Lata Mangeshkar - The Woman Who Beat Technology

Lata Mangeshkar, the iconic singer of Indian cinema, widely regarded as one of the greatest singers, passed away today at the age of 92. She was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital on 8th of January after testing Covid positive. In the end of January it was reported that she had been taken off the ventilator, but was still in the ICU and was being observed. Yesterday she became critical and was placed on ventilator again. Today morning the news came that she had passed away.

The story of Lata Mangeshkar is the story of achieving greatness at young age against all odds. She never went to school and was trained in classical music by first her father and after that, by some leading stalwarts of classical music. When she was 13, her father died and she entered the film industry as a playback singer. Making a niche for herself was a monumental task for this 13 years old, who had no other skills other than singing and no patrons in the film industry. This was the time when the film music was dominated by an array of full-throated, nasal twang voices of great singers of 1930s and '40s, who had a limited range of low-to-middle octave singing. The thin voice of Lata Mangeshkar, who could sing in the entire range of all octaves, including the higher notes, was regarded as a negative aspect and she was rejected by many directors and producers and was made to sing in chorus at a meagre salary of Rs 50/-, when other stalwart singers of this time were claiming Rs 1000/- per recording. She got some solo songs but they were often edited out of films. Then came Mahal in 1949, in which she sang the immortal "Ayega Aanewala" which took the subcontinent by a frenzy and she was catapulted to the top. But success didn't increase her earnings. She continued to record songs at Rs 100/- per song till about mid-'50s or later. She also fought to get the credit for her songs and for the a share in the royalty. All of this was a lonely battle against a gigantic sea of producers, directors and co-singers who didn't support her. But eventually she won the battle all alone.

It must be mentioned that the 1950s-60s, the Golden Era of Hindi cinema used to produce films mostly on low budgets except a few exceptions and songs were recorded with very primitive technology. Till 1960, there was no recording tape and songs were recorded directly on the film strip. This meant that the recording had to be perfect in a single take. Even when the tape came in 1960, till the end of 1960s, there used to be a single microphone which the singers as well as all the musicians in the orchestra used for recording, taking turns to come before the microphone. This meant that the singers had to take rehearsals and perfect the song before recording. For "Ayega Aanewala" of Mahal, Lata Mangeshkar gave 27 takes of the opening stanza to get the perfect sound coming from a distance.

There were no IT-based hi tech sound correction technologies, no synthesisers and no modern equipments to edit and change the sound quality.

Many stalwart singers of this time and also music directors have said that while other singers needed many rehearsal sessions to get the song perfect, Lata Mangeshkar could get the song right with only some practices in a single day. This was also one reason why she was preferred to other singers, because this cut down on the rent of the recording studio, in addition to the fact that they were paying her less money and she of course always sang to perfection.

Lata's songs have endured the test of time and have become immortal legacy in the heritage of Indian film music.

Today, with all the modern technologies, Hindi cinema can't match the songs sung by Lata Mangeshkar. She truly beat the technology and sybolised the strength of an Indian woman while achieving the pinnacle of success.

There will be two days' national State mourning and the national flag shall fly at half mast. She will be given full State hounours at her cremation.

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