When Lata Mangeshkar sang for Madan Mohan

It was a collaboration most melodious

She had a voice from heaven. He could conjure up tunes that were out-of-this-world.

When they joined hands — which, fortunately, was very often — the result was sheer magic. Lata Mangeshkar and Madan Mohan together gave Hindi cinema some of its sweetest songs ever.

Hugely successful collaborations between composers and singers are not unusual in Indian cinema. It’s as if the composers reserve their best for their favourite voices — although that’s increasingly less frequent these days, when music isn’t as indispensable an ingredient in our cinema as it used to be.