Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar, the nightingale of India, was born on 28th September 1929, in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. The living legend of India started her career way back in 1942 spanning till today. She is one of the best and most reputed playback singers of India. Her voice has got such a fine texture and versatile quality that nobody could match. From 1974 to 1991, she held the Guinness Book of World records for approximately 25,000 solo, duet, and chorus-backed songs recorded in her voice in 20 Indian languages between 1948 to 1974.

Childhood

Lata Mangeshkar was born to Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar, a classical singer and theater actor, and Shevanti Mangeshkar. Her love and exposure for music started in her childhood days. At the age of five, she started helping her father in his musical plays by being an actress in the plays. It is funny but she stopped going to school because school authorities did not allow her to teach music lessons to other students. She studied musical art under Aman Ali Khan and Amanat Khan.

Career

Lata Mangeshkar started her career as an actress and worked in many Hindi and Marathi films. But in 1942, she made her debut as a playback singer in the Maraathi film Kiti Hasaal. But unfortunately, her song was edited out. Even then she did not lose faith and took her singing career to heights. In 1949, she got her first major breakthrough for her song ‘Ayega Aane Wala’ for movie Mahal. After that she got big break in films like Majboor, Dulari, Barsaat and Andaaz. She sung raga based song for the hit film Mughal-E-Azam (1960). Since then she has recorded over a thousand songs for Bollywood and sung in over thirty six regional Indian languages and foreign languages.

Awards and Recognition

The second vocalist to have ever been awarded the Bharat Ratna is none other than legend Lata Mangeshkar. Not only this, but she has won almost all Highest Civilian Awards of the country. She got Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan in 1969 and 1999 respectively. There is a list of awards ahead. Dada Saheb Phalke Award (1989), Maharashtra Bhushan Award (1997), NTR National Award (1999), Bharat Ratna (2001), ANR National Award (2009), three National Film Awards, and 12 Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards are all won by her. Last, but definitely not the least, she has her name printed in the Guinness Book of Records.