- LATA MANGESHKAR (1929-2022)
Lata "The Person"
The Voice
Live 26th January 1963
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The Melody Queen Lata Mangeshkar:
"She came She sang and She conquered!!!"
(Author Unknown)
The angelic voice that made millions of admirers swoon and fall in love, Lata Mangeshkar breathed her last today 06 February, 2022 at 8.12am. She has died because of multi-organ failure after more than 28 days of hospitalization post-COVID-19. She left behind a rich musical legacy and the coming generations will remember her as a stalwart of Indian culture.
Elevating the tunes to soaring musical heights, evoking a gamut of emotions and encompassing practically every genre of Indian music, Lata Mangeshkar had captivated the listeners from all walks of life and became the most glittering star of Hindi film music. Her voice, like Mahatma Gandhi's loin cloth and Rabindranath Tagore's beard, became a part of India's collective unconscious. She elevated playback singing from its surrogate status to that of a highly valued component of the country's burgeoning entertainment industry. The sweetness, tenderness and melodiousness of her singing had remained unmatched. She had an uncanny knack for conveying very succinctly the feel behind the lyrics of a song. Restraint in externalization of emotions was the beauty of Lata's singing. She was no Goddess but her prime era voice was plain divine. She became an integral part of musical sensitivity, cinematic history and social fabric of India. Rightfully, she earned the sobriquet of ‘The Nightingale of India’ and even won the highest national honour Bharat Ratna.
The story of Lata Mangeshkar, reads like a powerful feminist script: the single woman's search for identity in a male-dominated society, her eventual triumph and the dramatic turn of fortune. From the heavy, mushy, melodramatic rendition patterns of 1930-1940s, she brought a rare finesse, softness and subtlety of expression into film-songs. Madhubala's stunning beauty and the young Lata's mesmerizing voice created history with ‘Aayega Aanewala..’ (Mahal-1950). She bargained with the producers to jack up the remuneration to five-figure for every song and shared a part of the colossal royalty paid by the record manufacturing companies.
Her choice of songs and her expressive style of rendition brought a never before dignity and decorum in film music. Bade Ghulam Ali Khan called her ‘Ustaadon Ki Ustaad’ and commented “Kambakht, kabhi besuri hi nahi hoti.” Kumar Gandharva complimented that ‘What Lata achieves in a film song lasting three minutes is equivalent to what a great classical singer might achieve in a three hour long mehfil. She was not only the voice of the dreamy romantic love she was also the voice of a sharing wife, caring mother, doting sister and innocent child of the family. Her emotional rendition of the patriotic song ‘Ae Mere Watan Ke Logo’ after the Chinese aggression had moved the late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to tears.
Lata Mangeshkar's early life was a Dickensian saga of nightmarish poverty and drudgery. She was born as Hema on September 28, 1929 in Indore, but later rechristened as Lata. Her father, Dinanath Mangeshkar, was a classical singer and owned an itinerant dramatic troupe. An attack of smallpox, when she was two years old, left indelible marks on her body. She had no schooling as she started singing and acting in her father’s musical plays at the age of five. In 1942, her father died of pleurisy and Lata only 13, put on full war paint to act and sing in Master Vinayak’s “Pahili Manglagaur” (Marathi film). Lata played the heroine's sister and had three songs. A month earlier she had recorded her first song in a Marathi movie Kiti Hasaal (1942). But the song ‘Naachu Yaa Gade Khelu Saari’ was chopped off at the editor's table.
After ‘Pahili Manglagaur’, Master Vinayak enrolled her as staff artiste on monthly salary of Rs 60. When the company shifted to Bombay, Lata took a house at Nana Chowk on monthly rent of Rs 25. It was not easy to fork out with eight mouths to feed. She became disciple of Aman Ali Khan Bhindi bazarwala to learn classical music. When Aman Ali left for Pakistan, she found a new guru in Amanat Ali. She made entry into the Hindi film arena with ‘Paa Laagun Kar Jori.. (Aap Ki Seva Mein-1947). After the closure of Prafull Pictures, she became jobless. During those days, she happened to meet Master Ghulam Haider, who was struck by the range and sweetness of the young girl's voice. He took Lata to Subodh Mukherjee, who rejected her saying that the ‘poor little thing’ had a "squeaky" voice. Masterji told him “The day is not far off when producers would queue up to sign the singer you are rejecting today.” How prophetic his words proved to be!!!
While waiting for a local train, Haider asked Lata to sing ‘Bulbulo Mat Ro...’ again. She sang and Haider kept tapping a tin of 555 cigarettes. The trains whistled in and out but he was immersed in the song. An hour later, Lata Mangeshkar was singing the same song for the film ‘Majboor’ at Bombay Talkies. The recording for Majboor was not easy it was recorded at the 32nd take. A whole battery of music directors were present at the rehearsal room of Bombay Talkies to listen to Haider's "discovery". She was flooded with singing assignments. The first was Naushad, who signed her for ‘Andaaz’ and Bhagatram got her to sing for Badi Bahen. Then came Barsaat where she sang ‘Jiya Bekaraar Hai..’, a song whose popularity is undiminished even today. She was paid just Rs200 for a Barsaat song.
