Each art has certain personalities who end up defining the art
itself. The Hindi movies music lovers - specially those of 60s to 80s,
were luckier as there have been a plethora of such towering
personalities. Those who not only kept extending the parameters of their
own performances, and went beyond it, but also created a Gold standard
for those who were to follow them in the later years. Of all these great
personas, Lata Mangeshkar, who has turned 85 today, remains the first among equals. To put things in proper perspective, in a country with 67 years of post independence history, her's has been one of the omnipresent voices.
Pancham idolised her, and hence chose to make his own debut with her
singing Ghar Aaja Ghir Aaye - a classical number matching Lata
perfectly. And why not? For is not Lata's singing essentially about a sound that
purists & the classical music lovers would love? Over the years,
there were many more such classical or sugar syrupy compositions which
Pancham created keeping only Lata in mind, and most of them went on to
become all time hits.
However, it would have been a very
un-Pancham like to not give her the compositions where she had to get
out of her own boundaries. Yes, he did manage to give her a number of
such compositions - like the raunchy - "Bangle ke Peeche" from Samadhi
or Anamika's seductive "Baahon men Chale Aa". Another such number was
from Rampur ka Lakshman, picturised on Rekha - in her those days when
she was yet to become the proverbial beautiful elegant swan.
This
composition is zany and has very interesting interludes, specially the
way Bongo beats have been used through out, intermingling with Guitar
notes. Add to that the peppiness with which Lata has sung it, giving
emphasis on some of the words, making them sound so fizzy, as Rekha
tries to stop the running-away Randhir Kapoor, singing Albela Re..