Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar () (born as Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 06 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely considered to have been the greatest and most influential singers in India. Her contribution to the Indian music industry in a career spanning eight decades gained her honorific titles such as the "Queen of Melody", "Nightingale of India", and "Voice of the Millennium".

Lata recorded songs in over thirty-six Indian languages and a few foreign languages, though primarily in Marathi, Hindi, and Bengali. Her foreign languages included English, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Nepali, and Swahili. She received several accolades and honors throughout her career. In 1989, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award was bestowed on her by the Government of India. In 2001, in recognition of her contributions to the nation, she was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour; she is only the second female singer, after M. S. Subbulakshmi, to receive this honour. France conferred on her its highest civilian award, Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour, in 2007.

She was the recipient of three National Film Awards, 15 Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards, four Filmfare Best Female Playback Awards, two Filmfare Special Awards, the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award and many more. In 1974, she was one of the first Indian playback singers to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London, UK. Her last recorded song was "Saugandh Mujhe Is Mitti ki" released on 30 March 2019 as a tribute to the Indian Army and the Nation.

At one point, she appeared in the ''Guinness World Records,'' which listed her as the most recorded artist in history between 1948 and 1987.

Early life

Mangeshkar was born on 28 September 1929in Indore (in the present-day Indore district of Madhya Pradesh), then the capital of the princely state of Indore which was part of the Central India Agency in British India.

Her father, Deenanath Mangeshkar was a Marathi and Konkani classical singer and theatre actor. Deenanath's father was Ganesh Bhatt Navathe Hardikar (Abhisheki), a Karhade Brahmin who served as a priest at the famous Mangeshi Temple in Goa. Deenanath's mother Yesubai Rane was his father's mistress belonging to the Devadasi community of Goa, a matrilineal community of temple artists now known as Gomantak Maratha Samaj. As a Devadasi, Yesubai was a reputed musician. Deenanath's father's surname was ''Hardikar''. Deenanath had taken the surname Mangeshkar, based on the name of his ancestral village, Mangeshi in Goa.

Her mother, Shevanti (later renamed Shudhamati), was a Gujarati woman from Thalner, Bombay Presidency (now in northwest Maharashtra). Shevanti was Deenanath's second wife; his first wife Narmada, who had died before his marriage to Shevanti, was Shevanti's older sister. Her maternal grandfather, Seth Haridas Ramdas Lad, was from Gujarat, a prosperous businessman and landlord of Thalner. She learned Gujarati folk songs such as garbas of Pavagadh from her maternal grandmother.

Lata was named "Hema" at her birth. Her parents later renamed her Lata after a female character, Latika, in one of her father's plays, भाव बंधन.

She was the eldest child in the family. Meena, Asha, Usha and Hridaynath, in birth order, are her siblings; all are accomplished singers and musicians.

She received her first music lesson from her father. At the age of five, she started to work as an actress in her father's musical plays (''Sangeet Natak'' in Marathi). On her first day of school, Mangeshkar left because she was not allowed to bring her sister Asha along with her.

Singing career

Early career in the 1940s

In 1942, when Mangeshkar was 13, her father died of heart disease. Master Vinayak (Vinayak Damodar Karnataki), the owner of Navyug Chitrapat movie company and a close friend of the Mangeshkar family, took care of them. He helped her get started in a career as a singer and actress.

She sang the song "Naachu Yaa Gade, Khelu Saari Mani Haus Bhaari", which was composed by Sadashivrao Nevrekar for Vasant Joglekar's Marathi movie ''Kiti Hasaal'' (1942), but the song was dropped from the final cut. Vinayak gave her a small role in Navyug Chitrapat's Marathi movie ''Pahili Mangalaa-gaur'' (1942), in which she sang "Natali Chaitraachi Navalaai" which was composed by Dada Chandekar. Her first Hindi song was "Mata Ek Sapoot Ki Duniya Badal De Tu" for the Marathi film ''Gajaabhaau'' (1943). The Bollywood industry was yet to find its feet, so Mangeshkar had to first concentrate on acting, which she didn't like, as the lights and people ordering her around made her feel uncomfortable.

She moved to Mumbai in 1945 when Master Vinayak's company moved its headquarters there. She started taking lessons in Hindustani classical music from Ustad Aman Ali Khan of Bhindibazaar Gharana. She sang "Paa Lagoon Kar Jori" for Vasant Joglekar's Hindi-language movie ''Aap Ki Seva Mein'' (1946), which was composed by Datta Davjekar. The dance in the film was performed by Rohini Bhate, who later became a famous classical dancer. Lata and her sister Asha played minor roles in Vinayak's first Hindi-language movie, ''Badi Maa'' (1945). In that movie, Lata also sang a bhajan, "Maata Tere Charnon Mein." She was introduced to music director Vasant Desai during the recording of Vinayak's second Hindi-language movie, ''Subhadra'' (1946).

After Vinayak's death in 1948, music director Ghulam Haider mentored her as a singer. He introduced her to producer Sashadhar Mukherjee, who was then working on the movie ''Shaheed'' (1948), but Mukherjee dismissed her voice as "too thin". An annoyed Haider responded that in coming years producers and directors would "fall at Lata's feet" and "beg her" to sing in their movies. Haider gave her her first major break with the song "Dil Mera Toda, Mujhe Kahin Ka Na Chhora"�
lyrics
by Nazim Panipati—in the movie '' Majboor'' (1948), which became her first big breakthrough film hit. In an interview on her 84th birthday in 2013, she declared "Ghulam Haider is truly my Godfather. He was the first music director who showed complete faith in my talent."

Initially, she is said to have imitated the acclaimed singer Noor Jehan, but she later developed her own style of singing. She brought a new signature style of singing to Indian film music, moving away from mehfil-style performances to suit both 'modern' and 'traditional' female protagonists. A soprano range voice with less volume or amplitude, she had enough weight in her voice to give definite shape to the melody of Indian film songs. Although she had limited coloratura skills in her early career, she developed better tone and pitch as she progressed in her playback career. Lyrics of songs in Hindi movies were, in those days, primarily composed by Urdu poets and contained a higher proportion of Urdu