Lata Mangeshkar among 200 best singers of the world is a joke

The much-revered Rolling Stone magazine in all its wisdom has chosen the Goddess Of All Melodious Things as one of the 200 best singers in the world.While we do appreciate our most precious jewel in the croon, the Goddess of all melodious things, being honoured in and by the West, we cannot but laugh at the irony of it.Imagine an iconic publication from the West tells us Lataji is one of the 200 finest singers in the West. And that too at the 84th spot. Ahead of her are Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Sam Cooke, Billie Holiday, Mariah Carey, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Billie Holiday, Mariah Carey, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Otis Redding, Al Green, Little Richard, John Lennon, Patsy Cline, Freddie Mercury, Bob Dylan, Prince, Elvis Presley, Celia Cruz, Frank Sinatra and Marvin Gaye.The list, to say the least, is eclectic. How do they place Lataji in the same list as Stevie Wonder and Beyonce? Is it the range and scale that are comparable? Then I am afraid none of the singers in the list barring perhaps Whitney Houston, qualifies.The list is questionable on many levels. How can singers from different parts of the world representing different cultures' ethos and languages be placed in the same line of evaluation? It’s like comparing strawberries with mangoes. Or comparing Vincent Van Gogh with Claude Monet? Monet, by the way, was Lataji’s favourite painter.I believe Lataji to be one of those rarest of rare artistes who cannot be compared with anyone, living or dead. There can be only one Mozart or Beethoven. Likewise, there can only be one Lata Mangeshkar.A music scholar Chaman Bharti in Bhopal who has explored Lataji’s vocals in detail says, “If you take a strand of hair and put it under a microscope, there would be center to that magnified view of the strand of hair. Sur kitna bhi bareeq ho usska jo exact center hai wahan Lata Mangeshkar gaati hai(no matter how intricate the tune Lataji sings at its exact centre."I leave you with poet-thinker Javed Akhtar’s words on Lataji: “Sometimes I think people like Lataji, Ghalib, Beethoven and Shakespeare are far removed from the normal chain of human civilization. If they were just role models, how come no one was able to achieve an iota of their perfection? They are a kind of intruders who come as reminders of the rule of mediocrity that prevails. Lataji belongs to a different league.”Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.Read all the Latest News, Trending News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.