In those days, playback singers were not credited on record labels, perhaps to conceal the fact that actors did not sing their own songs. When the 78 rpm record of ‘Aayega Aanewala..’ (Mahal) was released the song was credited to the character ‘Kamini’. Faced by a crescendo of demands, HMV revealed that a new singer Lata Mangeshkar has rendered this song. Kamal Amrohi, composer Khemchand Prakash and Lata brought much inventiveness to give the song a ghostly feel. She stood in a corner of the studio, with the microphone at the centre. She walked towards the microphone singing the opening verse from ‘Khamosh Hai Zamana...’ to ‘Is Aas Key Sahare’ and when she got close to the mike, she sang the refrain ‘Aayega, Aayega..’. This proved a smashing hit and she became one of the most sought-after voices of Hindi cinema.
The first half of her career is beyond compare. Lata’s voice had all the intrinsic qualities: Sweet and soft, serene and soothing, sentimental and spiritual to perfectly suit that era’s idealistic Indian woman’s clean-cut virginal screen image. The maestros like Anil Biswas, Naushad, Shankar-Jaikishan, C. Ramchandra, S. D. Burman, Madan Mohan, Roshan, Salil Choudhary, Hemant Kumar and Vasant Desai etc. composed exquisite tunes and Lata added her own magical virtuosity to create unforgettable songs. The peerless composers of this era no doubt played their part in creation of ‘The Lata Legend’.
The second half of her career did not really go well with her rightfully earned title of the ‘Melody queen’. Some composers used her miraculous range to compose unbelievably high-pitched compositions. Shanker-Jaikishan’s Ehsaan Tera Hoga Mujh Par.. (Junglee) and O Mere Shah-e-Khuba (Love In Tokyo) were meant for the male vocal range. Kumar Gandharva voiced that by making Lata sing at abnormally high pitches, the composers were damaging the natural sweetness and flair of her voice. Her voice started sounding aged and jaded. But she marched on relentlessly. The soundtracks like Do Raste, Ek Duje Ke Liye, Love Story, Chandani, Maine Pyar Kiya, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and Dil To Pagal Hai kept on reminding of her Midas touch of belting out hits after hits. An occasional Pakeeza, Aandhi, Kinara, Razia Sultan, Lekin, Rudaali even showed flickering glimpses of her best.
Lata Mangeshkar gave voice to the Indian silver-screen’s glitterati and the well-known actresses of the day wanted her to sing for them. She had lent her voice to four generations of heroines, an unparallel and iconic phenomenon in Hindi cinema. Her voice was best suited for heroines with either honey on their tongues (Nargis, Nutan) or high-decibel shirkers (Asha Parekh, Saira Banu). Jaya Bachchan once said, "No heroine felt that she has arrived until Lataji sang for her".
A nostalgia-trip to her melody-land, her most significant songs: ‘Aayega Aanewala.. (Mahal); ‘Jiya Beqarar Hai.. (Barsaat); ‘Yeh Zindagi Usi Ki Hai.. (Anarkali); Aye Maalik Tere Bande Hum.. (Do Aankhen Barah Haath); ‘Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya.. (Mughal-e-Azam); ‘O Sajna Barkha Bahar Aayi.. (Parakh); ‘Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon..’; ‘Aa Jaane Jaan.. (Inteqam); ‘Chalte Chalte Yun Hi Koi Gaya Tha.. (Pakeeza); ‘Ek Pyaar Ka Nagma Hai.. (Shor); ‘Didi Tera Devar Deewana.. (Hum Aapke Hain Kaun); ‘Are Re Are Yeh Kya Hua.. (Dil To Paagal Hai) and ‘Tere Liye Hum Hain Jiye.. (Veer Zaara) and there are at least a thousand songs left out of the queue.
Many of her non-film albums like Meera Bhajan, Chaala Vaahi Des, Lata Sings Ghalib and Shraddhanjali etc. have carved a musical niche of their own. She composed music for a few Marathi movies, mostly under the pseudonym ‘Anandghan’. Lata launched her own music label ‘LM Music’ with an album of bhajans ‘Swami Samarth Maha Mantra’ in 2012.
Her private and professional life had always remained shrouded in controversies: her infamous non-alliance with O.P. Nayyar, tiffs with some senior composers, differences with Rafi and Raj Kapoor over the song-royalty issue, alleged blocking of other singers and quietly acceptance of exaggerated entry in Guinness book of world records. The budding career of Suman Kalyanpur, Sudha Malhotra and Vani Jairam to Anuradha Paudwal was nipped simply because no one dared to question the hegemony. Remaining at top of the profession for more than five decades, she must have stepped on quite a few toes, hurt quite a few souls and bruised quite a few egos. However, she weathered all these storms with a dignified stoic silence and never indulged in mudslinging.
