BHUBANESWAR: The magic of Lata Mangeshkar touched Odia film industry in the 1960s. The melody queen sang just two songs and both ‘Sei Chuna Chuna Tara Phula Aaji’ (Suryamukhi) and ‘Aaji Mun Shrabani Luhara Harini’ (Arundhati) have left generations of Odia music lovers enraptured.
There were many common threads to the films ‘Suryamukhi’ (1963) and ‘Arundhati’ (1967). Both were National Film Award winners and directed by Prafulla Sengupta while music was composed by ace music director Shantanu Mohapatra. ‘Arundhati’ was produced by Dhiren Patnaik while Saumendra Mishra produced ‘Suryamukhi.’
On the day when the legend breathed her last, the Odia film fraternity reminisced the golden years. Koushik Mohapatra, son of Shantanu Mohapatra, recollected his father’s association with the legend. “My father was very young when he approached her for ‘Sei Chuna Chuna Tara Phula Aaji’. In a brief talk we had last year, Lata Didi had told me that she was impressed by my father’s dedication to music. And also by the fact that my father was one of the fastest harmonium players of India,” he said.
For the second song ‘Aaji Mun Shrabani Luhara Harini’ for ‘Arundhati’, Mohapatra had suggested Dhiren Patnaik to get it sung by Lataji. “Since my father had already worked with her in 1963, he wanted Dhiren uncle to use Lata Didi’s voice for this movie too. Dhiren uncle immediately agreed and brought Lata ji on board,” Koushik added. The rest was history.
Film historian Surya Deo shares more anecdotes about her association with the Odia music industry. In fact, the legend was also supposed to record a duet ‘Ei Chhota Kathatie Bhula Na’ for ‘Arundhati’ with eminent playback singer Pranab Kishore Patnaik. She even learnt it but later urged the director to record with her sister Usha Mangeshkar, he says.
The legend was approached many times by other regional music directors and filmmakers but nothing materialised. Deo remembers Salil Chowdhury approached Lataji for the 1981 film ‘Batasi Jhada’s‘ song ‘Aei Laakhi Jaay Dekhi’ which he had composed.
“It was Salil Chowdhury’s first and only Odia movie as music director. It was to be sung by Md Rafi and Lataji. Everything was finalised but on the day of recording, the music director and producers realised that she was also recording another song for Laxmikant Pyarelal. Since the producers had no money to reschedule the recording, it had to be called off. The song was later sung by Yesudas, Hemlata and Sikandar Alam,” he said.
In the 1980s, she was also approached to sing eight ‘bhajans’ on Lord Jagannath, written by Brundaban Jena, along with Hariprasad Chaurasia but she had to back out because of her busy schedule.
When Lata Mangeshkar was about to record ‘Piya Tose Naina Lagere’ composed by SD Burman for the film ‘Guide’, she came to know that it was inspired by Odissi song ‘Malli Mala Shyama Ku Debi’. “SD Burman had come across ‘Malli Mala Shyama Ku Debi’ song through Deogarh royal and former MLA Pradipta Ganga Deb who assisted him for sometime before joining politics. So dedicated Lataji was that she insisted on hearing the entire Odissi song before recording ‘Piya Tose Naina Lagere’,” recollects Deo.