“Isn’t it amazing how Latabai can be a mother or child, a lover or a sibling, anything according to the mood of the song?” Nana Patekar had famously said in Mazhar Khan’s Gang.
How right he was! If in Raja Aur Rank she expressed a little boy’s adoration for his mother in Tu kitni achchi hai tu kitni bholi hai pyari pyari pyari hai oh Maa, in Rang De Basanti, she was the mother playing Lukka chuppi with her son.
Indeed, Lataji had an indelible affinity for singing songs for children. Some of her biggest hits in the 1960s and 70s were filmed on little boys: Tu kitni achchi hai (Raja aur Rank), Darshan do baba bhole (Har Har Mahadev), Jai jai narayan narayan hari hari (Jari Darshan), Maine maa ko dekha hai maa ka pyar nahin dekha (Mastana), Oh ma meri ma tujhko dekhna hai (Choti Bahu), Mandir mein aaya hai dukhiya ka koi laal (Harishchandra Taramati)…
Speaking on her slew of pure-hearted songs for children, Lataji once told me, “There was a time when some composers wanted me to sing for everyone, including the leading man. On a more serious note, singing for children was not difficult at all. I would ask who the child was, and then sing accordingly. Special skills required to sing for children? I think the heart had to be pure. The rest followed.”
Bacche mann ke sachche sarey jag ke aankh je taarey yeh woh nanhe phool hai jo bagwan ko lagte pyare, sang Lataji for Baby Neetu, who was all of 8 in Do Kaliyan when the miracle happened. Neetu Kapoor was the youngest heroine that Lataji sang for.