By early 1963, C. Ramchandra-Lata relationship had cooled off as he had come in the way of her wedding with glam boy Jaikishan. Before C Ramchandra, there had been Pt. Husnlal, Shyam Sunder, Sardul Kwatra etc. in her life. She finally got to the point of marrying Kumar Rajsinh of Dungarpur but his father Maharawal Laxmansinhji put his foot down. Her favourite Indian singer was K.L. Saigal and she always put on a tiavaratna ring belonging to Saigal. She was essentially a secretive person, a lone ranger in a gregarious world of glamour. She imperceptibly thrown a sort of cordon sanitaire around her. She lived up to the public image of a modern Meera, the single woman in a white sari who visited the Mahalaxmi Temple every week in a white Ambassador car, a white vanity bag dangling from her hand.
She had performed all over the USA, Canada and Europe selling the "voice" to the petro-dollar market with cheering, clapping of Indo-Pakistanis. In 1974, she became the first Indian to have performed in the Royal Albert Hall, London. She pursued addictive hobby of photography since 1947. She was crazy about perfumes and a perfume named after her ‘Lata Eau de Parfum’ was launched in 1999.
Lata Mangeshkar had recorded songs for more than 1000 Hindi films and in over 36 Indian regional and foreign languages. She is the pride recipient of innumerable National and International Awards and accolades which include: three National Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards, Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Bharat Ratna and France's highest Civil Award “Officer of the Legion of Honour”. Six universities have conferred on her honorary Doctorate degree.
It was a Filmfare Awards night in 1970, just before the winner singers Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar started singing ‘Acchha To Hum Chalte Hain’ as the concluding number, Lata kept her purse hanging on the mike. As the song was near finish, she picked up the purse and stylishly waving it to the audience, walked off the stage singing that famous ‘Tata... Bye Bye’ indicating her decision never to compete for the Award. The entire audience drew a collective gasp. Nobody knew of her decision before and the ‘Daughter of India’ did it in such a great style. Today, she left for her heavenly abode leaving teary-eyed nation of admirers who grew up listening to her immutable voice that gave wings to the words.
तुम न जाने किस जहाँ में खो गए,
हम भरी दुनिया में तन्हा हो गए!!!!!!!
😭💐🙏
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Extremely rare photo of all the singers together in the early years of their singing careers! (front row) Zohra Jan, Rajkumari, Amirbai Karnatki, Hamida Banu, Geeta Roy (later Geeta Dutt), Lata Mangeshkar, Meena Kapoor, (and standing behind) Sailesh Mukherjee, Talat Mahmood...and..., Dilip Dholakia, Mohd. Rafi, Shiv Dayal Batish, G.M. Durrani, Kishore Ganguli (later Kishore Kumar), Hemant Kumar and Mukesh.
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(Author Unknown)
The angelic voice that made millions of admirers swoon and fall in love, Lata Mangeshkar breathed her last today 06 February, 2022 at 8.12am. She has died because of multi-organ failure after more than 28 days of hospitalization post-COVID-19. She left behind a rich musical legacy and the coming generations will remember her as a stalwart of Indian culture.
Elevating the tunes to soaring musical heights, evoking a gamut of emotions and encompassing practically every genre of Indian music, Lata Mangeshkar had captivated the listeners from all walks of life and became the most glittering star of Hindi film music. Her voice, like Mahatma Gandhi's loin cloth and Rabindranath Tagore's beard, became a part of India's collective unconscious. She elevated playback singing from its surrogate status to that of a highly valued component of the country's burgeoning entertainment industry. The sweetness, tenderness and melodiousness of her singing had remained unmatched. She had an uncanny knack for conveying very succinctly the feel behind the lyrics of a song. Restraint in externalization of emotions was the beauty of Lata's singing. She was no Goddess but her prime era voice was plain divine. She became an integral part of musical sensitivity, cinematic history and social fabric of India. Rightfully, she earned the sobriquet of ‘The Nightingale of India’ and even won the highest national honour Bharat Ratna.
The story of Lata Mangeshkar, reads like a powerful feminist script: the single woman's search for identity in a male-dominated society, her eventual triumph and the dramatic turn of fortune. From the heavy, mushy, melodramatic rendition patterns of 1930-1940s, she brought a rare finesse, softness and subtlety of expression into film-songs. Madhubala's stunning beauty and the young Lata's mesmerizing voice created history with ‘Aayega Aanewala..’ (Mahal-1950). She bargained with the producers to jack up the remuneration to five-figure for every song and shared a part of the colossal royalty paid by the record manufacturing companies.
