A musical legend, a rare Bharat Ratna, a beautiful voice, a prodigy who made us smile coyly, laugh out loud, cry, feel love and above all feel a gush of patriotism rush through our blood. Words fail to describe Lata Mangeshkar, the Nightingale of India. She breathed her last yesterday at the age of 92 at the Breach Candy Hospital due to Covid related complications. She was given a state funeral at the Shivaji Park crematorium where Bollywood stars thronged to pay her last respects.
Mangeshkar was a rare timeless gem who could connect the dots from pre-independent India to the digital age. She sang through it all –from tape-recorder, Walkman to Digital music. She made Jawaharlaal Nehru cry to her song `Ah Mere Watan Ke Logon’ to striking a personal equation with the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi. From Madhubala to Madhuri Dixit, Lataji touched many a lives spanning different generations.
Born on September 28, 1929, to Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar and his wife Shevanti. The eldest of five siblings, she captured the nation’s imagination with her melodious voice in the 1940s, and her fame only grew with time.
The family was prosperous, living in a large house in the city of Sangli, in what is now the state of Maharashtra. Her father was her first music teacher, and she acted in plays as a child, though her father was reluctant to let his daughters appear onstage. She spent much of her childhood on the road, as the family accompanied her father’s theater company on tour across the region. But later she found her calling as a playback singer.
A constant force in Bollywood for the last eight decades, her magical vocals represented many a female actresses and their emotions.
In the 2009 book, “Lata Mangeshkar … in Her Own Voice,” written by Nasreen Munni Kabir, she said, “Music meant the world to her. To put it in her own words, “Music is my life and God. My prayer is music — it is like a father and mother to me. And thanks to music I am who I am today.
People recognise me everywhere because of music. But the greatest thing I have received — whether from king or pauper — is love.”
A Jog back in time
Mangeshkar’s first hit Bollywood song was the hauntingly beautiful number, ‘Ayega Aanewala’ from the film, ‘Mahal’. The movie was released in 1949, and according to the custom of the time, the gramophone record carried the character Kamini’s (Madhubala) name who sang the song in the film, instead of the playback singer’s name on the cover. However, soon thousands of listeners’ letters began pouring in the radio station, requesting to know the name of the origin.
There was no looking back after that. Lataji moved on from strength to strength. Her voice was the guiding force for many leading ladies like Waheeda Rehman ( Aaj Phir Jeena ki Tamaana hain), Meena Kumari’s Pakeezah, (Maine Kahas Phuloon se) Jaya Bhaduri, Rekha in Yeh Kahaan Aa gaye hum). She has to her credit most of the biggest hits of all times.
Mangeshkar was known for her range — she could sing in four octaves — and her gift for singing in character. She could tailor her voice and emotions to the actress she was voicing onscreen be it Meena Kumari or a younger Kajol.
Lata Mangeshkar recorded songs in over a thousand Hindi films in a career that spanned more than seven decades. She also has a body of work in the regional space including Marathi, Assamese, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati and Punjabi songs to her credit.
“She leaves a void in our nation that cannot be filled,” Mr. Modi said on Twitter. Ms. Mangeshkar was an early supporter of Mr. Modi.