Lata Mangeshkar

28 Sep, 1929 | Indore

Singer

Biography

Lata Mangeshkar was a singer from India. She was one of the best-known playback singers in the Hindi film industry. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and had spanned over six and a half decades. She has sang in over a thousand Bollywood movies and has sung songs in over twenty regional Indian languages, but primarily in Hindi. Lata is the second vocalist ever to have received the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. Personal Life   Lata Mangeshkar was born in a Maharashtrian family in Sikh Mohalla, Indore, in the State of Madhya Pradesh. Her father, Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar who belonged to a Konkani-speaking Kalavant family from Goa, was a classical singer and theatre actor. Her mother Shudhhamati, who was from Thalner, was Deenanath's second wife. She was the elder sister of the equally accomplished singer Asha Bhosle and lesser-known singers, brother Hridayanath Mangeshkar and sisters Usha Mangeshkar and Meena Mangeshkar. Career Life Mangeshkar was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records from 1974 to 1991 for having made the most recordings in the world. The claim was that she had recorded no less than 25,000 solo, duet and chorus-backed songs in 20 Indian languages between 1948 and 1974 (30,000 songs between 1948 and 1987, according to the 1987 edition). Over the years, while several sources have supported this claim, others have raised concerns over its veracity, claiming that this number was highly exaggerated and that Mangeshkar's sister, Asha Bhosle had more song recordings than she had. Her first Hindi song was Mata Ek Sapoot Ki Duniya Badal De Tu for the Marathi film, Gajaabhaau (1943). Lata moved to Mumbai in 1945 when Master Vinayak's company moved its headquarters there. She started taking lessons in Hindustani classical music from Ustad Amanat Ali Khan Bhendibazaarwale. “Aayega Aanewaala,” a song in the popular movie Mahal (1949) proved a turning point for her. The song was composed by music director Khemchand Prakash and lip-synced on screen by actress Madhubala. In the 1950s, Lata sang songs composed by various acclaimed music directors of the period, including Anil Biswas, Shankar-Jaikishan, Naushad, S.D. Burman, C. Ramchandra, Hemant Kumar, Salil Chowdhury, Khayyam, Ravi, Sajjad Hussain, Roshan, Kalyanji-Anandji, Vasant Desai, Sudhir Phadke, Hansraj Behl, Madan Mohan and Usha Khanna. Acclaimed music director O.P. Nayyar was an exception who favoured Lata's sister Asha Bhosle as the singer of many of his compositions. Burman used Geeta Dutt and Lata's sister Asha Bhosle as his primary female playback singers.On June 21, 2007, she released an album Saadgi, featuring eight ghazal-like songs written by Javed Akhtar and composed by Mayuresh Pai. Death Lata Mangeshkar died at the age of 92. Due to the COVID-19 infection, her health deteriorated and she was being treated for pneumonia. She recovered from COVID but was on ventilator and died of multiple organ failure.