too. If RD Burman’s ‘Haire pora bashi’ (‘Anusandhan’) and ‘Je pradip jalchho tumi’ (Swet Pathorer Thala’) was a hit, SD Burman’s ‘Chandra je tui, mor surjo je tui’ (‘Aradhana’) was no less popular. Other hit songs include Sudhin Dasgupta’s ‘Ke prothom kache eshechi’ (‘Sankhabela’), Bireswar Sarkar’s ‘Ja ja ja bhule ja’ and ‘Brishti brishti‘ (‘Sonar Khanchha’), Salil Chowdhury’s ‘Hai hai pran jae’ (‘Morjina Abdullah’) and ‘Hazar tatar aloy bhora’ and ‘Hotam Jodi totat pakhi’ (‘Mother’), Bireswar Sarkar’s and Ajoy Das’ ‘Ami je ke tomar’ (‘Anurager Chhowa’).
In 1961, she sang the haunting ‘Ekbar bidae de ma ghure aashi’ (‘Subhaschandra’) for Aparesh Lahiri. Years later, she recorded ‘Mongol dweep jwele’ for his son, Bappi Lahiri. The song was picturised on Sharmila Tagore in Prabhat Roy’s debut film, ‘Pratidan’ (1983). “Gauriprasanna wrote the first four lines of the song on the cigarette packet while we were out on a morning walk on the Juhu beach. While recording, Lataji remembered me from my days of assisting Shakti Samata. She refused to accept any remuneration for this song to show support to an assistant director who was graduating to make his first feature. Even till this day, many schools include this song in the Assembly prayers,” Roy said.

Lata Mangeshkar during the recording of Haranath Chakraborty‘s ‘Nabab’ with RD Burman
There is a similar story for director Haranath Chakraborty. She had recorded ‘Amar sonar chokh dutite’ for ‘Nabab’ (1990). The song was composed by Pancham. “There were four lines of another lullaby – ‘Torai amar jibon ore’ – that I had also wanted her to sing. Pancham was apprehensive about asking her to do this extra work on the same day. He asked me to request. Imagine my luck when she readily agreed to record it on the same day. What was even more touching was that she didn’t even charge any extra money for doing so,” Haranath said.
For many musicians, she remained like a banyan tree, nurturing whenever they craved for guidance. “Didi’s father, Pt Dinanath Mangeshkar, was a big admirer of my grandfather, Ustad Nisar Hussain Khan saab. Didi always wanted to sing classical songs and once regretted to me for not being able to sing them as often as she had wanted to,” said Ustad Rashid Khan.
Once in the mid 90s, he had to sing the ‘Vaishnavo janato’ bhajan at Barrackpore’s Gandhi ghat. “I called up didi and asked her to teach me. She took all the initiative to teach it to me. She came for my programmes, praised my voice and also gave me the award instituted in the name of her father,” said Ustad Rashid Khan.
On Sunday, many highlighted that Covid-19’s cruelest blow on India was the infection of Lata Mangeshkar. “Though she recovered from Covid, the damage done to her health was fatal. That’s what happened with Soumitra Chatterjee too. They recovered from Covid but didn’t return home,” said the heartbroken Madhabi as the mortal remains were consigned to flames a day after Bengal celebrated Saraswati Puja.
For all her admirers, it marked the end of the Lata Mangeshkar era of music. With songs like ‘Na jeo na’ on their lips and a prayer in their heart, they will now treasure her forever. Not just as an image of the deity but also as a voice of love, reflection and memories.