Singing Along

Rs 399). It’s an elaborate account of a time when some of the best melodies in the Indian music industry was being composed. “This book took six months to write. I already had everything ready in my head. It was only a matter of sitting down with it and reconstructing all that happened in the past 60 years of our Hindustani cine sangeet,” says Bharatan,77.

One of his concerns while writing the book was the existence of wrong information,some even in archives. “Talat Mahmood’s Tasveer banata hoon… was composed by music director Nashad,but is attributed to famous composer Naushad of Mughal-e-Azam fame in almost every archive. The poor chap totally went unnoticed inspite of a decent composition,” says Bharatan.

The book also reflects Bharatan’s understanding of the intricacies of Hindustani film sangeet. He intersperses it with amusing nuggets like how Lata Mangeshkar was addicted to Wrigley’s chewing gum,loved wearing jeans,but never wore it outside her hotel room during concerts in America. He talks of how Rafi was the original choice for the popular songs from the movie Aradhana,instead of Kishore Kumar; how Mangeshkar’s famous Aye Mere Watan ke logon was to be sung by both her and sister Asha Bhosle,had lyricist Pradeep not forgotten to inform the latter. There are also instances of rifts between famous musicians.

“I became a music writer because of Mangeshkar but it is true that many other senior singers like Runa Laila,Sulakshana Pandit and Vani Jayaram were less popular or quit Bollywood because the industry was dominated by the two sisters,” says Bharatan who has also included chapters on AR Rahman and Shankar Ehsaan Loy in the final section.