Always in the shadows of the greatest, Lata Mangeshkar’s youngest sister Usha Mangeshkar has had her own share of chartbusters in the past. Her songs in the 1975 freak hit Jai Santoshi Maa are played to this day in every household. Her raunchy dance number Mungda from the film Inkaar is an evergreen.
Says Usha, “To this day I don’t know what Mungda means. Seriously, I never asked the lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri Saab nor the composer Raju (Rajesh Roshan).I just sang it the way it was given to me. How was I or anyone to know that Mungda would become such an iconic song?”
To what does the songstress attribute the perennial popularity of Mungda? “I don’t know.It is always baffling when certain songs become bigger than others. I have sung some really lovely songs for composer Jaidev. But no one remembers those songs.Mungda, I guess people like the rhythm. As for my songs in Jai Santoshi Maa, that was God’s intervention. The film was made at a cost of lakhs. It made millions. The Jai Santoshi Maa songs such as Madad karo santoshi mata and Main toh aarti utaroon re are household favourites to this day.”
Usha Mangeshkar misses Lataji constantly. “Didi’s room is being treated like a temple. We are not using that room. Every thing in the room will remain as it is.I was very close to Didi . But her favourite sibling was our brother Hridaynath. She was very proud of his composing abilities. Nobody could sing his compositions the way Didi did.”
