Subhash K Jha Shines the spotlight on how it came to be that Lata Mangeshkar finally sang with Mehdi Hassan in this special feature.
Legendary Pakistani Ghazal singer, Mehdi Hassan, and India’s own nightingale, Lata Mangeshkar, whose long-standing dream of working together finally came true in 2011. Much as the two were delighted to be singing a duet for the first time after all these years, this was their first and last song together.
Mehdi Hassan was critically ill. He had completely stopped singing due to his frail health and lived in seclusion in Karachi. Since the legendary singers had always shared a mutual admiration for each other’s work, Mehdi Hassan wanted to come to Mumbai or have Lataji visit Pakistan to record the song together. This historic confluence never happened.
Although critically ill, Hassan’s dream of singing with India’s Melody Queen was fulfilled. Mehdi Hassan first composed and emailed a rough track to Lata Mangeshkar. The song ‘Tera Milna Bahut Achcha Lage Hai’ only had its basic harmony in place. Lataji promptly asked her protégé, composer Mayuresh Pai, to compose the music for the song. After Mayuresh was done with the final composition, Lataji recorded her parts of the song the song. The song, which was initially a solo track written by Farhat Shahzad, became one of its kind as a duet because of the two legendary singers.
Lataji and Hassan Sahib’s voice in the duet sounded so melodious that it is impossible to believe that the song was sung in two different countries. ‘Tera milna Bahut Achcha Lagta Hai ‘is not just a song but a symbol of coming together of two countries.
Lataji was a huge admirer of Mehdi Hassan. “Jo baat unki awaaz mein thi woh kisiki awaaz mein nahin thi. He was blessed by God. And it pained me to see him suffer so much during his last ten years. Only God knows what he was suffering for. He had a very unique vocal identity. Many tried to sing Ghazals like him. But Mehdi saab was Mehdi saab… I recorded a song with him under very peculiar circumstances. We were supposed to sing a duet, ‘Tera milna bahut achcha lagta hai’, with him. Due to his ill health, he couldn’t come to India, and I couldn’t go to Pakistan. So we recorded the duet about milna bahu achcha lagta hai (how much we like meeting) without meeting. Such is the irony of life. It was his composition, and we should’ve sung it together.”
Lataji got emotional remembering the Ghazal maestro. “He later said that he had only one regret as a musician, that he couldn’t sing with me. I remember by the time we sent the tape of our duet to him, he was unable to understand fully what was going on around him… His final years were not happy. You see, when you are younger, you often fail to plan for your later years. Mehdi saab spent so much money on his family. He had 13 children, and I’ve heard the entire family, including his married daughters with their husbands and children, lived together in that house he had built,” she says.
Lataji also recalled her first meeting with Mehdi Hassan .”I met him for the first time in Canada some 40 years ago. I had gone to Kingston, and we drove all the way to Ottawa for his concert. To my utter surprise, as soon as I entered the auditorium, he stopped his performance and got up with all his musicians to welcome me! He later came to meet me in Kingston. When he performed in Mumbai for the first time, I was there at the concert. I spoke at the concert. The last time I met him was some years ago. He came home to meet me. He had already suffered a paralytic stroke, and he was in a wheelchair. When he was wheeled into my home, my sister-in-law Bharti (Hridaynath Mangeshkar’s wife) broke down. We were all his fans. When he saw me, he broke down and cried. I think he was saddened by the fact that he met me in such a condition. He loved my Marathi song ‘Mehndi cha panaware’ composed by my brother Hridaynath…. He was ill for 9-10 years. He was in a lot of pain. He didn’t deserve to suffer so much.”
