Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar is India’s own nightingale. A singer beyond comparison, her voice has touched the chords of one and all for generations. One of the best and most respected playback singers in India, Lata Mangeshkar’s career has spanned over six and a half decades. She is the second vocalist ever to receive the Bharat Ratna, which is the highest civilian honour in the country.

Lata Mangeshkar was placed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having recorded for having made the most recordings in the world from 1974 to 1991. Till date, she has recorded songs for over a thousand Bollywood movies. It is amazing to know that she has recorded in over 36 Indian regional and foreign languages! In fact, one is stunned to know that it is believed that she has sung over 25000 songs in over 20 Indian languages from the years 1948 till 1974.

She was born in a Maharashtrian family in Indore and lost her father to heart disease when she was hardly 13 years old. A close friend of Mangeshkar’s family who was in the movie business took the family under his wing and gave the opportunity to Lata to break into Bollywood.

Being a Marathi, she had to even sing proper hindi/urdu songs and so as not to hurt the sentimentalities of people, she even took training in Urdu from an Urdu teacher. Who can forget Lata Mangeshkar’s famous song from Mughal-e-azam. Lata immortalized the song with her beautiful voice and people still remember the song fondly.

It is not at all surprising to note that Lata Mangeshkar has won the highest accolades and won prizes throughout her career. The most honoured awards in the country like the Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, Dada Sahab Phalke Award, have all been reminiscent of her singing prowess. In 1984, the state government of Madhya Pradesh instituted the Lata Mangeshkar Award in honour of this superb singer.