Tu Jahaan Jahaan Chalega
On July 14, 1975, Madan Mohan passed away. He was the musician's musician. As Begum Akhtar rang his Makani Manor home on Pedder Road to request Madan to play and sing his Qadar Jaane Na on the phone, you realized that Lata Mangeshkar is Madan Mohan and Madan Mohan is Lata Mangeshkar. Take away Madan and what is left of Lata? A treasure trove of tunes by which you just cannot fathom how the vocals of Lata, as fashioned by Madan., dovetail into a particular raag. I pick the raag by instinct. And I have found Madan Mohan, here, the most difficult to pick. Because Madan glides into the raag without himself seeming to be conscious of it. If it is by the Madan ghazal you swear, zero in on Lata's Adalat nugget of Nargis: Unko Yeh Shikayat Hai. Only as the instrumental accompaniment follows do you divine that Madan, here, has moved into Maalgunji. In the case of Naushad, you spot the raag on the dot, so scientific is this composer. But 'art is long, life is short' is the axiom by which a song in Raag Madan flows.

Take the stunning effect left by Madan's Jahanara gem as polished by Lata Haal-E-Dil Yoon unhen sunaya gaya. It sounds Malhar. But is it Surdasi Malhar or Mian Ka Malhar? How do you distinguish here between Bhakt Surdas and Mian Tansen? How indeed, now that Madan is no longer there to solve the riddle by playing it, on that spool tape-recorder, in his drawing room? This style of raag exploration baffles me no end. Take, from the same Jahanara, that super Suman - Rafi duet, Baad Muddat Ke Yeh Ghadi Aayee. As it stands, it is in Chhayanat. But would it have been retained by Madan, in the same raag in the same Kalyan that, if he had got Lata (rather than Suman) to duet with Rafi? Suman has sung it superbly, yet I have no doubt that Baad Muddat Ke would have been Lata, but for the Lata / Rafi rift in those years . Let us stay with Jahanara Mala Sinha. Let us turn the focus on Minu Mumtaz and Aruna Irani enacting before her. 'Jab Jab Tumhen Bhulaya Tum Aur Yaad Aaye'. It is in gorgeous Gaara - as Lata-Asha harmonized by Madan. Which other composer could have got Asha to 'hear ear to ear' with her didi those days (1964)?

But the problem for listeners really rises 'when Madan has Lata all to himself. Not when, as in Mera Saaya, he has Lata soliloquizing Tu Jahaan Jahaan Chalega. This one has been oft identified as in Nand.

But in the case of the same Lata with the same Madan in the same Mera Saaya, how do you decide in which of two raags Naino Mein Badra Chhaye (on Sadhana) is? If you say it is in Bhimpalasi, I aver it is in Dhaani. If you argue for Dhaani, I settle for Bhimpalasi!

I tell you, there is no composer who sets you thinking on such divergent raag tracks. Madan's Dastak knocks you over, as it comes to you, in surpassing Charukeshi, as Baiyaan Na Dharo Balma via Lata. So what if this one, on Rehana Sultan, did not win the Sur Singar Award? That award (even more befittingly in the case of Lata-Madan earlier) had belonged to Maine Rang Li Aaj Chunariya set in thematic Peelu, to go on Nutan as Dulhan Ek Raat Ki.

But it is when you have to choose from three Lata-Madan creations in the same Khamaj that you do not know which ear to turn where. How you sit enraptured by the Khamaj notes of Meri Aankhon Se Koi Need Liye Jaata Hai (Pooja Ke Phool), Aap Ki Baaten Karen Ya Apna Afsaana Kahen (Dil Ki Raahen) and Khanak Gayo Haay Bairi Kangana (Rishte Naate)! While you scratch your head in making your selection here, I turn to Bairan Neend Na Aaye Mohe on Anita Guha in Chacha Zindabad. This one is obviously in Kaafi and there can be no argument about its intrinsic Madan merit, since Lata named it amongst her silver jubilee top 10.

But even Madan, had he been living, would have had to concede that his ultra-cute Jaltarangised air in Bahana for Lata immortalized on Radio Ceylon by Gopal Sharma as Jaa Re Badra Bairi Jaa re Jaa re, is the original Yaman creation, superior to his 'Jiya Le Gayo Ji Mora Sanwariya' by Lata in Anpadh. S.D.Burman, who spotted Madan as a fledging in Filmistan, considered this composer's Heer Raanjha to be fantastic .. a score enriched with Lata's 'Do Dil Toote Do Dil Haare' on Priya Rajvansh in Maand? After Burman, we come to Naushad naming Lata Madan's "Hai Isi Mein Pyaar Ki Aabroo' (in Anpadh) as "the ultimate in ghazal". This one is in Bhairavi. But is it better Lataised Bhairavi than Madan's Tu Pyaar Kare Ya Thukraye in Dekh Kabira Roya?

I leave you to work it all out. Even while doing so, hear afresh Lata's Woh Dekho Jala Ghar Kisee Ka in Anpadh. Look how unobtrusively Madan, here, has slipped into Komal Asvari! Or is it (more accurately) Komal Rishab Asavari? How much easier things were in the 1950s, when I heard Bol mere Nandlala Ab Kaun Mera Rakhwaala (in Bahana) as just another Lata number - without bothering to differentiate between Peelu and Gaara: and determining it, finally as in the latter raag!

Take a heavenly bow, Madan, you have raised more Lata queries than we have solved as we remember you, on a landmark occasion, as a landmark composer.