Email
Print
ShareMumbai: Lata Mangeshkar's biography, which hit stores on Saturday, has a wealth of detail and insights.
In exploring the many facets of Hindi cinema, Nasreen Munni Kabir has become a one-woman industry. Right from Movie Mahal, her TV series for Channel 4 way back in the 1980s, she has been making documentaries and writing books on subjects like Guru Dutt, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and even the songs of Javed Akhtar.
Her latest work, Lata Mangeshkar... In Her Own Voice, is a long interview with Lata Mangeshkar, on whom Kabir had made an earlier film. In the manner of Francois Truffaut interview with Alfred Hitckock, Kabir questions India's premier playback singer on her life and work. From her early days as the daughter of well-known stage actor Master Dinanath, to the first few years of struggle to her reminisces of her singer colleagues, music directors and lyricists, the book is a deep look at the life of a remarkable singer and even more remarkable woman.
Mangeshkar has an excellent memory but the abiding impression is of someone who wears her success lightly, who rarely utters a negative word about anyone and who has faced life's many vicissitudes with aplomb and equanimity. A lady of amazing grace and divine talent who has dominated the world of playback singing for over six decades.
Nasreen herself is an encyclopaedia of information and she uses it well to draw Mangeshkar out. The author seems uninterested in probing any stories about Mangeshkar's personal life, though some more details on her many battles with her peers and others in the film business would have added to the book's flavour. Even so, the vignettes such as Mangeshkar's long-standing friendship with Noorjehan are revelations for those who have held the popular perception that the two were rivals.
The book is well designed and has superb archival pictures of Mangeshkar, her family and her colleagues. The lengthy interview-style format is an unusual one in India and -- if done well with a subject who is ready to talk -- can provide a wealth of detail and insights. This book has managed to do that.
