BIOGRAPHY OF LATA MANGESHKAR

Lata Mangeshkar is India’s most well known playback singer। She has sung in all the major Indian languages and is one of the most recorded artists in the world. She is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most recorded artist in the world. It is estimated that she has more than 30,000 solo, duet and chorus backed songs in 20 different languages from 1948 to 1987. Now, it must way over 40,000! Lata was introduced to music at a very young age. The life history of Lata Mangeshkar is truly fascinating.

Lata Mangeshkar was born in on September 28, 1929 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh into a Maharashtrian Brahmin household। Her father was Dinanath Mangeshkar and her mother was named Shudhmati. Lata was the oldest of several children. She had a younger brother named Hridayanath Mangeshkar, as well as three younger sisters named Asha (Bhosle), Usha and Meena. (Of these Asha Bhosle would grow up to rival Lata in the world of film music.)

Her exposure to music began in infancy। Her father Dinanath was an accompanied classical vocalist and was very active in the theatre. It is said that Lata made her acting debut at the age of five in a play in which her father was participating. Lata’s musical studies were not limited to hearing her father sing. She also studied under Aman Ali Khan, and later under Amanat Khan, and acquired a good background in classical music. Lata Mangeshkar was very young when her father passed away, thus making the family dependant on Lata. To take care of her family's economic situation, Lata acted in as many as 8 films from 1942 to 1948. She debuted as playback singer in a Marathi film named Kiti Hasaal (1942). Unfortunately the song was edited out. Her first Hindi playback was for the film Aap ke Sewa Main (1947) but she did not get noticed. At that time, the film industry was ruled by female singers who had heavier and huskier voices like Noor Jehan, Shamshad Begum and Zohrabai Ambalewali. While auditioning for the movie Shaheed (1948), she was rejected on the account of her thin voice! But Ghulam Haider saw the potential in her and gave her a chance to sing in the film Majboor. In 1949, she had four major hits from the films Barsaat, Andaaz, Dulari and Mahal. The song "Aayega Aanewala" from Mahal was a huge hit and Lata secured a firm position in the industry.

The period in the early 40's did not look promising for Lata। Her thin voice was very different from the heavier voice quality that was in vogue (e.g., Noor Jahan). She received numerous rejections. It was not until 1947 that she was able to get a toehold in the industry by singing “Pa Lagoon Kar Jori Re” in the film “Aap ke Sewa Main” (1947). Lata sang several songs in other films over the next few years, but her first big hit was in 1949 with “Aayega Aanewaala”. There is no doubt that the partition played a role in Lata’s rise to fame. During the partition, there was a disruption when many directors, producers and artists left Bombay, while others migrated to India from Lahore. One of the most notable artists to leave India was Noor Jahan, who was the undisputed queen of the filmsong at the time. This disruption opened the doors to Lata in an industry that previously may have been harder to get into.

As the 1950’s began, Lata was firmly established as a film singer। Music directors she sang for included such greats as Shankar-Jaikishan, and Anil Biswas. During this period, “Mahal”, “Barsaat”, “Ek Thi Ladki” and “Badi Bahen” were just some of the famous films that used her voice. The next three decades would see Lata Mangeshkar reign as the undisputed queen of the Hindi film song. She sang with almost all of the major music directors, and acquired a considerable clout in the politics of the film industry.

It is pointless to try and enumerate the songs that she did; however, there are a few songs which stand out। In particular “O Sajna Barkha Bahaar Aayee” from Parakh (1960), “Aaja re Pardesi” from Madhumati (1958), “Itna na Mujhse Tu Pyaar Badhaa” from Chhaya (1961), “Allah Tero Naam” from “Hum Dono” (1961), “Ehsaan Tera Hoga Mujh par” from “Junglee” (1961), and “Yeh Sama” from “Jab Jab Phool Khile” (1965), seem particularly notable.

Lata also worked with most of the major music directors in this period। Her work with, both S.D. Burman and R.D. Burman were very fruitful. She also worked with, Shankar /Jaikishan, Salil Chowdhury, Naushad and a host of others. It is often said that her best work came with her songs for Madan Mohan and C. Ramchandra. It is interesting to note that O.P. Nayyar was one of the few major music directors to not utilize her talents. Lata rose to fame rapidly and made her indelible mark in the industry. She has sung with famous singers like Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, etc. She has perfected almost every genre of music. Her success and determination made her one of the most powerful women in the industry. She refused to sing for the great composer S.D Burman due to some misunderstanding and also stopped singing with Mohammed Rafi. Her power was so immense that they had to come back to her. She actually monopolized the music industry and every music director wanted to work with her. She understood the requirement of each song and sang flawlessly.

However Lata’s reign was not always a smooth one। There was the well known professional rivalry with her sister Asha Bhosle. For some years she would not sing with Mohd. Rafi due to a long standing dispute over royalties. For some years she would not work with the music director S.D. Burman. During the peak of her career, she had a tremendous political clout within the film industry and is known to have exercised this freely. All things come to and end, and Lata’s professional career was no exception। Over the decades, the actresses for whom she was singing became younger, and Lata was growing older. It was inevitable that at some point it was no longer going to be a workable match.

We cannot pinpoint a time where her career started to decline। However by 1980 it was clear that it was not a necessity to have Lata sing for a film. Furthermore, there was a change in the style of the new songs. Emerging music directors such as A.R. Rahman just did not see Lata’s voice as fitting into their approach to creating music (although Lata did lend her voice for some of his work). The result of all of this was that Lata Mangeshkar gradually moved from the peak of her career into today’s state of semiretirement. ever-the-less, this period shows some of Lata’s most interesting work.Songs such as “Sun Sahiba Sun” ("Teri Ganga Maili" - 1986), “Yaara Seeli Seeli” ("Lekin" - 1990), even today stand our as some of her most memorable work.

Lata Mangeshkar has been honored with innumerable awards but the one that truly deserves a special mention is that she is the only second singer in the non-classical category (after M.S Subbulakshmi) in India to have received the highest civilian award, in 2001 Lata Mangeshkar was awarded India’s highest civilian honor the “Bharat Ratna”, She has received three national awards and eight Filmfare awards after which she stopped accepting awards in order to promote new talent. She continues to sing every now and then for Hindi movies and perform live. Truly a living legend, Lata Mangeshkar has a talent that is second to none.