Lata and Naushad
If Naushad was the musical personality who had nurtured the talent of Rafi, from the beginning, then he is the same person who had given immortal tunes to Lata considering her melodious voice. Lata had a tragic appeal in the song “bhool gaye sawariya” from Baiju Bawra, composed by Naushad in 1953. His composition for Lata in Mughal-i-azam, “pyar kiya to darna kya”, “mohe panghat”, etc., picturised on Madhubala, were landmark hits. Also the duet song of Lata and Rafi in Kohinoor, “do sitaron ka zameen par hai Milan” picturised on Meena Kumari and Dilip Kumar had the class of Naushad and romantic appeal embedded in them. Again in Ganga Jumna, in 1961, Naushad had given folk tunes to Lata including “dhundo dhundo re sajna”, picturised on Vijayantimala, which suited the sequence so well.
In Mere Mehboob, the title song “mere mehboob tujhe”, was sung as brilliantly by Lata as Rafi had done it. Sadhna also gave adequate lips in the song. Also the song “mere mehboob me kya nahin” was successful. Naushad remembered the paradanshin society of Lucknow and Aligarh, while composing the tunes, and Lata pronounced the urdu lyrics written by Shakeel Badayani brilliantly. She was also brilliant in the duet song with Rafi “tere husn ki kya tariff karun” from the film Leader, in 1964, where all the songs were based on classical ragas which were exploited very elegantly by Naushad including raag lalit in “ek shaheshah ne banwake haseen tajmahal”.
Naushad was exceptional in the film Dil diya Dard Liya, where songs like “sawan aye yah na aye”, contained the classical ragas which were sung elegantly by both Lata and Rafi. The other notable songs of Naushad for Lata included “kale ke sapne” and “phit teri kahani yaad ayi” picturised on Wahida Rehman.
Naushad also helped Ghulam Mohammad to complete the songs of Pakiza, in 1971, picturised on Meena Kumari, where Lata’s songs “mausam hai ashiqana”, “inhi logone”, “chalte chalte”, had created history. Naushad never believed in producing more and producing rubbish, as a result, he had limited compositions for Lata, but if 50 best songs of Lata are to be selected, there will definitely be 5 creations of Naushad, because he had given adequate expression to the Hindustani ragas which blossomed under his dynamic creations.
Related Reading
