Legendary singer and the Bharat Ratna recipient Lata Mangeshkar passed away on February 6, 2022. She was 92 years old, and died due to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. In her long singing career, which spanned over 70 years, she sang about 25,000 songs in 36 Indian languages. She also sang in other foreign languages like English, Russian, Dutch, and Swahili. Apart from the film fraternity all over India, her death was condoled across political spectrum, by sports fraternity, sports and leaders of various neighbouring countries. She was cremated with full state honours at Shivaji Park in Mumbai. Prime Minister Narender Modi attended her funeral. She is called the ‘queen of melody’, ‘nightingale of India’, and ‘Voice of the Millennium’.
Life and Career
Lata Mangeshkar was born on September 28, 1929 in Indore, to a Maharashtrian Brahmin family. She was the eldest daughter of Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar and Sudhamathi. Her father, Deenanath Mangeshkar was a Marathi classical singer, Hindustani classical vocalist, and theatre actor. Lata was named ‘Hema’ at her birth. She was renamed Lata after a female character, Latika in one of Deenanath Mangeshkar’s play, ‘Bhav Bhandan’. At the age of five, she started working as an actress in her father’s musical plays. She received her initial music lessons from her father. Her siblings are her sisters Meena, Asha, Usha, and her brother, Hridaynath. All her siblings are accomplished singers and musicians.
During the 1930s, Lata was acting in Marathi plays of Deenanath Mangeshkar. In 1942, Lata Mangeshkar recorded her first playback song, ‘Naachu Yaa Gade, Khelu Saari Mani Haus Bhaari’, for the Marathi film ‘Kiti Hasaal’, at the age of 13. In same year, she also played a small role in the Marathi movie, ‘Pahili Mangalaa-gaur’. It was in 1942 that Lata Mangeshkar’s father died of a heart disease. This left the family in financial hardship, and compelled Lata, and Master Vinayak Damodar Karnataki, the owner of Navyug Chitrapat Movie Company, a close friend of the Mangeshkar family, to take care of them. Damodar helped Lata in getting her career started as a singer and actress.
When Vinayak Damodar Karnataki’s company moved its headquarters from Indore to Mumbai, Lata Mangeshkar and her family also moved to Mumbai. In Mumbai, she started learning Hindustani classical music from Ustad Amanat Ali Khan of Bhendi Bazar Gharana. Lata Mangeshkar and her sister Asha played minor roles in Vinayak’s first Hindi movie, Badi Maa in 1945. She also sang a song for the movie.
After Vinayak’s death in 1948, she was mentored by music director Ghulam Haider. She was groomed in the art of playback singing including diction, pronunciation, voice modulation, and breath control by the master. Haider gave Lata Mangeshkar her first major break with the song ‘Dil Mera Toda’, in the movie ‘Majboor’ in 1948. That song was her first big breakthrough hit. It was followed by ‘Aayega Aanewala’ from ‘Mahal’ in 1949. These songs got her many admirers who were eager to know the singer’s identity. Between 1947 and 1951, her popularity soared.
This is the time when she got recognition as the most popular playback singer of Hindi cinema. During this time, she worked with some of the most famous music composers of that generation, including Anil Biswas, Naushad, Madan Mohan, SD Burman, C Ramachandra, Khayyam, Hemant Kumar, Salil Chowdhury, and Kalyanji-Anandji, and Laxmikant-Pyarelal, among others. In 1955, she also sang a song in Sinhala for a Sri Lankan film. She also started singing in South Indian languages during this period. Lata Mangeshkar has sung about 185 songs in Bengali making her debut in 1956.
In 1958 she won her first Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer for ‘Aaja Re Pardesi’ from Madhumati. On May 1, 1960, Lata Mangeshkar was honoured when she was invited to sing the Marathi prayer song at the midnight congregation, at Shivaji Park, to mark the formation of the state of Maharashtra.
On January 27, 1963, Lata Mangeshkar sang the patriotic song ‘Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo’, composed by C Ramachandra and written by Kavi Pradeep, at an event organised in Delhi to raise funds for families of soldiers who had sacrificed their lives in the Indo-China War. After the event, the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru said that her singing brought tears to his eyes. In 1963, she got associated with Laxmikant-Pyarelal, and over a period she sang more than 700 songs for the composer duo over a period of 35 years. Most of her songs, with the composer-duo, became huge hits. During the 60s, she recorded duets with Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Manna Dey, Mahendra Kapoor, Mohammed Rafi, among others. In 1967, Lata Mangeshkar made her Kannada debut by recording two songs for the music director, Lakshman Berlekar.
