The ‘Voice of God’, ‘India’s Nightingale’ Lata Mangeshkar passed away on Sunday morning. The 92-year-old singer was in the hospital for close to a month after testing positive for Covid-19. Her death has left a nation in mourning and tributes have been pouring from all quarters.
One would agree that her voice was beyond comparison. And while her fans kept missing her ‘era’, she had no regrets about the changes in the music scene and believed it was ‘inevitable’. In an almost decade-old interview, Lata Mangeshkar spoke about how everything has to go through a cycle of change. “Change is inevitable in this world. The era between 1947 to 1995 in film industry was different. I was part of this era. I don’t relate to the present era and this is natural. I have nothing against it. Everything has changed, the films, the actors and the music,” she shared.
About four years ago, the iconic singer had shared that she doesn’t listen to songs. Not that she ever listened to her own music either. “I never could bear to hear myself. Whenever a song of mine would play on the radio or television, I’d quickly leave the room. If I ever hear myself singing, I find a dozen faults,” the singer joked.
In an interview with IANS, Lata Mangeshkar had spoken about how she no longer sees the ‘lagan’ (discipline) and ‘junoon’ (passion) in singers. “I get the feeling they are happy achieving what they get to achieve in no time at all. No artiste should be satisfied with what he or she has achieved. There is always another sky to conquer beyond the one that you think you’ve just reached,” she was quoted in the 2018 interview.
The legendary singer also mentioned how younger singers do not value practice. “Riyaaz. That is what makes singing worthwhile. I never felt I had enough time to do riyaaz because I was in and out of recordings constantly. But I still made time to do riyaaz. Alas, not enough time. I wish I had devoted more time to practicing my classical singing. Singers today are losing touch completely with their classical heritage. An A.R. Rahman or a Shankar Mahadevan are so successful and long-lasting because they know their classical heritage.”
Given the love and respect she had for music, the Bharat Ratna awardee, in the past few years did not mince words about the trend of remixes in Bollywood. Stating that remixes and covers of old classics are ‘lazy routes to instant success’, Lata said she cringes when she hears them. “Remember, a song that has attained a classic’s status is regarded so highly because it is of a quality that cannot be replicated. I’ve heard some of the remixes of the songs sung by Rafi Saab, Kishoreda (Kumar), Mukesh Bhaiyya, me and my sister Asha. And I cringe. Please, create original music. Imitation is not creation. It isn’t even art,” the singer said.
नमस्कार .जावेद अख़्तर साहब से मेरी टेलिफ़ोन पे बात हुई उसके बाद मुझे महसूस हुआ कि मुझे उसपर कुछ लिखना (cont) https://t.co/XhzXrLhX8s
— Lata Mangeshkar (@mangeshkarlata) June 1, 2018
A few years back, she had even taken to Twitter to voice her anguish over the trend of recreating songs in Bollywood. She shared that there’s nothing objectionable about it in principle. ‘It is perfectly alright to present a song in a new way if its essence is preserved’ she wrote, adding that but to twist a song out of shape ‘is just wrong’.
“I hear that this is what is happening these days, and the credit for the song is being given to somebody else… To ruin the core of the tune, to arbitrarily change the lyrics and to add cheap thoughts to them – this kind of nonsensical behaviour causes me immense distress,” she wrote in Hindi.
When her song “Yaar Manana Ni” was remixed into a dance number featuring Vaani Kapoor, Lata Mangeshkar mentioned how she wouldn’t want to even hear it. Comparing it to altering the Taj Mahal, the singer told DNA, “I haven’t heard this new version nor would I want to hear it. So I wouldn’t want to comment on it. But in principle, I’ve always been opposed to remixes and cover versions of classics. They shouldn’t be touched. So many of Pancham’s, Madan Mohan’s and Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s songs have been tampered with; beats and lyrics are modified. It’s like rooms being added or removed from the Taj Mahal.”