Her choice of songs and her expressive style of rendition brought a never before dignity and decorum in film music. Bade Ghulam Ali Khan called her ‘Ustaadon Ki Ustaad’ and commented “Kambakht, kabhi besuri hi nahi hoti.” Kumar Gandharva complimented that ‘What Lata achieves in a film song lasting three minutes is equivalent to what a great classical singer might achieve in a three hour long mehfil. She was not only the voice of the dreamy romantic love she was also the voice of a sharing wife, caring mother, doting sister and innocent child of the family. Her emotional rendition of the patriotic song ‘Ae Mere Watan Ke Logo’ after the Chinese aggression had moved the late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to tears.
Lata Mangeshkar's early life was a Dickensian saga of nightmarish poverty and drudgery. She was born as Hema on September 28, 1929 in Indore, but later rechristened as Lata. Her father, Dinanath Mangeshkar, was a classical singer and owned an itinerant dramatic troupe. An attack of smallpox, when she was two years old, left indelible marks on her body. She had no schooling as she started singing and acting in her father’s musical plays at the age of five. In 1942, her father died of pleurisy and Lata only 13, put on full war paint to act and sing in Master Vinayak’s “Pahili Manglagaur” (Marathi film). Lata played the heroine's sister and had three songs. A month earlier she had recorded her first song in a Marathi movie Kiti Hasaal (1942). But the song ‘Naachu Yaa Gade Khelu Saari’ was chopped off at the editor's table.
After ‘Pahili Manglagaur’, Master Vinayak enrolled her as staff artiste on monthly salary of Rs 60. When the company shifted to Bombay, Lata took a house at Nana Chowk on monthly rent of Rs 25. It was not easy to fork out with eight mouths to feed. She became disciple of Aman Ali Khan Bhindi bazarwala to learn classical music. When Aman Ali left for Pakistan, she found a new guru in Amanat Ali. She made entry into the Hindi film arena with ‘Paa Laagun Kar Jori.. (Aap Ki Seva Mein-1947). After the closure of Prafull Pictures, she became jobless. During those days, she happened to meet Master Ghulam Haider, who was struck by the range and sweetness of the young girl's voice. He took Lata to Subodh Mukherjee, who rejected her saying that the ‘poor little thing’ had a "squeaky" voice. Masterji told him “The day is not far off when producers would queue up to sign the singer you are rejecting today.” How prophetic his words proved to be!!!
While waiting for a local train, Haider asked Lata to sing ‘Bulbulo Mat Ro...’ again. She sang and Haider kept tapping a tin of 555 cigarettes. The trains whistled in and out but he was immersed in the song. An hour later, Lata Mangeshkar was singing the same song for the film ‘Majboor’ at Bombay Talkies. The recording for Majboor was not easy it was recorded at the 32nd take. A whole battery of music directors were present at the rehearsal room of Bombay Talkies to listen to Haider's "discovery". She was flooded with singing assignments. The first was Naushad, who signed her for ‘Andaaz’ and Bhagatram got her to sing for Badi Bahen. Then came Barsaat where she sang ‘Jiya Bekaraar Hai..’, a song whose popularity is undiminished even today. She was paid just Rs200 for a Barsaat song.
In those days, playback singers were not credited on record labels, perhaps to conceal the fact that actors did not sing their own songs. When the 78 rpm record of ‘Aayega Aanewala..’ (Mahal) was released the song was credited to the character ‘Kamini’. Faced by a crescendo of demands, HMV revealed that a new singer Lata Mangeshkar has rendered this song. Kamal Amrohi, composer Khemchand Prakash and Lata brought much inventiveness to give the song a ghostly feel. She stood in a corner of the studio, with the microphone at the centre. She walked towards the microphone singing the opening verse from ‘Khamosh Hai Zamana...’ to ‘Is Aas Key Sahare’ and when she got close to the mike, she sang the refrain ‘Aayega, Aayega..’. This proved a smashing hit and she became one of the most sought-after voices of Hindi cinema.
The first half of her career is beyond compare. Lata’s voice had all the intrinsic qualities: Sweet and soft, serene and soothing, sentimental and spiritual to perfectly suit that era’s idealistic Indian woman’s clean-cut virginal screen image. The maestros like Anil Biswas, Naushad, Shankar-Jaikishan, C. Ramchandra, S. D. Burman, Madan Mohan, Roshan, Salil Choudhary, Hemant Kumar and Vasant Desai etc. composed exquisite tunes and Lata added her own magical virtuosity to create unforgettable songs. The peerless composers of this era no doubt played their part in creation of ‘The Lata Legend’.
