The music kokila (nightingale) Lata Mangeshkar is no more among us. So long as music lives, she would remain the soul and sound of music. Right from my early childhood till this day, it is more than six decades have passed, she has captivated my heart. I would mention here two of my top favourites—Mushkil hai bahut mushil (Mahal 1949) and Tu chanda mein chandni (Reshma aur Shera 1971), music for which was composed by Khemchand Prakash and Jaidev, respectively.
Amongst hundreds of melodies, here are a few of her solo classical classics: Wo din kahan gaye bata (Tarana, Anil Biswas), Ye zindagi usee ki hai (Anarkali, C. Ramchandra), Jo mein janati bisrat hain sanyiyaan, Shabab, Naushad), Sajan ki galiaan chhod chale (Bazar, Shyam Sunder), Jo dil mein khushi ban kar aaye (Badi Behan, Husnalal Bagatram), Wo to chale gaye aye din, (Sangdil, Sajjad Hussain), Aree main ro prem diwani (Nau Bahar, Roshan), Rasik balma (Chori Chori, Shankar Jaikishan) and Aye mere watan ke logo (a non film song composed by C. Ramchandra).
Lata Mangeshkar was the catch of Master Ghulam Haider (1908-53), a dentist by profession and a class composer by choice, who moved to Pakistan shortly after the unfortunate partition. It was certainly a great loss to music fraternity of the Indian sub-continent, so was with the case of Noorjehan. But Lata was lucky enough to have a galaxy of composers, rather diamond-cutters, who shaped her destiny, in view of their deep understanding of human sentiments, which were immersed in the lyrics, the timbre and of the accompanied instrumentation.
A list of such composers includes Khemchand Prakash, Anil Biswas, Husnalal Bhagatram, Naushad, C. Ramchandra, Roshan, Vasant Desai, Ghulam Mohd, Jaidev, Shanker Jaikishan, Salil Chowdhury, S.D. Burman and Hansraj Behl, to name a few.
But Noorjehan was not that lucky in this respect. As in Pakistan, though she earned name, fame and wealth but she never achieved the depth and quality which Lata earned.
Had Madam (as Noorjehan was known in Pakistan) remained in India, the fate of both these vocalists would have been entirely different.
Conclusively, it will not be out of place to say that the name of one and only Lata Mangeshkar will continue to be remembered till there is music the air.