THE MAGNIFICENT MANGESHKARS

A GREAT FATHER’S GREATEST GIFT TO LIFE - LATA

Try thinking of a world, our world, without the Mangeshkar family and their miraculous contribution to every kind of music, making music rich enough to match the bests of music anywhere in the world.

It all started with Master Dinanath Mangeshkar who had a voice which made man, animals and nature react rapturously. This Master was also a blessed Master, a Master who could use music as a remedy for ills which couldn’t be cured by other human cures. He had some extra-ordinary curative power, a voice born once in many many years which cured. He was, in a way, one of the first few humans who used music as medicine for men, a “doctor” who was a gift for mankind. Master Dinanath was “doctor” who used music to cure.

God saw his virtues and his talent and saw in him and his generations to come a great future for music and gifted him with an entire family who also worshiped music. His wife, Mai Mangeshkar, gave birth to five children and miraculously all the five were gifted with an intense love for music, for singing, for using their voices to soothe both God and man. Lata Mangeshkar was the eldest. She was followed by Asha, Meena, Usha and their only brother, Pt. Hridayanath Mangeshkar. This rare family is now known not only all over Bharat but also all over the world. Master Dinanath Mangeshkar died when he was just 42 leaving behind a treasure of his voice, music and through his children.

The music of the Mangeshkars shines in glory somewhere or the other, some place or the other, some home or the other, some institution or the other and in hundreds and thousands of films in so many languages. They have this great talent handed over to them by their father to keep music alive from his time to the year 2000 and forever.

Master Dinanath Mangeshkar Janam Shatabdi Mahotsav is celebrated by the Mangeshkar family every year. This year it was in a much more solemn and distinguished way - one of the greatest tribute a family could pay to its head, at a vast gathering of music lovers at the Andheri Sports Complex where Lata, at 71, kept the audience spell-bound for four long hours. She sang and the audience swayed and wondered how this diminutive woman who should have been a “senior citizen”, a gracious grandmother looking after her grandchildren, thriving on memories of days gone by could sing anything from Aayega aane wala to Ghode jaisi chaal. The crowd went home singing her songs, singing her praises, singing the praises of the great Master Dinanath for gifting them with the greatest daughter and asking bewildered questions about the 71-year-old woman who could put a 16-year-old singer in the shade. The next day was another solemn day for the Mangeshkars, April 24, the 58th death anniversary of the Master. As a tribute to their father they honoured some of the all-time greats with the Dinanath Mangeshkar Award organised by the Dinanath Smriti Pratisthan. The Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Mr Arun Jaitley specially flew down to Mumbai to be present at the occasion. Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, Chief Minister, Maharashtra, was present throughout the show as his tribute to the Mangeshkar family. Mr Deshmukh then promised to organise the 100th birth anniversary of the Master “on a scale never thought of or planned before”. The Cultural Affairs Minister, Government of Goa, Dr Kamat also made a humble request to Lata didi to perform at a very huge gathering for the first time in Goa to celebrate the Master’s centenary. The Pratisthan increased the number of awards this time, as they felt it was their duty to honour people who brought honour to so many lives and the country.

Among the winners were Naushad Ali for his lifetime contribution to music, Mrs Pushpa Raut for her play Shobhayatra, Mrs Prema Purav of the Annapoorna Sanstha for her social work in various spheres among the tribals, Mr Vijay Tendulkar for his lifetime contribution to Marathi literature. Dr Mrs Meena Nerurkar won the specially instituted Mai Mangeshkar Memorial Prize for her extraordinary work in bringing up women and Mr Chandrakant Gokhale for his lifetime contribution to plays and films. Lata dressed in a pink saree (which she wears very rarely) looked bright and jubilant despite the four-hour long singing programme she did the previous day - a miracle. The two compares, Harish Bhimani in English and Meena Khadilkar in Marathi, tried their best to describe Lata Mangeshkar in every possible way but she gave them very little scope, she couldn’t be described easily, she proved. She defies an description ........ Who knows we may need a Kavi Kalidas or a Kavi Kusumgraj or someone much enlightened to describe the real Lata one day!

Ali Peter John