Lata Mangeshkar
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The Inspirational Story of "Lata Mangeshkar"
Lata Mangeshkar, famouly called “Swar Kokila” “Queen of Melody” “Voice of the Millennium” etc., was born as an eldest child to Pt Deena Nath Mangeshkar, a singer of acclaim.
Birth: Lata Mangeshkar was born in Indore, Maharashtra, on September 28, 1929, to a Maharashtrian Brahmin family. Deenanath Mangeshkar, her father, was a Marathi classical singer and theatre actor. Shevanti was her mother’s name.
Childhood: At the time of her birth, Lata was given the name “Hema.” Her parents renamed her Lata after a female character in a movie called Latika. Her father was the one who gave her her first music lesson. At the age of five, she started to work as an actress in her father’s musical plays
Adult Life: She along with her siblings Asha, Usha, Meena and Hridaynaath, started learning music from their father at a very early age. She lost her father at an age of 13 years and started to sing in films to make a living. After earlier struggle, she managed to become he most popular female playback singer of the country.
First Hit: “Aayega Aanewaala,” a song from the movie Mahal (1949) composed by music director Khemchand Prakash, was one of her first major hits. This was a watershed moment for her and a catalyst for playback singers’ recognition in India. Before this, playback singers were seen as the vocal equivalent of a stuntman and remained invisible and uncredited.
Her Works: In the 1950s, Mangeshkar sang songs composed by various music directors of the period, including Anil Biswas (in films such as Tarana (1951) and Heer (1956)), Shankar Jaikishan, Naushad Ali, S. D. Burman, Sardul Singh Kwatra, Amarnath, Husanlal, and Bhagatram (in films like Bari Behen (1949), Meena Bazaar (1950), Aadhi Raat (1950), Chhoti Bhabi (1950), Afsana (1951), Aansoo (1953), and Adl-e-Jehangir (1955)). The song “Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya” from Mangeshkar’s 1960 film Mughal-e-Azam, composed by Naushad and lip-synced by Madhubala, is still popular. She sang the patriotic song “Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo” in the presence of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s Prime Minister, on January 27, 1963, against the backdrop of the Sino-Indian War.
Awards: Mangeshkar received numerous awards and honours, including the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, the Padma Bhushan (1969), the Padma Vibhushan (1999), the Zee Cine Award for Lifetime Achievements (1999), the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (1989), the Maharashtra Bhushan Award (1997), and others. At the 2022 British Academy Film and Television Awards, Lata Mangeshkar will be honoured in the ‘In Memoriam’ segment.
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