From this day on, I shall spend some time with the divine Lata-C.Ramchandra combo that has provided us music lovers with so many invaluable gems.

Lata first sang for CR in "Shehnai" in 1948. Prior to this, CR had been primarily using heavy vocal singers like Shamshad Begum in his music. Lata's entry indeed changed the canvas of Hindi film music but even more, it completely appeared to alter CR's form of music to one of greater subtlety and (pardon my excess) divinity. Indeed, the music presented by CR with Lata is one that fills you with serenity and transports you to realms of peace and spirituality.The combination went on full steam from 1949 through 1956. There were rumours of a deeper relationship between the two which neither of them have either accpeted or denied. But whatever, this is about the music they created. Some fatal disagreement caused them to fall apart and they did not patch up. Lata did sing for CR occasionally after that - in fact, the last song I can recall is in 1964 - but there was no longer the chemistry that existed during the halycon years. In a tribute to this glorious partnership, we shall select one song per day to highlight their brilliance.

Today, I select "Naa ummeed ho ke bhi, duniyaa me jiye jaate hain" from the film "Sangeetaa" released in 1950. This song is amongst CR's very bests ! The song starts off in a brisk pace with some outstanding orchestration and light touch of the guitar leading to Lata's voice is out-of-the-world and really, quite amazing for that time. Such sophistication in orchestration is unbelievable for 1950.

Lata then holds center-stage. CR has a fair list of brisk paced sad songs and this is one of them. The beautiful part of the rendition is when Lata goes "..toot.." for the "dil toot gaya phir bhi" phrase. You really get the feeling of a broken heart. The interlude music is short and sweet - typical of those times. The interludes were meant to be fillers to allow singers to catch their breaths. The interludes just elevate the song even higher. The curves of the tune flow is captured to perfection by Miss M ! The two interludes have different composition structures, which is unusual for CR. Thats what makes this such a special CR song. But they join in beautifully back to the mukhdaa. Exceptional !!

CR epitomises classy-popular music to my mind. Drawing a parallel to Hollywood directors, CR is my Alfred Hitchcock, brilliant and appealing and popular. Anil Biswas was Orson Welles - definitely the best, intellectual. Not one for the masses but who is a God to all serious lovers of film music. The two created some of the finest music of the Platinum period of the Golden age of Hindi film music - 1950 to 1955.

I dont think any artiste of Indian cinema has as many words, as many happy adjectives devoted to him/her as has Lata Mangeshkar. Indeed, there is very little that one can add to the eloquence of previous writers.