During 1970s she sang many popular songs composed by Lakshmikant-Pyarelal and RD Burman and written by lyricist Anand Bakshi. From 1970s, Lata Mangeshkar also staged many concerts in India and abroad. She also did several charity concerts. Her first concert overseas was at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in the year 1974. Until then, Indian film music concerts abroad were song-and-dance affairs, and were held in community halls and colleges. It was not taken seriously. It was Lata Mangeshkar, who demanded to sing only in mainstream halls. It was an honour that, until then, was bestowed only upon classical musicians.
In the late 1970s and during 1980s, she worked with next generation composers, SD Burman, Rajesh Roshan, Anu Malik, Anand-Milind, Bappi Lehri, and others.
In 1985, the United Way of Greater Toronto invited her to perform at the Maple Leaf Gardens. At the request of the famous Canadian Pop Singer, Anne Murray, Lata Mangeshkar sang Anne’s song ‘You Needed Me’ during the event. She raised USD1,50,000 through the event, for charity.
In the 1990s, she recorded music with even more young music directors like Anand-Milind, Nadeem-Shravan, Jatin-Lalit, AR Rahman, and many more. Further, she slowly started recording ghazals with Jagjit Singh. During the 1990s, she gave famous hit duets singing with male playback singers including Kumar Sanu, SP Balasubramanyam, Udit Narayan, Hariharan, Suresh Wadkar, Vinod Rathod, and Sonu Nigam, etc.
She also launched her own production house for Hindi movies, which produced the famous film ‘Lekin’, directed by Gulzar. She also rendered her voice for the song, ‘Yaara Silli’, which was composed by her brother Hridaynath, for the movie.
In 1999, she was nominated as a member of Rajya Sabha. However, she could not attend the Rajya Sabha sessions regularly due to her ill-health. Also, she did not avail any benefits, salary or allowance, for being a member of Parliament.
From late 1980s to mid-2000, she sang for almost all the Yash Chopra films. Her last full album was from the film ‘Veer-Zaara’, in 2004. Between 1998 and 2014, Oscar winning music director, AR Rahman, recorded many songs with Lata Mangeshkar. AR Rahman’s song ‘Luka Chuppi’, a moving piece, from ‘Rang De Basanti’, which was recorded in 2006, is considered her swan song, and a sort of grand finale to an epic life.
In June 2007, Lata Mangeshkar released the album Saadgi, featuring eight ghazal-like songs written by Javed Akhtar and composed by Mayuresh Pai.
She also released an album in 2011 ‘Sarhadein: Music Beyond Boundaries’, in association with Indian and Pakistani singers like Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, lyricist Farhad Shahzad. In 2012, she launched her own music label, LM Music, with an album of bhajans, Swami Samarth Maha Mantra, composed by Mayuresh Pai.
She recorded her last song ‘Saugandh Mujhe Is Mitti Ki’ composed by Mayuresh Pai, as a tribute to the Indian Army and nation. It was released on 30 March, 2019.
In September 2021, filmmaker and composer, Vishal Bharadwaj, released the unreleased tracks of Lata Mangeshkar, titled ‘Theek Nahi Lagta’. The songs were written by Gulzar and recorded in the 1990s, but later got shelved.
Awards and Accolades
In her long musical reign, Lata Mangeshkar won many national and international awards. In 2001, in recognition of her contributions to the nation, she was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour; she is only the second female singer, after MS Subbulakshmi, to receive this honour.
The Government of France conferred on her its highest civilian award, ‘Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour’ in 2007.
Other awards conferred on her include Padma Bhushan in 1969, Padma Vibhushan in 1999, Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1989, Maharashtra Bhushan Award in 1997, NTR National Award (given by the Andhra Pradesh Government) in 1999, Akkineni Nageshwar Rao National Award in 2009. She is honoured with the National Award thrice—for ‘Parichay’ 1972, ‘Kora Kagaz’ (1975) ‘Lekin’ (1990).
Lata Mangeshkar also won four Filmfare Best Female Playback Awards. In order to promote fresh talent, she gave up the Filmfare Best Female Playback Awards in 1969. However, she was awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993, and Filmfare Special Awards in 1994 and 2004.
The state government of Madhya Pradesh started the ‘Lata Mangeshkar Award’ in her honour. The Maharashtra state government, too, instituted a ‘Lata Mangeshkar Award’ in 1992.
Lata Mangeshkar was conferred honorary doctorates from six universities including, the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1989, Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidalaya, Khairagarh, Shivaji University in Kolhapur, and New York University, among others.
In 1974, the Guinness Book of Records named Lata Mangeshkar as ‘the most recorded artist in history’, with ‘not less than’ 25,000 songs, including solo, duet, and chorus backed songs, between 1948 and 1974.
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