Nisha Jalori | nishajalori61@gmail.com

Lata Mangeshkar – the Nightingale of India – the voice of a million centuries, a singer who embodied music and melody for generations, left for her heavenly abode this year. And as we commemorate her birth anniversary, we are reminiscent of the treasure trove of songs she left behind.

As a homage to the Melody Queen, Swar Aalap presented a great show 1960 Ki Lata (Lata Of the 1960s) on 12th June at Ravindra Natya Bhawan, Mumbai. The evening was adorned with the most popular songs of Lata Mangeshkar of the 60s era. This musical extravaganza was unique owing to its vivacity of the songs list and also the presence of great celebs of the film fraternity.

The founder and Creative Director of Swar Aalap, Dinesh Ghate, conceptualized this show during one of his sojourns with singer Raina Lahiri. He thought of organizing a show featuring songs of the Nightingale Lata Mangeshkar of the 60s era, which had never been conceived before. The selection of songs therein seemed very difficult and it was indeed a Herculean task as the 60s was flooded with ace musicians of many generations and at a time when Lata Di was at her vocal best. A fair enough song list was finalized after great discussion and it was decided to incorporate preludes of some songs and interludes of others in the show. Bandish of some songs would be sung before similar classical ones.

The presentation of the show was thus designed to cover great music directors of that era, in seniority order. So, it began with the

songs of Sachin Dev Burman, the senior most one. Fortunately, his master stroke musical film, Guide, completed its glorious 50 years this year. Hence, all of its songs were specially presented here. Then followed a nonstop musical sojourn of ace musicians – Vasant Desai, Chitragupt, Roshan, Jaidev, Naushad, Pt Ravishankar, Shankar Jaikishan, GS Kohli, Salil Chaudhary, Madan Mohan, Kalyanji- Anandji, Laxmikant Pyarelal, RD Burman, and C. Ramchandra. This coupled with Shehnai played by Raju Dhumal and the mellifluous voices of Raina Lahiri, Saumya Verma and Sarvesh Mishra had the audience enjoying this musical terrain glued to their seats.

Pyarelal Ji Sharma ( Laxmikant Pyarelal duo) showered his blessings on this incredible musical concert with his melodious memories. Other known musicians performing were arranger Kersi Lord, Kishore Desai, Homi Mullan, and Vijay Indorkar. Keeping up with its motto of By Musicians For Musicians, Swar Aalap has introduced many musicians to the world from time to time through its book The Unsung Heroes. Senior music accompanists have also been felicitated in different concerts, but this show witnessed the felicitation of two young dynamic accompanists with the Young Achievers Award. These two were Rabab & Guitar Player, Chintu Singh, and percussionist Girish Vishwa.

Celebrity Comedian, Johnny Lever expressed his fondness for musical concerts and sent people into roars of laughter through his comic presentation at the show. The highlight of the show was the song Ai Mere Watan Ke Logon by poet Pradeep. The Shehnai and Guitar performance of this song by Raju Dhumal and Chintu Singh left the audience totally mesmerized. The show was hosted by Vividh Bharti anchor, Yunus Khan. Tribute was paid to the popular Sarod player, Zarine Sharma.

This musical evening spread a melodious fragrance and the audience left humming the melodies that resonated in the 60s of the Queen of Melody – LATA MANGESHKAR.