The second half of her career did not really go well with her rightfully earned title of the ‘Melody queen’. Some composers used her miraculous range to compose unbelievably high-pitched compositions. Shanker-Jaikishan’s Ehsaan Tera Hoga Mujh Par.. (Junglee) and O Mere Shah-e-Khuba (Love In Tokyo) were meant for the male vocal range. Kumar Gandharva voiced that by making Lata sing at abnormally high pitches, the composers were damaging the natural sweetness and flair of her voice. Her voice started sounding aged and jaded. But she marched on relentlessly. The soundtracks like Do Raste, Ek Duje Ke Liye, Love Story, Chandani, Maine Pyar Kiya, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and Dil To Pagal Hai kept on reminding of her Midas touch of belting out hits after hits. An occasional Pakeeza, Aandhi, Kinara, Razia Sultan, Lekin, Rudaali even showed flickering glimpses of her best.
Lata Mangeshkar gave voice to the Indian silver-screen’s glitterati and the well-known actresses of the day wanted her to sing for them. She had lent her voice to four generations of heroines, an unparallel and iconic phenomenon in Hindi cinema. Her voice was best suited for heroines with either honey on their tongues (Nargis, Nutan) or high-decibel shirkers (Asha Parekh, Saira Banu). Jaya Bachchan once said, "No heroine felt that she has arrived until Lataji sang for her".
A nostalgia-trip to her melody-land, her most significant songs: ‘Aayega Aanewala.. (Mahal); ‘Jiya Beqarar Hai.. (Barsaat); ‘Yeh Zindagi Usi Ki Hai.. (Anarkali); Aye Maalik Tere Bande Hum.. (Do Aankhen Barah Haath); ‘Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya.. (Mughal-e-Azam); ‘O Sajna Barkha Bahar Aayi.. (Parakh); ‘Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon..’; ‘Aa Jaane Jaan.. (Inteqam); ‘Chalte Chalte Yun Hi Koi Gaya Tha.. (Pakeeza); ‘Ek Pyaar Ka Nagma Hai.. (Shor); ‘Didi Tera Devar Deewana.. (Hum Aapke Hain Kaun); ‘Are Re Are Yeh Kya Hua.. (Dil To Paagal Hai) and ‘Tere Liye Hum Hain Jiye.. (Veer Zaara) and there are at least a thousand songs left out of the queue.
Many of her non-film albums like Meera Bhajan, Chaala Vaahi Des, Lata Sings Ghalib and Shraddhanjali etc. have carved a musical niche of their own. She composed music for a few Marathi movies, mostly under the pseudonym ‘Anandghan’. Lata launched her own music label ‘LM Music’ with an album of bhajans ‘Swami Samarth Maha Mantra’ in 2012.
Her private and professional life had always remained shrouded in controversies: her infamous non-alliance with O.P. Nayyar, tiffs with some senior composers, differences with Rafi and Raj Kapoor over the song-royalty issue, alleged blocking of other singers and quietly acceptance of exaggerated entry in Guinness book of world records. The budding career of Suman Kalyanpur, Sudha Malhotra and Vani Jairam to Anuradha Paudwal was nipped simply because no one dared to question the hegemony. Remaining at top of the profession for more than five decades, she must have stepped on quite a few toes, hurt quite a few souls and bruised quite a few egos. However, she weathered all these storms with a dignified stoic silence and never indulged in mudslinging.
By early 1963, C. Ramchandra-Lata relationship had cooled off as he had come in the way of her wedding with glam boy Jaikishan. Before C Ramchandra, there had been Pt. Husnlal, Shyam Sunder, Sardul Kwatra etc. in her life. She finally got to the point of marrying Kumar Rajsinh of Dungarpur but his father Maharawal Laxmansinhji put his foot down. Her favourite Indian singer was K.L. Saigal and she always put on a tiavaratna ring belonging to Saigal. She was essentially a secretive person, a lone ranger in a gregarious world of glamour. She imperceptibly thrown a sort of cordon sanitaire around her. She lived up to the public image of a modern Meera, the single woman in a white sari who visited the Mahalaxmi Temple every week in a white Ambassador car, a white vanity bag dangling from her hand.
She had performed all over the USA, Canada and Europe selling the "voice" to the petro-dollar market with cheering, clapping of Indo-Pakistanis. In 1974, she became the first Indian to have performed in the Royal Albert Hall, London. She pursued addictive hobby of photography since 1947. She was crazy about perfumes and a perfume named after her ‘Lata Eau de Parfum’ was launched in 1999.
Lata Mangeshkar had recorded songs for more than 1000 Hindi films and in over 36 Indian regional and foreign languages. She is the pride recipient of innumerable National and International Awards and accolades which include: three National Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards, Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Bharat Ratna and France's highest Civil Award “Officer of the Legion of Honour”. Six universities have conferred on her honorary Doctorate degree.
It was a Filmfare Awards night in 1970, just before the winner singers Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar started singing ‘Acchha To Hum Chalte Hain’ as the concluding number, Lata kept her purse hanging on the mike. As the song was near finish, she picked up the purse and stylishly waving it to the audience, walked off the stage singing that famous ‘Tata... Bye Bye’ indicating her decision never to compete for the Award. The entire audience drew a collective gasp. Nobody knew of her decision before and the ‘Daughter of India’ did it in such a great style. Today, she left for her heavenly abode leaving teary-eyed nation of admirers who grew up listening to her immutable voice that gave wings to the words.
