Mumbai : Shahenshah-e-Gazal and Swar Kokila were both fans of each other. But the desire to sing together could not be fulfilled. Then one recorded his song in America, then one in Mumbai and made a single duet of Mehdi Hassan and Lata Mangeshkar. Mehdi Hasan’s son Kamran Mehdi Hasan, while interacting with the media from Chicago after the death of Lata Mangeshkar, said, ‘My father (Mehdi Hasan) was a great admirer of Lataji and he was also very much of her. Used to respect
I remember that when he went to India for his treatment in 2007, Lataji invited him to eat at his house. He said, ‘This was his last meeting. We stayed at his house for about six hours and had a long conversation. Lataji got her own personal camera and even posed for pictures together. He said, ‘His death is a loss to the world of music that will never be compensated. Then there will be no Lata Mangeshkar and there will be no Mehdi Hassan. Even though these great fanatics are gone. But he became immortal with his aunt. Lata Mangeshkar, who was awarded the country’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna, died on Sunday at the age of 92.
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Whereas Mehdi Hasan breathed his last on 13 June 2012 in Karachi after battling lung disease for 12 years. Despite being fans of each other, the two could never fulfill their desire to sing together. But his only duet in the 2011 album ‘Sarhadein: Music Beyond Boundaries’ came ‘Tera milna bahut achcha lage hai’. Kamran said, ‘Both wanted to sing with each other. We sent the track Lata ji in the voice of Mehdi Hassan sahab in 2004-2005, which was recorded in my studio in Los Angeles. He recorded his part in Mumbai. Later the music was again arranged in Mumbai with the recordings of both and the song was made.
Lata had said in an interview given to the media at that time, ‘Mehdi Sahab had left the song due to prolonged illness. He wanted to sing with me and sent me two-three recorded songs, of which Tera Mila was one. We compiled both of them by recording separately and thus our desire to sing together was fulfilled. I am very happy about it.’ The exception was when Lata made a separate recording or else she always preferred to record with fellow singers and composers. He had said, ‘I love to record and practice with fellow singers and musicians. Nowadays singers sing their own part separately, which I don’t like.
The first meeting between Lata and Mehdi Hassan was held in Toronto, Canada in 1975. But after that whenever he came to India, he did not go without meeting Lata. Kamran said, ‘In 1975, Mehdi Hassan sahib had a tour of Canada and America. When Lataji came to meet him in the Greenroom before the program in Canada, he took off his slippers outside the room as a mark of respect. After that, he met her again in 1989 on a tour of Mumbai and last met in 2007. He told that Hasan Sahab did not like comparisons among the artists. But once someone asked who among Noor Jahan and Lata he considers to be a better singer, he said, ‘There is a sense of purity in Noor Jahan’s singing and there is a feeling of purity in Lata’s singing.’ (agency)