New Delhi: On February 6 morning, the country woke up to a huge loss – the demise of the melody queen Lata Mangeshkar at age 92.
This is also the moment to reckon with the gains that playback singing in regional cinema saw through her immortal voice. Since she sang in at least 36 languages, Lata-ji’s numbers spanning seven decades since Independence helped create much history in regional music. This is true of Assamese playback singing too.
In Northeast India, she sang songs in Manipuri and Assamese. Though she first recorded in Manipuri only in the 1980s, in Assamese playback singing, her first solo was recorded way back in the early 1950s. That number by Lata-ji in Assamese, Junakore Rati, for the Bhupen Hazarika-directed film Era Bator Xur released in 1956, became a milestone – not just for the melody that she had poured into it but also because it became the first solo number by a Bollywood singer in Assamese. Hazarika, who was also the music director of that film – his maiden foray into filmmaking – thus set off in Assamese cinema the trend of a Bollywood bigwig doing playback for at least one song in a film. That is how there are several Assamese film songs sung by Bollywood stars.
Trailblazer that he was, Hazarika also sang a duet for his first film, Gum gum megha gorojile, with his contemporary and friend Hemant Kumar.
Recalling that song by Lata-ji, National Award-winning Assamese filmmaker and critic Utpal Borpujari told The Wire, “What needs to be noted is also the attention given to the pronunciation of the Assamese words in that song by her. It could be possible also because it was a genius like Bhupen-da who introduced her to Assamese playback singing. Together, they were legendary.”
When Lata Mangeshkar sang the first Bengali song in 1952, it was a version taken from a Marathi film, Aamar Bhoopali. In Assamese though, her first song was an original number. In 1956-57, she also sang two well-known Bengali songs, one directed by Hemant Kumar and the other by Bhupen Hazarika (Rongila Basite). Later, Junakore Rati was also sung in a Bengali film but the name of the composer was stated as Hemant Kumar, likely because of a mutual understanding between him and Hazarika.
Also read: Lata Mangeshkar, the Voice of India, the Soundtrack of Our Lives, Is No More
In 1956, Lata-ji sang her first Tamil song. However, unlike the Tamil and Bengali film industries, the Assamese film industry in the 1950s was in a nascent state. Therefore, Hazarika, by pulling off that song by a rising star of Hindi cinema, Lata Mangeshkar, for a regional film in a northeastern state, must not be seen as any less a contribution than what his senior, the intrepid Jyoti Prasad Agarwalla, had done for Assamese cinema. Agarwalla, in spite of facing many an odd, had produced the first Assamese film in 1935, just two years after the first Indian talkie Alam Ara was created.
Actor Bobbeeta Sharma with Lata Mangeshkar at Guwahati airport during the shooting of the Assamese film Paani. Photo: Special arrangement
The last playback song for an Assamese film by Lata-ji, a solo, was for Paani, released in 1995. Assamese actor-turned-politician, Bobbeeta Sarma, on whom the song Moi Uthai Jolodhir Majoloi was featured, recalled the times, “It was a humbling experience for me that Lata-ji sang an Assamese solo song for me on screen. I was the lead actor, but young then; much later I realised that I became a part of history.”
Sharma recalled that the shooting for Paani started in 1991. “A little later she came down to Guwahati with Bhupen-da who was the film’s music director. She had a very strong bond with him; would never refuse a song if Bhupen-da would approach her. That’s how she sang that song featured on me. The film was directed by Prafulla Saikia. I have a precious photograph with her during that visit for the film to Guwahati.”
Also read: Memories of Longing and Lata Mangeshkar
Interestingly, though her sisters Asha Bhonsle and Usha Mangeshkar sang more Assamese songs than Lata-ji, there was a memorable solo number, Godabori Noire Parore Pora (From the banks of the Godavari), which described who she was.
The song written in 1971 by Hazarika talked about her love for Mother Assam but also had lines like:
Maharashtra-tu Veer Shivaji ye
Tiyagi Nrepor Bilax
Dexor Hoke Jibon Jasile
Guru aasil Ramdas.
Mohaan Tilak aaru Veer Savarkar re
Jujisil Obiram
Xei khon dexore jiori moi
Axomi aai loi Jasilu Pranam
Loosely translated to English, it would read:
“In Maharashtra too, Veer Shivaji discarded all luxury to fight for his country; his guru was (Samarth) Ramdas. The great (Bal Gandadhar) Tilak and Veer Sarvarkar fought relentlessly (for the country). I am the daughter of that land; sending my regards to Mother Assam…)”
Several times after listening to that song, I wondered if the melody queen had sung a non-film song in any other regional language where she articulated, musically, not just her Maharashtrian roots but also who she considered her historical heroes.