तुम न जाने किस जहाँ में खो गए,
हम भरी दुनिया में तन्हा हो गए!!!!!!!
😭💐🙏
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Last Days of Lataji
You have to watch the following Video Compilation to get an idea of hundreds of Music Composers and Directors Lataji has worked with to Create a Portfolio that can never be matched. A True Legend.
Some of Lata Mangeshkar’s
famous songs in this one video!
Look at the Music Directors and Composers who had the pleasure of Lataji add Voice to their Music.
Every song you remember,
will make you want to cry
😂😂😂
Blogger wont let me share these videos Unfortunately
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Click on Link above to Read an Article
I blogged on 7th October 2020.
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This is a technological wonder. Lata Mangeshkar had a dream of singing a duet with Kundanlal Saigal which never happened..
Her nephew and illustrious composer Hridaynath Mangeshkar's singer son Baiju Mangeshkar expressed this idea to his friend and music associate Jatin Sharma, a composer and very successful music arranger to create a duet using their voices with the help of modern technology and the results are here..
He gave her this gift on Lataji's 92nd birthday.... Lataji when presented with the melody at the zero hour of midnight said, "This is the best gift I have received".....
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A Rare Treat
This is the only recording available of Late Lata Mangeshkar, singing an English song at a concert in Toronto on June 9, 1985 to benefit "United Way of Canada."
The song is called You Needed Me and was originally recorded by Canada's own Grammy award-winning singer Anne Murray.
On Anne Murray's special request Lata ji sang this song in the show, accompanied by the Toronto Orchestra.
Last Rites
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Lata Mangeshkar, iconic Bollywood singer and India's 'Nightingale', dies at 92
Posted Sun 6 Feb 2022 at 11:32pm
ABC News
Lata Mangeshkar's singing career stretched across eight decades.
(AP: Rajesh Nirgude/File photo)
Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this article
abc.net.au/news/lata-mangeshkar-nightingale-bollywood-obituary-death/100809138
Lata Mangeshkar, a legendary Indian singer with a prolific catalogue and a voice recognised by more than one billion people across South Asia, has died at the age of 92.
Key points:
The Bollywood singer had been hospitalised since January for COVID-19
India has declared two days of national mourning
Mangeshkar will be given a state funeral
The iconic singer died on Sunday morning of multiple organ failure at Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai, her doctor Pratit Sandaun said.
She was hospitalised on January 11 after contracting COVID-19.
She was taken off the ventilator after her condition improved late last month but her health deteriorated on Saturday and she was put back on life support.
Mangeshkar received a state funeral with Prime Minister Narendra Modi flying in from New Delhi to pay his last respects.
Mr Modi laid a wreath next to Mangeshkar's body, wrapped in the Indian flag.
Thousands, including Bollywood stars and politicians, thronged Mumbai's iconic Shivaji Park where she was cremated, amid the chanting of Vedic hymns and a special gun salute.
India has declared two days of national mourning.
Condolence messages poured in immediately after her death was announced.
"I am anguished beyond words," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet.
"She leaves a void in our nation that cannot be filled. The coming generations will remember her as a stalwart of Indian culture, whose melodious voice had an unparalleled ability to mesmerise people," Mr Modi said.
Over the course of nearly eight decades, Mangeshkar was a major presence as a playback singer, singing songs that were later lip-synced by actors in India's lavish Bollywood musicals.
She was also fondly revered as the Melody Queen and Nightingale of India.
Sang about unrequited love and Indian nationalism
Mangeshkar's songs, always filled with emotion, were often sad and mostly dealt with unrequited love, but others involved national pride.
Born in Maharashtra on September 28, 1929, Mangeshkar first sang at religious gatherings with her father, who was also a trained singer.
After she moved to Mumbai, India's film industry capital, she became a star with immensely popular appeal, enchanting audiences with her smooth but sharp voice and immortalising Hindi music for decades to come.
Police and the public gather outside the Mumbai hospital where Mangeshkar died on Sunday.(Reuters: Niharika Kulkarni)
Few musicians defined versatility like Mangeshkar, who issued her debut song in 1942 for a Bollywood film when she was just 13.
Soon after, she became an icon of Hindi singing, lending her voice to over 5,000 songs in over a thousand Bollywood and regional language films.
She sang for Bollywood's earliest women superstars like Madhubala and Meena Kumari and later went on to give voice to modern divas like Priyanka Chopra.
Career breakthrough came in romantic classic
Mangeshkar was still in her 20s when she had already been established as one of the best playback singers in India. But her career-defining moment came in the epic historical Mughal-e-Azam, a romantic tragedy that was released in 1960.
Its soundtrack Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya? (Why fear if you are in love?) is considered one of the most memorable in Bollywood films, one that over decades has become an undisputed epitome of love's often rebellious nature.
