Lata Mangeshkar (; born September 28, 1929) is a singer from India. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over six and a half decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand Bollywood movies and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional Indian languages and foreign languages, but primarily in Hindi. She is the elder sister of Asha Bhosle and brother Hridayanath Mangeshkar and sisters Usha Mangeshkar and Meena Mangeshkar. She is the second vocalist ever to have received the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.
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 to 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 younger sister, Asha Bhosle, had more song recordings than she had.
Early life
Lata Mangeshkar was born in Sikh Mohalla,
Indore, in the
Central India Agency (now part of
Madhya Pradesh). Her father, Pandit
Deenanath Mangeshkar who belonged to a
Kalavant family from
Goa, was a classical singer and theater actor. Her mother Shudhhamati, who was from
Thalner,
Maharashtra, was Deenanath's second wife. The family's last name used to be Hardikar; Deenanath changed it to Mangeshkar in order to identify his family with his native town,
Mangeshi in
Goa. Lata was named "Hema" at her birth. Her parents later renamed her Lata after a female character, Latika, in one of her father's plays,
BhaawBandhan. Lata is the eldest child of her parents.
Asha,
Hridayanath,
Usha, and
Meena are her siblings in sequence.
Mangeshkar took her first music lessons from her father. At the age of five, she started to work as an actress in her father's musical plays (sangeet naatak in Marathi). On the first day in the school, she started teaching songs to other children. When the teacher stopped her, she was so angry that she stopped going to the school.
“Aayega Aanewaala,” a song in the movie Mahal (1949) was composed by music director Khemchand Prakash and lip-synced on screen by actress Madhubala.
The 1950s
In the 1950s, Mangeshkar sang songs composed by various music directors of the period, including
Anil Biswas (in films such as Tarana and Heer),
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.
Mangeshkar sang many raga-based songs for Naushad in movies such as Baiju Bawra (1952), Mughal-E-Azam (1960), and Kohinoor (1960). Ae Chorre Ki Jaat Badi Bewafa, a duet with G. M. Durrani, was her first song for composer, Naushad. The duo, Shankar-Jaikishan, chose Mangeshkar for Aag, Aah (1953), Shree 420 (1955), and Chori Chori (1956). Before 1957, composer Sachin Dev (S. D.) Burman chose Mangeshkar as the leading female singer for his musical scores in Sazaa (1951), House No. 44 (1955), and Devdas (1955). However a rift developed between Lata and Burman in 1957, and Lata did not sing Burman's compositions again until 1962.
In 1963, Mangeshkar returned to collaboration with S. D. Burman. She also sang for R. D. Burman's very first film Chhote Nawaab and later for his films such as Bhoot Bangla (1965), Pati Patni (1966), Baharon ke Sapne (1967) and Abhilasha (1969). She also recorded several popular songs for S. D. Burman, including Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna Hai, Gata Rahe Mera Dil (duet with Kishore Kumar) and Piya Tose from Guide (1965), and Hothon Pe Aisi Baat from Jewel Thief (1967).
During the 1960s, Lata Mangeshkar continued her association with Madan Mohan which included the songs Aap Ki Nazron Ne Samjha from Anpadh (1962), Lag Ja Gale and Naina Barse Rim Jhim from Woh Kaun Thi? (1964), Woh Chup Rahen To from Jahan Ara (1964), and Tu Jahan Jahan Chalega from Mera Saaya (1966).
The 1960s also witnessed the beginning of Mangeshkar's association with Laxmikant-Pyarelal, the music directors for whom she sang the most songs in her career.
She also sang several playback songs for Marathi films, composed by Marathi music directors including Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Vasant Prabhu, Srinivas Khale, Sudhir Phadke and herself (under the name Anandghan). During the 1960s and 1970s, she also sang several Bengali songs, composed by music directors like Salil Chowdhury and Hemant Kumar.
Lata Mangeshkar has recorded duets with Mukesh, Manna Dey, Mohammed Rafi, and Kishore Kumar. From the 1960s, she was not on good terms with Mohammed Rafi over the issue of royalty payments to singers. Mangeshkar wanted Rafi to back her in demanding a half-share from the five percent song royalty that the film's producer conceded to select composers. But Rafi took a diametrically opposite view, and believed that a playback singer's claim on the filmmaker ended with the payment of the agreed fee for the song. During the recording of the song Tasveer Teri Dil Mein (Maya, 1961), Mangeshkar lost her cool with Rafi in a certain passage of the song. Rafi felt belittled, as the music director Salil Chowdhury chose to back Mangeshkar . The situation worsened as Lata Mangeshkar declared that she would no longer sing with Rafi. Rafi stated that he was only as keen to sing with Mangeshkar as she was with him.
In 1999, she was nominated as a member of Rajya Sabha. However, she did not attend the Rajya Sabha sessions regularly, inviting criticism from several members of the House, including the Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptullah, Pranab Mukherjee and Shabana Azmi. She stated the reason for her absence as ill-health; it was also reported that she had not taken a salary, allowance or a house in Delhi for being a Member of Parliament.
