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Author: Preetham
Gopalaswamy
The following
article is incontrovertible proof of 2 related yet
different issues
1] Lata could not
have sung 25000 songs in her career (and most
certainly
not by the time that the Guiness Book Records included
it in its edition).
2] Lata was overtaken
by Asha in the number of songs sung by each
of them
(and Rafi was nowhere in the reckoning) as early as the
70s.
Furthermore,
after reading this article, Lata herself
ack-
nowledged
the fact to the author that the stories of her having
sung
25000 songs were
most probably exaggerated.
==================================================================
In his article, parrikar@spot.Colorado.EDU (Rajan Purshottam Parrikar) writes:
:This is what is said in 1982 Guinness Book of World Records:
:
Miss Lata Mangeshkar (b 1928) has reportedly recorded between
:
1948 and 1974 not less than 25,000 solo, duet and chorus backed
:
songs in 20 Indian languages. She frequently has 5 sessions in
:
a day and has "backed" 1,800 films to 1974.
:
Mohamad Rafi (d May 1, 1980) claimed to have recorded 28,000
:
songs in 11 Indian languages between 1944 and April 1980.
> I can buy the argument
that the peak number is an exaggeration. But
> the assertion
that Asha has more songs than Lata is a bitter pill to
> swallow.
This is handwaving, Janaab. Put your balls on the table
> and then we'll
talk; i.e., let's see the article proving # of Asha
> songs > # of Lata
songs.
You wanted the article,
you got it. Here are the details that I
was referring
to. This article was part of a longer article en-
titled "The Lata
Legend" which appeared in FILMFARE in 1987. It
is a wonderful
article which lovingly describes the woman behind
the voice, her likes,
her dislikes, her views; it also traces her
career and
the impact that she has had on popular Indian music.
The article has
several wonderful pictures of Lata and her fami-
ly. I do not
have the time right now to type in the whole thing,
and opted to enter
just the section relevant to the Guiness con-
troversy.
In a separate article by the same author on Asha Bhon-
sle entitled "Asha
Bhonsle : The Voices" (MOVIE, August 1983),
there is a small
table which compares the number of songs sung by
Asha, Rafi and Lata,
in the 50s, where Asha leads the rest. I
shall append
that table to the end of this article. With a lit-
tle extrapolation
and a basic knowledge of the big picture of
music in the 60s,
one can see that Asha would certainly have sur-
passed Lata in numbers
in the 60s (Nayyar was one of the most po-
pular and prolific
composers and Lata did not sing for him; S. D.
Burman and Lata
did not make music together due to some disputes,
not until
the film "Guide" which was in the late 60s). By her
own admittance,
Lata has been in semi-retirement through the late
70s and the 80s
(she apparently spends 5 months in a year in Lon-
don) and the 70s
saw the onset of the Disco era which belonged to
Asha.
So I guess that would be a handwavy way of making Rajan
swallow that bitter
pill :-) :-) (Note: Subsequently, figures for
the 60s and 70s,
which were unavailable in 1983 when the Asha ar-
ticle was written,
became available. Hence bear the date of the
article in mind
while reading it).
Here is the article!! Any typos are mine.
Preetham
==================================================================
A CONTROVERSY IN THE MAKING
by Punita Bhatt
(Source: Filmfare June 1-15, 1987)
==================================================================
The following figures
of Hindi film songs sung by Lata Mangeshkar
are derived
from the only authoritative work in the field, Har
Mandir Singh's "ENCYCLOPAEDIA
OF HINDI FILM SONGS", so far avail-
able in
three volumes, 1941-50, 1951-60 and 1961-70. This very
scholarly work limits
itself to songs from Hindi films only;
therefore,
these figures DO NOT INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING: Lata's
songs from the various
regional films, non-film songs, and songs
from films that
remained incomplete or unreleased.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE FORTIES
THE FIFTIES
THE SIXTIES
1951 : 218
1961 : 153
1952 : 171
1962 : 128
1953 : 189
1963 : 107
1954 : 166
1964 : 133
1945 : 1
1955 : 209
1965 : 90
1946 : 6
1956 : 200
1966 : 129
1947 : 5
1957 : 135
1967 : 106
1948 : 48
1958 : 127
1968 : 80
1949 : 151
1959 : 193
1969 : 95
1950 : 152
1960 : 158
1970 : 122
----
----
----
TOTAL : 363
1766
1143
----
----
----
TOTAL FROM 1945-1970: 3272 SONGS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
It all seems to have
started with an article published in the
March 12, 1971 issue
of FILMFARE, in which Raju Bharatan observed
quite casually that
Lata's voice had enhanced "the tonal appeal
of some
16,000 songs in a variety of languages". There was no
indication of how
he came upon this figure. The 16,000 jumped to
25,000 by
the time the item reached the Guiness Book of World
Records, and the
period was said to be 1948-1971.