Throughout her career, Mangeshkar worked with nearly all legendary Indian music directors, including Madan Mohan, Naushad, SD Burman, RD Burman, the duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal and AR Rahman, selling tens of millions of records.
Few musicians defined versatility like Mangeshkar, who issued her debut song in 1942 for a Bollywood film when she was just 13.
Soon after, she became an icon of Hindi singing, lending her voice to over 5,000 songs in over a thousand Bollywood and regional language films.
She sang for Bollywood's earliest women superstars like Madhubala and Meena Kumari and later went on to give voice to modern divas like Priyanka Chopra.
Career breakthrough came in romantic classic
Mangeshkar was still in her 20s when she had already been established as one of the best playback singers in India. But her career-defining moment came in the epic historical Mughal-e-Azam, a romantic tragedy that was released in 1960.
Its soundtrack Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya? (Why fear if you are in love?) is considered one of the most memorable in Bollywood films, one that over decades has become an undisputed epitome of love's often rebellious nature.
Throughout her career, Mangeshkar worked with nearly all legendary Indian music directors, including Madan Mohan, Naushad, SD Burman, RD Burman, the duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal and AR Rahman, selling tens of millions of records.
Mangeshkar presents an award to renowned Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan in 2005.
(AP: Rajesh Nirgude/File photo)
She also won dozens of singing awards, earning her a near saint-like status in the Bollywood music industry.
"I can't believe I've been tolerated by music lovers for 75 years," she said last year in an interview with the news website Rediff.
Mangeshkar's popularity extended far beyond India. She was celebrated not only in neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh but also in some Western countries.
In 2001, she was awarded the "Bharat Ratna," India's highest civilian honour.
The government of France conferred on her its highest civilian award, Officier de la Legion d'Honneur, in 2007.
In December, Mangeshkar commemorated eight decades of her debut on radio.
She wrote on Twitter in Hindi:
"On 16 December 1941, I sang two songs for the first time in the studio for radio after seeking the blessings of my parents. It has been 80 years today. In these 80 years, I have got immense love and blessings from the people. I believe that I will always keep getting your love and blessings."
Mangeshkar never married. She is survived by four siblings, all accomplished singers and musicians.
AP/ABC
Posted 6 Feb 2022,
She also won dozens of singing awards, earning her a near saint-like status in the Bollywood music industry.
"I can't believe I've been tolerated by music lovers for 75 years," she said last year in an interview with the news website Rediff.
Mangeshkar's popularity extended far beyond India. She was celebrated not only in neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh but also in some Western countries.
In 2001, she was awarded the "Bharat Ratna," India's highest civilian honour.
The government of France conferred on her its highest civilian award, Officier de la Legion d'Honneur, in 2007.
In December, Mangeshkar commemorated eight decades of her debut on radio.
She wrote on Twitter in Hindi:
"On 16 December 1941, I sang two songs for the first time in the studio for radio after seeking the blessings of my parents. It has been 80 years today. In these 80 years, I have got immense love and blessings from the people. I believe that I will always keep getting your love and blessings."
Mangeshkar never married. She is survived by four siblings, all accomplished singers and musicians.
AP/ABC
Posted 6 Feb 2022,
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Hema Hardikar – the Nightingale of India
By Tino de Sa
How Hema Hardikar came to be called Lata Mangeshkar – the name by which the world knows her – is a fascinating story that begins in the village of Mardol, just eleven kilometres from my own native village of Divar, in Goa.
On the outskirts of Mardol is the Mangeshi temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva in his form as Mangesh or Manguirish. The deity had been shifted here in 1560 when the Portuguese occupied Kushasthali (now Cortalim, on the banks of the Zuari), and in course of time a magnificent temple was constructed unlike any other in India, its unique architecture with its domes, tiled roof, balustrades and balconies is typically Goan, reflecting a blend of Christian and Muslim elements in an overall traditional Hindu layout, but different from temple buildings elsewhere, in that it is bright, airy and spacious, its mahamandapa adorned with chandeliers and large windows topped by Gothic trefoil arches.
In this temple town lived a Karhade Brahmin bhatt or temple priest by the name of Ganesh Hardikar in the late 1800s. Also in the temple lived a devdasi by the name of Yesubai, who sang and danced before the deity on festival days.
At the turn of the century,
in 1900, a son was born to Ganesh and Yesubai, and they named him Deenanath. Deenanath was very talented, excelling in music and singing. He felt that Mardol was too small to contain his talent and that he would do better in drama, because of which, in 1920, he shifted to Pune, with its thriving Marathi stage. In an attempt to retain his links with his childhood temple town he took to calling himself Mangeshkar instead of Hardikar.
