Papa had gone to the US on solo tours in 19. How Lataji started going on tours of the US and Canada has a lovely story behind it. It must’ve been the 24th or 25th of August, 1976. The photo with the CN Tower behind Didi was taken on a day there was no show in the evening. So the rest of the week they’d either be rehearsing - I would accompany them only as Papa’s little extra baggage - or they’d go sightseeing. Toronto was where Papa did his last show because he passed away just before the next concert in Detroit. He clicked a picture of hers blushing away and captioned it, “The tallest tower in Canada with the tallest tower in the world.” Papa had a Rolleiflex camera with him and when we went sightseeing, he made Latadidi stand alone in front of the tower. It was an imposing monument with a restaurant at the top. Those days, the CN Tower in Toronto was known as the tallest tower in Canada. On Papa’s last concert tour - the unfortunate tour of 1976 when he passed away - we’d gone to Canada. It was his way not only of showing her respect but also of ensuring that the rest of the world gave her the same respect.
He told me that he called her “Didi” to tell the world that this lady had to be respected by one and all. Papa said something that day which stayed with me forever. I used to find that a bit curious - a bit annoying too - and I asked him why he couldn’t call her by her name when he was so many years older than her. Lataji would call my father “Mukesh Bhaiya” and my father, who was six years older than her, would call her “Didi”. Just two words, but sung with such soul-searing feeling that people flipped for it and it gives goosebumps to this day. (Film lore has it that while Shankar-Jaikishan recorded this iconic song, the chorus singers spilled out onto the staircase and Minoo Katrak, the sound recordist, arranged mikes all over in such a remarkable way that every sound was picked up to make a tremendous impact.)Īfter every antara that Mukeshji sang, Latadidi sang only an alaap with the words “ Aaja re….” I’ve been told that it is supposed to have had the most orchestration of any Hindi film song, apparently the largest orchestra with a chorus.
When they were recording Aa ab laut chale from Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, she added value to it with only her alaaps. When the new millennium dawned, there was a survey of the songs of the century.
It has an antara with the words “ Toofan toh aana hai, aakar chale jaana hai… teri meri kahani hai”. Their Ek pyar ka nagma hai (Shor) is almost like an anthem. Aaja re ab mera dil pukara (from Raj Kapoor’s Aah), Sawan ka mahina (Milan), O mere sanam (Sangam) - so many gems. Papa’s duets with Latadidi were out of this world.
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