What Lata doesn't have and Asha does!

[Disclaimer: This post, I guess, is going to invite a lot of aggressive opposition. Let me make it very clear in the beginning that this post suffers from exaggeration which is the most fun part of any conversation :) .. might have a few personal remarks too, but then personal remarks against isn't too bad , is it? The probability that any of them is going to come to read my blog is almost zero. Also, Lata is one of my favourite singers .. she comes 4th on my list, after Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle, Shreya Ghoshal in that order. Aur aisa nahi hai ki I don't believe that everyone has a right to have their own choice etc etc etc, par bas aaj mood aaya hai bakwaas karne ka! ]

Log mujhse poochhte hain, why Asha is preferred over Lata. Kuchh gustaakh log to ye bhi poochh lete hain ki why Kishore and not Rafi. Koi batlaaye ki hum batlaayen kya? While even trying to the latter would be too much of an insult to Kishore Da, I will make an attempt to answer the first one. Just to seal the debate once and for all. At least seal my opinion about it. Mujhe tark right time pe soojhta nahi hai na, isliye likh dena achchha hai :)

So what does Asha have that Lata doesn't? Ok, lets start this way! What are the best Lata songs you can think of. I know it is hard to choose but here is a very small sample set of what comes to my mind immeditately - "Jab Pyaar kiya to darna kiya", "Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai", "Aaj kal paon zameen par nahi padte mere", "Dikhaayi diye yun ki bekhud kiya", "Humne dekhi hai in aankhon ki mehekti khushbu", "Baahon mein chale aao", "Zindagi pyaar ka geet hai" (Note that I am not being unfair and these are among my favorites). While all these are absolute gems, I think a lot of other people deserve more credit than Lata for these - the sheer grace and the amazing expressions of the actresses on which they have been picturised make some of them very special e.g. "Jab Pyaar kiya to darna kiya", "Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai", "Baahon mein chale aao" or the sheer brilliance of Gulzar and gang (i.e. the lyricists) is what makes these special more than the singing. Would these have been less special if Asha had sung them. I don't think so. I cannot think of any Lata song which can generate the Oh-my-God-I-can't-believe-this feeling just for the way it is sung. Not one. Kishore does that to me quite often. Asha does it so very often too. One should listen to "Ye hai reshmi zulfon ka... " or "Chhoti si kahaani se..." to get what I mean.

Maza nahi aa raha, nahi? Let's get a little personal, as we promised :D

Have a look at Lata's personal life section on her wikipedia page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lata_Mangeshkar

What do you find about her personal life? This is what I find

"Lata Mangeshkar was born a Konkani Marathi speaking family in Sikh Mohalla, Indore, which then used to be in Central India Agency and is now in the State of Madhya Pradesh. Her father, Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar, was a classical singer and theater actor. Her mother, Shudhhamati, was Deenanath's second wife. The family's last name used to be Hardikar; Deenanath changed it to Mangeshkar in order to identify his family with his native town, Mangeshi in Goa. Lata was named "Hema" at her birth. Her parents later renamed her Lata after a female character, Latika, in one of her father's plays, BhaawBandhan.^[2] Lata is the eldest child of her parents. Hridayanath, Asha, Usha, and Meena are her siblings in sequence.

Lata took her first music lessons from her father. At the age of five, she started to work as an actress in her father's musical plays (sangeet naatak in Marathi). Her father's recitals and lessons left a strong impression on her, as did the songs of K.L. Saigal, who was her favorite singer and idol. Her formal education was limited to one day in the school. On the first day in the school, she started teaching songs to other children. When the teacher stopped her, she was so angry that she stopped going to the school."

Sounds quite boring. What did you say? "That's it!???" Exactly. What has Lata's life been about? What exactly? Singing, and singing, and singing. Some call it dedication? Their choice :)

Do you want to compare that to Asha's personal life. Here is the link. Quite eventful a life, right? Sample this

"At the age of 16, she eloped with 31-year old Ganpatrao Bhosle (1916-1966), marrying him against her family's wishes. Ganpatrao was sister Lata's personal secretary. The marriage failed miserably. Her husband and in-laws mistreated her. After a few years of marriage, Bhosle was turned out (around 1960) by a suspicious Ganpatrao^[6] and she went to her maternal home with two children and pregnant with her third child, Anand. She continued to sing in films to earn money."

Infact there is quite a lot of interesting stuff you can find there on that link. Now, I don't intend to say that Lata should have eloped with someone while she was still a kid to be able to sing better but a job like singing is probably hard to do if you haven't experienced any emotion similar to what you are being asked to present. They don't write lines like "Ashkon mein jo paaya hai, wo geeton mein diya hai" for no reason at all.

Let me look at a few Asha songs that make me go WOW and think what would have happened if Lata would be singing.

Supppose Lata is asked to sing the song "Aage bhi jaane na tu...". She reads the lyrics and she is like, "Hey, what does this mean? What does this talk about?? Uncertainty? Where the hell is uncertainty in life. Is there anything else in life except singing? I think not." A better version for her would be something like "Aage bhi gaana gaoongi, peechhe bhi gaana gaati thi ... yahi zindagi hai nahi aur koi aarzoo" :D

Or lets say Lata sings "Mera Kuchh Saamaan....".. I am sure that if she would sing this song, it would sound like, "Hey, you stole some furniture from me.. Please return it back" :D

And she can't even attempt to sing "Raat Akeli Hai..". Simply impossible.

Or the out of the world songs "Chhoti Si Kahaani Se.." or "Justuju jiski thi.." .. talking of the feeling when desires go down the drain.. an emotion which might be a total stranger to Lata Mangeshkar. Not that she won't be able to sing these but the flair won't be there

Bottom line - Sur aur aawaaz to practice kar kar ke perfect kar leejiyega .. par nasha kahaan se laaiyega :)

And if it is just the voice quality and melody etc, you appreciate Lata for, you got to listen to Shreya. I get a feeling Shreya is better on that front. Not way better, but better. Just that she does not get the same quality of songs to sing, unfortunately. Now this might be a bit of a bias because of the kind of person Shreya is (or the kind of person I think she is :P).

Ok - kaafi ho gaya.. I am sure I am going to get some murder threats pretty soon :D