Mangeshkar and Madan Mohan

Now, almost 15-years after he wrote a controversial biography on melody queen Lata Mangeshkar, Mumbai-based Bharatan’s anecdotes about these legendary musicians have found their way in to his latest book, A Journey Down the Melody Lane (Hay House,

Rs 399). It’s an elaborate account of a time when some of the best melodies in the Indian music industry was being composed. “This book took six months to write. I already had everything ready in my head. It was only a matter of sitting down with it and reconstructing all that happened in the past 60 years of our Hindustani cine sangeet,” says Bharatan, 77.

One of his concerns while writing the book was the existence of wrong information, some even in archives. “Talat Mahmood’s Tasveer banata hoon... was composed by music director Nashad, but is attributed to famous composer Naushad of Mughal-e-Azam fame in almost every archive. The poor chap totally went unnoticed inspite of a decent composition,” says Bharatan.

The book also reflects Bharatan’s understanding of the intricacies of Hindustani film sangeet. He intersperses it with amusing nuggets like how Lata Mangeshkar was addicted to Wrigley’s chewing gum, loved wearing jeans, but never wore it outside her hotel room during concerts in America. He talks of how Rafi was the original choice for the popular songs from the movie Aradhana, instead of Kishore Kumar; how Mangeshkar’s famous Aye Mere Watan ke logon was to be sung by both her and sister Asha Bhosle, had lyricist Pradeep not forgotten to inform the latter. There are also instances of rifts between famous musicians.

“I became a music writer because of Mangeshkar but it is true that many other senior singers like Runa Laila, Sulakshana Pandit and Vani Jayaram were less popular or quit Bollywood because the industry was dominated by the two sisters,” says Bharatan who has also included chapters on AR Rahman and Shankar Ehsaan Loy in the final section.

But when she caught the Filmfare awards on television last night, she wasn't too happy with it.

She expressed herself with a tweet: 'namaskar,main filmfare awards function television pe dekh rahi hun,usme abhi thodi der pehele dikhaya gaya ki lata mangeshkar ne kaha tha ki filmfare award mujhe rumaal me lapetke dijiye,ye padhke mujhe bahot ascharya hua,kyo ki maine aisa na kabhi kaha aur na kabhi kahungi,mere liye har award logo'n ka pyar aur aashirwad hai,filmfare jaise popular awards mein istarhah ki galat baat likhna ya batana acchi baat nahi ye mujhe bade afsos ke saath kehena pad raha hai....' (I was watching the Filmfare awards function on television and, a little while ago, they said Lata Mangeshkar stated she wants the Filmfare award wrapped in a handkerchief. I was very surprised as I have never, and will never, say something like this. For me, every award is a sign of people's love and blessings. I'm very sorry to have to say it but it's not nice for a popular award show like Filmfare to show something wrong like this.)

Konkona Sen Sharma also seemed upset with the Filmfare awards. 'How come some awardees get to give a vote of thanks and some don't? So apparently filmfare gives them 5 min each, but Sony has final edit. Either way, not fair no?' she tweeted.