At 22 he met and married the daughter of a rich businessman, and they were blessed with a daughter, whom they named Latika. Alas, the infant died, and soon after her mother too passed away. A distraught Deenanath married his sister-in-law, Shevanti. In 1929 they were again blessed with a daughter whom he named Hema. But in memory of his eldest child Latika, who had died in infancy, he used to call Hema Lata – and the name stuck.
And that is how Hema Hardikar grew up as Lata Mangeshkar. The rest is history.
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‘I don’t want to be born again’
- Lata Mangeshkar
" Nothing in this world can happen without God's mercy — that's my firm belief. I was raised in a very religious family and follow the precepts of Hinduism. Though I love my religion and might think it to be the best, I respect all religions as much. I frequently visit and derive tremendous peace from all places of worship, be it a temple, church, durgah or gurdwara. I have to pray every night before sleeping and I have my own puja room at home.
Besides reciting formal prayers, I keep having informal conversations with God — it's more of telling than asking. If somebody has hurt me, been rude to me or wronged me, I confide in God as I would to a friend or my mother. But I never wish that any harm should befall that person because I believe very strongly in karma. If somebody wrongs me, I take it in my stride thinking I must have wronged that person in my past life, I had once lent a large sum of money to a man which he didn't return. Though my family was annoyed with the losses I had to incur, I viewed it as a debt I had to repay this person in my previous life which was carried forward to this life.
I've read the Gita and certain preachings I strongly believe in — one being to do one's duty without caring for the fruits. I remember when I entered the film industry in 1947, my father had just expired. At that point, my only wish was to earn money for my family. The name, fame and adulation which followed by 1948 was God's wish. I had neither expected nor asked for fame. To date, I pray to God before each recording. I constantly thank God saying, 'I'm not so big, you made me big.' These thoughts are always on my mind. If he so wishes, everything can finish in a second.
Man tends to forget God in his happy times. But one should gracefully accept sorrow as willingly as one accepts happiness — that's what life is about. I certainly feel God's presence a number of times — while singing, while recording, when I'm alone, when I hear a good song or one of my father's songs. And I believe that miracles do happen. In all honesty, I have experienced certain things which probably nobody would believe — they're what we call miracles. We all come into this world with a purpose. It's our duty to complete the task assigned to us. I suppose God wanted my services for singing. But I'm sure had I not given it my hundred percent, he would have taken this gift away from me. I would attribute my success totally to God and my parent's blessings. I only worked hard in what they gave me.
I'm very content in life. Anyone who truly believes in God is bound to be. People ask me why I never married? To that I say that, God gave me a job to do and I'm very satisfied with my work. Yes, like everyone else, I do have my moments of sorrow. But my sorrow is very temporary. What I cannot bear is to see other people suffering. I feel a sense of joy by helping such people.
One cannot escape one's destiny, but by thinking good thoughts, helping others and doing good deeds, I feel, we can lessen a sorrowful fate upto a point. Ram, we believe, is Vishnu's avatar. Despite being a king's son he had to endure an exile for fourteen years. That was his destiny. But because he did good deeds during this period, killing Ravan being one of them, he saw good times again and succeeded in creating 'Ramrajya'.
What we are experiencing today is 'Kalyug'. Though I might not be alive, I firmly believe that God will descend upon this earth once again to set things right. If I were to meet God, I would ask him to put an end to the injustice in this world. I wish he would tum this world into a beautiful garden where mankind lives in peace.
And though I do believe in rebirth, the only thing I would ask of God for myself is that I should not be born again. "
( As Lata Mangeshkar told to Kanaka Singh, originally published in Bombay Times on May 11, 2000 )
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Cricket Story
When Kapil Dev lifted the World Cup at the Lord's balcony, the erstwhile BCCI president and one of the powerful ministers in the Indira Gandhi cabinet, late NKP Salve had a different worry.
It was still some years to go for economic liberalization and an astute businessman like Jagmohan Dalmiya's foresight to turn cricket into an industry. Team India's achievement needed to be celebrated but the BCCI, which currently is looking at USD 5 billion television contract, barely had fund and paid its cricketers a daily allowance of 20 pound sterling.
Salve had to turn to his 'Man Friday' and Indian cricket's 'one stop Encyclopedia' Raj Singh Dungarpur for a solution to be able to reward the players for such an achievement.
'Raj bhai', as Dungarpur was known in Indian cricket circle, decided that the only way was to request his close friend and one of country's biggest cricket fans Lata Mangeshkar to do a pro-bono concert in the national capital's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
The JLN was packed to capacity as 'Lata ji' did a near two hour programme.
The event ensured that BCCI collected enough money and each of the 14 members got Rs 1 lakh each as cash award.
"It was a very decent sum in those days. We would otherwise save up tour money and daily allowance for that month and it came to barely Rs 60,000," Sunil Valson
Raj Singh Durganpur wanted to marry Lata Mangeshkar . Raj was from a Rajput Royal Family & was President of Cricket Control Board - was not allowed to marry a commoner. Raj used to call Lata Mithoo. 😀😀
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