Singer Vaishali Samant who has sung many chartbusters in Marathi and Hindi (A R Rahman's ' Chalka Chalka Re ' in Saathiya and ' Taal Se Taal Mila ' in Taal) is all set to compose music for a Marathi film based on the life of the 19th century social reformer Mahatma Jyotirao Phule.
Vaishali has convinced the reclusive Nightingale Lata Mangeshkar to record a song in Marathi for the film. The recording is to be held on Wednesday. This would be a rare song of Lataji tuned by a lady composer.
Says the Nightingale, "At the very beginning of my singing career, I recorded a song with Saraswati Devi who was the first music director of Hindi cinema. Then for a very long time, I worked only with male music directors because there were hardly any women doing music direction. Then after a very long time came Usha Khanna. I sang several songs for her including the very successful ' Chai pe bulaya hai ' in Souten . I've also sung Marathi songs composed by my sister Meena Mangeshkar. Now Vaishali would be the fourth female music composer I am singing for." And then with a mischievous smile, Lataji says, "Oh yes, there is one more female music composer I've sung for. I was very very closely associated with her. Her name was Anand Ghan." Anand Ghan was the pseudonym Lataji had adopted to compose music in 4 Marathi films: 1960 - Ram Ram Pavhana , 1963 - Maratha Tituka Melvav , 1963 - Mohityanchi Manjula 1965 - Sadhi Manase and 1969 - Tambadi Mati .