Lata Mangeshkar, the 'Indian Queen of Melody' - Biography

 Lata Mangeshkar

(Biography)

Known as the 'Indian Queen of Melody', Lata Mangeshkar has sung nearly 30,000 songs in 36 Indian languages ​​in her long golden career. Lata Mangeshkar was a legendary playback singer who brought a different dimension to Indian film music.

She was one of the most sought after musicians in India for decades. From the beginning of the musical Bollywood film world, playback singers have been an integral part of the art. Every top actress in Bollywood wanted her song to be sung with her (Lata Mangeshkar) in the film.

👉 Birth of Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar was born on 26th September, 1929 in Indore, a city of Madhya Pradesh, India. Her father, Pandit Dinnath Mangeshkar was a singer, theater actor and produced lyric plays in Marathi. Her mother was Shevanti Devi.

She was the eldest of five siblings. Her other siblings have also followed in her footsteps and they too have become famous singers of India.

👉 Education & Early Life:  

Lata Mangeshkar never received formal education. A housemaid taught her the Marathi alphabet and a local priest taught her Sanskrit. Besides, her near and dear relatives and teachers would come to her house and teach her other subjects.

But the times became difficult for them, when their father lost his memory. As a result, he was forced to close down his film and theater company.

Her family was forced to move to the western city of Pune (now Pune) after their family residence was auctioned off in Sangli, Maharashtra. After the death of his father, the family moved to Bombay (now Mumbai).

👉 Arriving in the music world:

In an interview, Lata Mangeshkar said that her family used to practice classical music and movie songs were not very popular at home.

At that time, in the 1940's, young Lata started acting for a living as there were not many singing opportunities in the film.

She had acted in about eight Marathi and Hindi films. In 1943 Marathi film Gajaabhaau, she sang a song titled ' Mata Ek Sapoot Ki Duniya Badal De Tu ', which was his first song in the film.

Till 1946, she earned Rs. 200 per month by acting in films.

'' I never liked makeup or light. I would feel very uncomfortable when people advised me to do something according to their priority”, she said in an interview with Nasreen Munni Kabir about her time in the film. When a director told her that her eyebrows should be trimmed because they were too wide, she was seriously injured. But she accepted it.

After singing in the movie Mahal in 1949, she came into the limelight.

👉 Sincere respect

Over the next four decades, Lata Mangeshkar sang many memorable and popular songs. These include many famous films - movies like Pakija, Mazbar, Awara, Mughal e Azam, Shree 420, Aradhana and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, which has been running for a record twenty years.

Once, tears welled up in the eyes of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, as he sang "Yeh Mere Watan Ke Logo" (and the people of my country) at a rally in memory of soldiers killed in India's 1962 war with China.

She has sung with all the famous singers of Bollywood. Among them are Mohammad Rafi and Kishore Kumar.

She had also worked with all the top directors in Bollywood, from Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt to Moni Ratnam and Karan Johar.

Mangeshkar had the courage to challenge male singers like Mohammad Rafi who claimed to have sung many songs. She was the first singer to claim a good salary and dividend for singing.

“I am a self-established person. I know how to fight. I never feared anyone. I'm a bit of a fearless person. But I never thought I would get as much as I got,” she said.

Lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar described her melodious voice and heart-felt singing as "so pure and clear as the best pearl in the crystal."

Asked which songs are the most popular in Bollywood, Mangeshkar once said, "Love songs are the most popular. The heroine is running and the hero is running after her. "

👉 Lata Mangeshkar and her choice

Apart from film songs, Lata Mangeshkar's choice of music was quite wide.

She loved listening to music by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Knut King Cole, The Beatles, Barbara Streisand, and Harry Bellafonte. She went to see Marilyn Dietrich singing on stage and loved to see Ingrid Bergman's theater.

She also liked to watch movies. Her favorite Hollywood movie was The King and I, which she said she watched at least 15 times. Another favorite movie was 'Singing in the Rain'.

She loved cars. At various stages of her life, she owned gray Hillman (car) and blue Chevrolet (car), as well as Chrysler (car) and Mercedes (car). She had nine dogs at home.

Mangeshkar was an orthodox supporter of cricket. Many times she went to watch Test match with a break in recording. A picture signed by Don Bradman was a thing of her pride.

Cooking occasionally and taking pictures with a Rolex Flex camera are some of her hobbies.

While on vacation in the United States, she loved to play slot machines all night in Las Vegas.

Mangeshkar was often seen in the studio of her friend Setar Master Ravi Shankar, where she used to hang out with her friend George Harrison. In 1969, she became the first Indian to perform with the Oren Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall.

👉 Demise:

This legendary musician Lata Mangeshkar had been cremated at Shivaji Park in Mumbai with full state honors. The Indian Queen of Melody, Lata Mangeshkar was fighting with Covid-19 and the resulting pneumonia. After several days of fighting, on February 6, 2022, the Late Lata Mangeshkar had to give up her life due to a chronic illness. She was 92 years old. She was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital, Mumbai in early January after contracting COVID -19.

However, Mangeshkar once said "I always think that happiness is the thing to share with everyone in the world and sadness is the thing to hold on to.”

Her timeless music had certainly brought joy to millions of people in India. Long life, outstanding musical talent, unique voice - even today there is no equal in the world of play-back singers, not at all.

*****

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