Bollywood Retrospect: Lata Mangeshkar's 10 best duets

It is Lata Mangeshkar’s 86^th birthday on Monday, September 28. From 1945 to 2015, her career has clocked 70 years and more than 5000 songs. (Yes, she had a song release in 2015.) Such is her impact in the Hindi film industry and so deep is her discography that it’s very likely that every post in this series not focused on a singer has one or more songs by her.

Given that there are so many facets to Lata Mangeshkar’s songs, this post will cover just one—­ her duets with male singers. Here are my favourite duets of Lata Mangeshkar with 10 different male playback singers:

‘Shola Jo Bhadke Dil Mera Dhadke’ with RN Chitalkar (Albela, 1951)

Before RD Burman, it was C Ramchandra who experimented with various non-Indian genres of music, drawing from influences from jazz and rock n’ roll. In ‘Shola Jo Bhadke’, he really strayed from the mainstream and went Hawaiian! The thing that really stands out in the song isn’t the melody or even Chitalkar and Lata Mangeshka’s singing, although they’re perfectly respectable. It is the foot-tapping beats. Geeta Bali looks comely performing Hula-like moves and Bhagwan does his own thing with moves that became Amitabh Bachchan’s trademark three decades later.

‘Seene Mein Sulagte Hain Armaan’ with Talat Mahmood (Tarana, 1951)

There’s probably more ethereal beauty packed in this song than any other on this list. Anil Biswas’ haunting melody, Talat Mahmood’s whispery voice and Lata’s restrained singing enunciate some lovely lyrics by Prem Dhawan.

‘Pyar Hua Iqrar Hua’ with Manna Dey (Shree 420, 1955)

The depiction of a couple sharing an umbrella in a heavy downpour in ‘Pyar Hua…’ is one of the most everlasting images of Hindi films. The chemistry in Manna Dey and Lata Mangeshkar’s singing is as potent as Raj Kapoor and Nargis’ onscreen chemistry. This was not accidental. Raj Kapoor and Nargis actually enacted the song in the recording room for the singers to get a sense of the song’s mood. In a time when Mukesh had established himself as Raj Kapoor’s voice, Manna Dey bagging a chance to sing for the actor was a stroke of luck for the struggling singer. Mukesh had to walk out of Shree 420 after recording just two songs because of a contract he had signed for another film, which barred him from other singing assignments till it was released.

‘Dil Tadap Tadap Ke Kah Raha Hai’ with Mukesh (Madhumati, 1958)

Bimal Roy signed Salil Chowdhury for Madhumati against the recommendation of the film’s star, Dilip Kumar, and the film’s distributors. They did not consider the genius composer commercially viable. The high quality of music Salil Chowdhury delivered for the film despite the tremendous pressure on him is awe-inspiring. ‘Dil Tadap Tadap…’, one of the many gems from the superlative album, was a very clever adaptation of a popular Polish folk song ‘Szla Dzieweczka’ but still a Salil da original and an evergreen classic.

‘Tasveer Teri Dil Mein’ with Mohammad Rafi (Maya, 1961)

The success of Madhumati brought Salil Chowdhury the attention he deserved and offers rained down on him. He composed some of his finest music in the wake of Madhumati. Maya was among his best scores from this period. ‘Tasveer Teri Dil Mein’ is an example of how challenging Salil Chowdhury’s compositions could be for singers. In this song at least, Rafi seems to measure up to the challenge a little better than Lata. It was around this period that Rafi and Lata had a big disagreement after which they did not work with each other for a few years. Thankfully for music lovers, they resolved their differences and started working together again in 1967.

‘Chhupa Lo Yun Dil Mein Pyar Mera’ with Hemant Kumar (Mamta, 1966)

Based on Raag Yaman, simply arranged using a cymbal (manjeera), a sarangi and a flute and with lyrics evoking themes like devotion, submission, the temple lamp, sin, offering of flowers, ash , ‘Chhupa Lo...’ is a deeply spiritual song posing as a romantic ditty. Majrooh Sultanpuri’s lyrics are so powerful that one almost forgets to pay attention to how soulful Roshan’s tune is and how well Hemant da and Lata Mangeshkar have sung it. This three minute song is packed with so much goodness that one has to listen to it several times to take in everything it has to offer.

‘Beeti Na Bitaye Raina’ with Bhupinder Singh (Parichay, 1972)

Parichay was a significant film. It was the first time RD Burman and Gulzar worked together. They hit it off both as professionals and friends and a parade of successful collaborations followed. RD Burman had earned the reputation of a composer who worked with modern sounds but periodically, with songs like ‘Beeti Na Bitai Raina’, he proved that he was equally adept at compositions based on classical music. This lovely duet showed how good a singer Bhupinder was. To be able to sing with the country’s premier singer and hold his own was no mean feat. Lata Mangeshkar may have deservedly won the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for this song, but it is Bhupinder and his smooth as silk transition into the song in the middle of the first antara that takes my breath away every time I hear it.

‘Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koi’ with Kishore Kumar (Aandhi, 1975)

While Lata Mangeshkar treated Mukesh Bhaiya with respect, Kishore Kumar was like the naughty younger brother. Kishore Kumar, on his part, was in awe of Lata Mangeshkar. The story of how he asked RD Burman to first record Lata’s version of ‘Mere Naina Sawan Bhadon’ so he could learn from it and then sing his version, is the stuff of legends. This is the most challenging pick for me because Kishore Kumar happens to be my favourite singer and boy has he sung some beauties with Lata Mangeshkar! Just this one film has as many as three lovely Kishore-Lata duets. Thankfully, the personal meaning ‘Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koi’ has for me, makes it an easy choice.

‘Aapki Mehki Hui’ with KJ Yesudas (Trishul, 1978)

With languages and several years separating their singing careers, Lata Mangeshkar sang only a handful of duets with Yesudas. There’s not much to choose from but Khayyam and Sahir Ludhianvi’s ‘Aapki Mehki Hui’ is nice and leaves us wanting for more.

‘Lukka Chhuppi’ with AR Rahman (Rang De Basanti, 2006)

In my opinion, Lata Mangeshkar’s voice sounded the best in the 1950s. That said, she was the Hindi film industry’s best female singer through the 1980s. She continued to record memorable songs beyond the 1980s but they were few and far between. One of my most favourite Lata Mangeshkar duets from this period is ‘Lukka Chhupi’ with AR Rahman. What makes this song really work is that the Lata Mangeshkar gave voice to the grieving, elderly mother played by Waheeda Rehman. We are fortunate to have witnessed two fantastic musicians representing the old and new come together like this.