For the Mangeshkar sisters, Lata and Asha Bhosle, life was not always easy. Although he was the heir to the rich musical legacy of his father, Master Dinanath Mangeshkar, his untimely death in 1942 left the family financially insecure. The responsibility of the family fell on a young Lata, who sang her first Marathi song in the film at the age of 13. Pali Mangalore. Asha made her debut with Marathi film, majha bali10 years of age.
Though he started his musical journey in films, what fascinates me as a composer is his contribution to non-film music, especially in Marathi. It is of great cultural significance that the sisters continued to discover their roots despite rising high in the film industry. While he sang in almost all Indian languages, his contribution to Marathi has been significant.
rich heritage
Dinanath Mangeshkar was an actor-singer who, like the great Marathi singer Bal Gandharva, started his career in music and theater at the age of 11 in the Kirloskar drama troupe. Pt. a disciple of Ramakrishnabuva Vaze, a publisher of the Gwalior Gharana, Dinanath later started a theater company called Balwant Natak Mandali. He was blessed by the famous Marathi poet-playwright Ram Ganesh Gadkari, whose plays Punyaprabha: And bondage Dinanath did it.
Dinanath was a prolific singer and, in style, was unlike Bal Gandharva and other contemporaries. Equally, Dinanath’s plays were progressive with a nationalist sentiment. The plays were written by some of the best litterateurs of the time like Veer Vamanrao Joshi.moth) and Ram Ganesh Gadkari (Punyaprabha:) Music was the mainstay of the Marathi theatrical tradition, and the roots of Natyasangeet as a genre stem from the kirtan tradition of Maharashtrian and Hindustani music.
nationalist time
Asha sang a lot of theatrical music in the early days of her career and played Vinyl. scale (KP Khadilkar’s musical play) is proof of this. He has recreated his father’s magic by singing theatrical songs like ‘Yuvati Mana Darun Rana’ or ‘Chandrika Hi Jaanu’. I still remember his performance on a cold winter night at the Raja Shivaji Vidyalaya ground in Dadar, where he sang Veer Vamanrao Joshi’s ‘Parvashta Pash Daive’, which had almost no accompaniment. The song written in the pre-independence era tells how we were slaves in our own land.
The Mangeshkar sisters sang Veer Savarkar’s ‘Sagar Pran Talmala’, a result of the family’s devotion to Savarkar’s nationalism. Savarkar wrote Sannyas Kharga for Dinanath
I believe Lata used to see film music as a profession, but her non-film music was about who she really was. The kind of music he chose to make in Marathi tells you a lot more about the legend than any biographical article.
The tradition of singing Marathi poetry began almost parallel to Marathi film music, which began with V Shantaram. Ayodhya Raj:, In 1932, GN Joshi composed and sang NG Deshpande’s poem ‘Rana Ranat Geli Bai Sheel’ for HMV, sowing the seeds of Marathi non-film music. Gajananrao Vatve sang the poems of Manmohan, Anil and poet Yashwant throughout the house.
The tradition of writing poems and adapting them into songs continued with composers such as Vasant Prabhu, Srinivas Khale and later, Hridaynath Mangeshkar, whose compositions were sung by Lata and Asha. Hridaynath is not only drawn to musical lyrical poems, but also those that were not meant to be sung, such as poems by Aarti Prabhu, Manik Godghat (Grace), BR Tambe and poet B. It introduced some of the best Marathi poems to people who would have otherwise been indifferent to literature. They also began to hum the complex and mystical poems sung by the sisters.
unbroken tradition
Another important contribution, especially by Lata, is her rendition of saint literature, the works of saint poets of Maharashtra. unbroken tukayacheSant Tukaram’s poem composed by Srinivas Khale devastated Maharashtra. ‘Bheti Lagi Jeeva’, ‘Anandache Dohi’, ‘Vrikshavalli Aamha Soyare’, ‘Sundar Te Dhyan’ are some of the songs from this album which are still sung.
Hridaynath brought alive the poetry of Saint Dnyaneshwar through his works. Dnyaneshwari And nectarine, Even today, when you hear ‘Mogra Phula’ or ‘Ghanu Waje Ghunghuna’ in Lata’s voice, your senses fly away. The purity and perfection of his singing conveyed the divinity contained in the words. When you hear Lata singing ‘Pasaydan’, the prayer of Saint Dnyaneshwar in which he asks for the fulfillment of the wishes of every living being, you feel a sense of peace.
Lifeline for many styles
From Bhavgeet to Koligeet to Abhang and Ghazal, the sisters covered many genres. His singing shakes the imagination. When Lata sings Grace’s poem ‘Bhaya Itle Sampat Nahi’ or the collegiate ‘Raja Saranga, Majhya Saranga’, you not only hear the song, you experience it. When Asha sings Shanta Shelke’s lines, ‘Jeevalaga raile re door ghar majhe’, you travel with the poet. In the 1980s, when television eclipsed radio and we saw a dearth of good non-film music in Marathi, it was Asha’s album. Rutu Hirva, With poetry by the likes of Shanta Shelke and Bibi Borkar and composed by Sridhar Phadke, which provided a lifeline.
Today, if children sing poems by Borkar, Grace, Aarti Prabhu and Suresh Bhat on Marathi music reality shows, the Mangeshkar sisters should be given credit for keeping that rich legacy alive.
Mumbai based writer
is a musician.
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