Lata Mangeshkar

Usha Khanna’s best songs for Lata Mangeshkar, and other female singers

Thumbnail image for Usha Khanna’s best songs for Lata Mangeshkar, and other female singers October 31, 2024

Concluding the series of tributes to Usha Khanna with her best songs for Lata Mangeshkar and other female singers Usha Khanna’s debut score in Dil Deke Dekho (1959) sounded so much OP Nayyar-ish that you may get the impression that she too would exclude Lata Mangeshkar completely and her female singer would be predominantly Asha […]

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Kalyanji-Anandji’s best songs for Lata Mangeshkar and other female singers

Kalyanji-Anandji and Lata Mangeshkar September 28, 2024

Kalyanji-Anandji were extremely melodious composers. But in a crowded field at the top comprising Naushad, SD Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, OP Nayyar, Roshan, Madan Mohan, etc. they were not among the elite at the High Table. But 70s onwards the gods were kind to them. Kalyanji-Anandji showed amazing talent to adapt themselves to the new voices (read […]

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SN Tripathi Part 4 (post 50s): His best songs for Lata Mangeshkar

SN Tripathi-Lata Mangeshkar September 28, 2023

Continuing the series on SN Tripathi with a tribute to Lata Mangeshkar on her 94th birth anniversary (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) It is matter of satisfaction that after a reader noted the omission of SN Tripathi, I have been able to cover him in some detail, though late. I have already posted […]

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Vasant Desai Part 3 (post-50s): His best songs for Lata Mangeshkar

Vasant Desai-Lata Mangeshkar September 28, 2022

Continuing the series on Vasant Desai, his best songs for Lata Mangeshkar as a tribute to her on her 93rd birthday (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) Lata Mangeshkar would have been 93 today. This is her first birthday after she left this mortal world and this calls for a tribute to her. Coincidentally […]

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Lata Mangeshkar Lives Forever

Lata Mangeshkar February 6, 2022

The story of my deep romance for Lata Mangeshkar (28.9.1929 – 6.2.2022) Lata Mangeshkar is no more – her mortal body that is. She was over 92, she had been in and out of hospital in recent days, and had been on ventilator support for her last couple of days. This was bound to happen […]

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Dattaram Part 2: Breaking out of the Banyan Tree with ‘Other’ Singers

Dattaram May 29, 2021

Second and final part of tribute to Dattaram (1929 – 8 June 2007) We saw in Dattaram Part 1 dealing with his songs for Mukesh and Manna Dey, how his association with the Big Banyan tree, Shankar-Jaikishan, made it difficult to get out of the comfort zone of SJ. The readers Mahesh and Hans Jakhar […]

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Ravi’s ‘other’ female playback singer: Lata Mangeshkar

Ravi and Lata Mangeshkar November 28, 2019

Another tribute to Lata Mangeshkar on her turning 90 (b. 28 September 1929) Lata Mangeshkar turned ninety two months ago to this day. On this special day Shalan Lal wrote a comprehensive article on her, analysing the ‘conditions’ that made the Lata Mangeshkar-phenomenon possible, while acknowledging that there was something divine about her voice, something […]

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‘Would there ever be another Lata Mangeshkar?’

Lata Mangeshkar September 28, 2019

Wishing Lata Mangeshkar a very happy 90th birth anniversary (b. 28 September 1929) with a guest article by Shalan Lal (Lata Mangeshkar turns 90 today. This momentous occasion demanded something special befitting the milestone. However, in the year of the Ravi celebration on SoY, most readers almost took it for granted that today I would […]

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Rafi’s duets by Roshan

Roshan and Rafi November 5, 2018

My post on Rafi’s solos by Roshan appeared more than six years ago, several years before I started the series on the stalwart music directors. And the reason was simple: Roshan ranked among the top in my reckoning for Rafi songs, along with Naushad, SD Burman and OP Nayyar. Duets have no less importance in […]

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Madan Mohan’s tuning with Lata Mangeshkar

Madan Mohn and Lata Mangeshkar September 28, 2018

Wishing Lata Mangeshkar a very happy 89th birthday (b. 28 September 1929) Among all the music director-singer combinations Madan Mohan-Lata Mangeshkar ranks among the very top. This article by Anirudh Bhattacharjee and Srijit Mukherji quotes OP Nayyar as having once said, “It is difficult to figure out whether Madan Mohan was made for Lata Mangeshkar […]

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