In 2001, Lata Mangeshkar was awarded Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honor. In the same year, she established the Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital in Pune, managed by the Lata Mangeshkar Medical Foundation (founded by the Mangeshkar family in October 1989). In 2005, she designed a jewellery collection called Swaranjali, which was crafted by Adora, an Indian diamond export company. Five pieces from the collection raised £105,000 at a Christie's auction, and a part of the money was donated for the 2005 Pakistan earthquake relief. Also in 2001, she recorded her first Hindi song with the composer Ilaiyaraaja, for the film Lajja (2001); she had earlier recorded Tamil and Telugu songs composed by Ilaiyaraaja.
In 2000s, Lata Mangeshkar, along with other residents of the Peddar Road area in Mumbai, opposed the construction of a flyover in the area. She believed that construction of the flyover would increase air and noise pollution in the area, and threatened to quit the city if the flyover was built. In 2006, it was reported that she and her sister Asha Bhosle had purchased apartments in Parel and were planning to move out of Peddar Road.
Lata Mangeshkar's song Wada Na Tod is in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and on the film's soundtrack.
On June 21, 2007, she released an album Saadgi, featuring eight ghazal-like songs written by Javed Akhtar and composed by Mayuresh Pai.
Non-singing career
Music direction
Lata Mangeshkar composed music for the first time in 1955 for movie "Ram Ram Pavhane". Later in 1960s, she composed music for following
Marathi movies under the pseudonym of "Anand Ghan".
1960 - Ram Ram Pavhana
1963 - Maratha Tituka Melvava
1963 - Mohityanchi Manjula
1965 - Sadhi Manase
1969 - Tambadi Mati
She won Maharashtra State Government's Best Music Director Award for the film Sadhi Manase. The song Airanichya deva tula from the same film received best song award.
Production
Lata Mangeshkar has produced four films:
1953 - Vaadal (Marathi)
1953 - Jhaanjhar (Hindi), co-produced with C. Ramchandra
1955 - Kanchan (Hindi)
1990 - Lekin (Hindi)
Awards and recognitions
Lata Mangeshkar has won several awards and honors, including Padma Bhushan (1969), Padma Vibhushan (1999), Dada Saheb Phalke Award (1989), Maharashtra Bhushan Award (1997), NTR National Award (1999), Bharat Ratna (2001), ANR National Award (2009), three National Film Awards, and 12 Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards. She has also won four Filmfare Best Female Playback Awards. In 1969, she made the unusual gesture of giving up the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award, in order to promote fresh talent. She was later awarded Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993.
In 1984, the State Government of Madhya Pradesh instituted the Lata Mangeshkar Award in honor of Lata Mangeshkar. The State Government of Maharashtra also instituted a Lata Mangeshkar Award in 1992.
In 1974, The Guinness Book of Records listed Lata Mangeshkar as the most recorded artist in the history, stating that she had reportedly recorded "not less than 25,000 solo, duet and chorus backed songs in 20 Indian languages" between 1948 and 1974. Her record was contested by Mohammed Rafi, who was claimed to have sung around 28,000 songs. After Rafi's death, in its 1984 edition, the Guinness Book of World Records stated Lata Mangeshkar's name for the "Most Recordings", but also stated Rafi's claim. The later editions of Guinness Book stated that Lata Mangeshkar had sung no fewer than 30,000 songs between 1948 and 1987.
Although the entry has not been printed in Guinness editions since 1991, reputable sources claim that she has recorded thousands of songs, with estimates ranging up to figures as large as 50,000. However, even the earliest Guinness claim of 25,000 songs (between 1948–1974) was claimed to be exaggerated by other sources, who stated that the number of songs sung by Lata Mangeshkar in Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu films till 1991 was found to be 5250. Mangeshkar herself stated that she does not keep a record of the number of songs recorded by her, and that she did not know from where Guinness Book editors got their information.
See also
Playback singer
Asha Bhosle
List of Indian playback singers
Bollywood songs
References
Further reading
. A collection of articles written by Lata Mangeshkar since 1952.
.
. A collection of articles written by Lata Mangeshkar since 1952.
External links
Category:1929 births
Category:Indian female singers
Category:Indian film singers
Category:Recipients of the Bharat Ratna
Category:Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan
Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan
Category:Living people
Category:Bollywood playback singers
Category:Marathi people
Category:Kollywood playback singers
Category:People from Indore
Category:Marathi playback singers
Category:Telugu playback singers
Category:Kannada playback singers
Category:Hindi-language singers
Category:Marathi-language singers
Category:Bengali-language singers
Category:Gujarati-language singers
Category:Tamil-language singers
Category:English-language singers
Category:Dadasaheb Phalke Award recipients
Category:Recipients of the Maharashtra Bhushan Award
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