STOP SINGING LATA!!

"Naam gum jaayega, Chehra ye badal jaayega
Meri aawaz hi pehchaan hai, gar yaad rahe"

These are opening lines of a memorable song from a 1977 Hindi film Kinaara. Composed by the much celebrated Rahul Dev Burman, the song is sung by none other than the 'nightingale' - Lata Mangeshkar. Gulzar mentions in his autobiography, that he wrote the lyrics of this song keeping in mind Lata and her voice and not the situation of the movie. Her admirers tout her as a "living legend" while her critics have called her "The Artist of the millenium."

I absolutely concur with her admirers & critics for having bestowed upon her these titles. I agree that she sure deserved them once upon a time, NOT NOW.

One can see that her voice now has become pretty much wobbly, weedy and scrawny(if I may say) owing to her age. Any discerning music listener would have observed the deterioration in the quality of Lata's voice in the past decade. A few examples - Songs from the film Dil toh Pagal Hai, Jiya Jale from Dil Se, Ek tu hi Bharosa from Pukaar, O! Palan Haare from Lagaan, Tere Liye from Veer-Zaara,etc.
Truely the first line of the song above portrays her present day image as a playback singer, but certainly not the SECOND ONE, given the fact that 'naam gum ho chuka hai'.... aur 'chehra badal chuka hai', but 'woh aawaz bhi badal chuki hai.'.....AUR IS BAAT KO KOI NAHI BADAL SAKTA....

So Lataji I have admired your singing talent and you truely have been an inspiration for me....But if you really want the people of this world to remember you as the 'eternal Lata' I reckon you STOP SINGING....'varna kahin ye aawaz yaad hi na rahe!'

(ps : She is rumoured to have sung a couple of songs in a forth coming movie - Rang De Basanti)