By the end of the
seventies, it was said to be 30,000 songs.
Since then the figure
has hop-skipped-and-jumped every few years,
erratically, irresponsibly
and always without documentation. The
last I
heard was an article claiming 50,000 songs on Lata's
behalf. All
this when she has been semi retirement for almost a
decade now.
Where are these figures
coming from ? No one seems to know the
source or has any
concrete information to support the claims. It
seems to me that
once this whole thing started, it has taken on a
life of its own,
snowballing into increasingly ridiculous claims.
To some extent it
may even have become a convenient tool, an on-
going game
of one-upmanship between journalists - all at the ex-
pense of Lata Mangeshkar.
Throughout her life,
Lata has refused to get involved in contro-
versies, whatever
the nature, no matter how bitter and biting
their tone.
She has often preferred silence over clarification,
waiting for stories
to die a natural death. And they have, soon-
er or later.
And she has emerged always, with her reputation un-
scathed.
On this issue she has stated categorically and with a
finality: "I don't
know anything about it. I don't know how my
name appeared in
the Guinness Book or where they got their infor-
mation from.
Certainly, I didn't supply it. I don't keep
a
record of the number
of songs I've done."
The sad part of all
this is that numbers is not what Lata is
about.
Her greatness as an artiste, her contribution to
the
world of popular
music, her stature as an imposing figure in pub-
lic life - none
of these derive an iota from any statistics, real
or imagined.
Lata does not need
25,000 or 35,000 songs to be what she is or to
retain her
position in history, any more than Shakespeare needed
25,000 plays.
For Lata Mangeshkar, a "mere" thousand or maybe
even just
one hundred songs would suffice. It is in the "quali-
ty" of her contribution
to the film song, the eternal charm and
magic of her voice,
the dignity and class of her personality - it
is in these that
she stakes a claim to our hearts and to our
minds.
To think otherwise is to misunderstand the nature of the
love she commands
and to denigrate a truly great lady.
I think this terribly
fixation on numbers that has infected pub-
lic life in
India is juvenile and hopefully will run its course.
Until then it is
better to let those who need the figures compete
for them,
to race for the numbers and be their only claim to
fame. Let
us leave Lata out of the horse race.
==================================================================
THE FIFTIES -- ASHA BHONSLE'S DECADE
(Source: Movie August 1983)
==================================================================
------------------------------------------------------
Year Asha
Lata
Rafi
------------------------------------------------------
1951
58
218
59
1952
69
171
61
1953 125
189
68
1954 220
166
82
1955 281
209
147
1956 280
200
125
1957 196
135
159
1958 281
127
163
1959 197
193
169
1960 185
158
203
------------------------------------------------------
Decade Total 1892
1766
1236
------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: These figures
refer to Hindi film songs ONLY, and do not
include regional
or non-film music.
From Hindi
Film Geet Kosh (Encyclopaedia of Hindi film songs),
Volume III,
1951-60 (compiled by Har Mandir Singh "Hamraj", Edi-
tor). Figures
provided by Mr. A. Rajamamar of Shahabad (Gulbar-
ga).
Figures for the sixties and the seventies are not avail-
able.
==================================================================
Lata
Mangeshkar : A living legend...
