Lata Mangeshkar: The brightest light is gone, but Bollywood's show must go on

This is the year when the entire Indian film industry should have ideally kept their Diwali enthusiasm in check. Barely eight months ago, the film industry lost its brightest light ever. There never was and there will be another Lata Mangeshkar in the history of civilization. For Indian cinema losing Lataji was equivalent to losing the soul. She is the voice of our popular heritage. We Indians who worship her—and I presume every  Indian worships the voice that launched thousands of songs and millions of  sighs—never imagined a world without her.

Bereft would perhaps describe how I feel. What about the film industry? There were so many from the film industry who wrote tear-soaked homages to HER about their proximity, imagined or otherwise, to the Goddess  of all melodious things. Life, they said, will never be the same again.

Never say never again, I guess. This opportunistic selfserving, insensitive film industry couldn’t even cancel one year of Diwali for the one-woman institution that defines every moment of pleasure and pain in our lives.

Speaking of homages to Lataji on her going, some of them were so insincere, they made me laugh instead of cry. As I sit, enveloped in the darkness that her going has lodged in my soul, I remember all those big guns of the gaana world who had hurt her. There is this one pained conversation that comes back to me this Diwali where Lataji told me about this topnotch music composer, whose impressive talents she had nurtured and supported  all through his journey to the top. In his later years, when he was in an extra-marital affair with an upcoming  singer, his attitude towards Lataji changed.

“I no longer feel like going for his recordings. He is not respectful,” she said quietly. And then shared details of his uncouth boorish behaviour.

My blood had frozen on hearing this uncomplaining Goddess sharing this hurt. She rarely did that. I had hoped he would die a miserable death. And he did. Not one of the ones who have hurt her have prospered. I hope they know themselves.

I remember Lataji’s last Diwali  .

She was frail and she was unwell. But she was concerned about the world outside. She had said to me, “Considering what the entire world has gone through, Diwali this time is definitely low-key for everyone, including me and my family. My sisters and I love to do the rangoli. Putting colours into auspicious shapes used to be a big thing for us. Ab woh utsah kahan raha?(where has that enthusiasm gone?)  The destruction and loss of human life all around us doesn’t quite put us in a festive mood.”

Recalling happier Diwalis, Lataji told me, “I remember my mother used to bathe oil and anoint with ubtan (turmeric smear) all of us children on Diwali…It used to be a big occasion in our home. Diwali meant family and friends, home-made mithai and hand-made diyas…The phool jharis and patakas were the  big highlights of Diwali for us children. Now they’re simply a public nuisance. Now everything is made-to-order…You call a shop, you get flowers sent to friends…You call a sweet shop and they have mithais sent in fancy designer-packets and expensive matkas….It’s not about feelings and warmth any longer. It’s all about how much you can show rather than how much you can feel…Nowadays people prefer to send dry fruits rather than mithai…That’s because dry fruits are more convenient and less perishable. ..I miss my mother. She represented the Diwali spirit for me. I miss the Diwali smells at home…the mithai being cooked on the chulha, the ghee in he diyas, the scent of burning camphor…All those aromatic feelings associated with Diwali are long gone…Now it’s all about getting the steps rather than  the feeling right. It’s strange. But I can’t remember a single Diwali song of my own…at least not any happy ones! Maybe that’s an indication of how difficult and different Diwali has become now.”

For us, your worshippers I remember your song about a dark Diwali written by Kaifi Azmi :
Ayee Abke Saal Diwali Munh Par Apane Khuun Maley Ayee AbKe Saal Diwali Chaaron Taraf Hai Ghor Andheraa Ghar Men Kaise Deep Jale…

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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