Lata Mangeshkar remembers late S. Mohinder – “He was a polite soft-spoken man”

By Subhash K. Jha -

September 11, 2020 - 10:23 AM IST

Not much is known about music composer S. Mohinder who passed away on 6 September. He composed music for a tiny huddle of Hindi and Punjabi movies in the 1950s and 60s, the most popular being the ‘Punjabi Naanak Naam Jahaaz Hai’, and then migrated to the USA. Lata Mangeshkar, who recorded a handful of melodies with S. Mohinder, recallshim as a kind gentle soul with a keen eye for rhythm.

Lata Mangeshkar remembers late S. Mohinder – “He was a polite soft-spoken man”

“I don’t know why he left his career in Hindi cinema for the US. I wasn’t close enough to him to probe into his family matters. I do remember that among the handful of songs I recorded for Mohinderji the most famous, and the one that is remembered to this day, was ‘Guzra hua zamaana nahi aata dobara’. Bahut khoobsurat gaana hai,” she recalls that she may have recorded it on the set.

“This used to happen once in a while. There were occasions when there was no time to record in a studio. I used to go straight on the set and record the song during the shooting. Perhaps, ‘Guzra hua zamaana nahi aata dobara’ was recorded in this way.”

I remind Lataji that she had also sung a lovely duet ‘Aaja O Jaan-e-Wafa’ with Hemant Kumar in Shirin Farhad and also some other gems in the films Naata and Picnic for S. Mohinder.

“These, I don’t recall. I remember doing very less work with Mohinderji. But, whatever I did was satisfactory. He did return from the US, and we had met. He was a polite soft-spoken man,” remembers Lataji.

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