LATA MANGESHKAR

 From Sampath’s Desk:







LATA MANGESHKAR

(28 September 1929 - 6 February 2022) 


The morning of 6th February 2022 (Sunday) turned out to be a bad and sad one for the people of India as they received a jolt making them teary-eyed at the passing away of LATA MANGESHKAR.


Yes, a mountain has fallen. A garden full of beautiful flowers and wonderful fragrance has suddenly wilted. A reigning, shining, and sparkling star in the music sky has disappeared. The music circle has become poorer by the departure of the Nightingale of India. The Melody Empress has been cruelly snatched away from our midst. The euphonious, commanding, majestic and sweet voice that Lata-di was synonymous with went silent and extinct even though thousands of her songs in different languages and genres over more than six decades have immortalized her. Her departure has caused a vacuum in the music world hard to fill. Her songs in a golden and honeyed voice couched in a sublime fusion have always  been an aural feast to our ears. The Ace, Iconic, and Legendary singer that she was even during her lifetime has left us to take eternal rest at the Lotus Feet of Mata Saraswati. 

  

Mata Saraswati had graced Lata Mangeshkar with a melodious, hypnotizing, engrossing, galvanizing, and gripping voice. Endowed with such a mellifluous voice, she had a very long singing career stretching for seven decades.

 

Born on 28th September 1929, she started her playback singing career way back in 1942 to be carried on magnificently and splendidly till she retired due to aging. In fact, in 1942, Lata, then just 13, suffered a huge jolt and personal loss in the passing of her father. Nudged into a career to fend for the family, she rendered a song for the Marathi film ‘Kiti Hasaal’ which was dropped from the final version of the movie. Again, on another occasion, after Lata-di gave an audition for singing in a Hindi film, those who mattered refused to give her the playback singing opportunity on the plea that her pronunciation of Urdu words was not all that good. Though dejected, she didn't give up just because things got harder.


Yes, she was not the one to give up easily. She stayed focused, positive, and stronger than ever saying to herself, “Don’t give up just because things get hard. Be more studious, fixed, and resolute.” No wonder, she bounced back proving her naysayers wrong after that initial hiccup, making great leaps and bounds to elegantly reach the top of the mountain from which none could displace her. She held herself tight and fought as hard as she could that catapulted her into heydays of incomparable and unrivaled reign in the playback singing world with none to come anywhere near or around then, for decades.

 

Obviously, she should have realized the dictum, “Don’t give up… because the beginning is always the hardest.” Her halcyon days took her to new heights of fame and zenith of glory. 

 

Lata-di was the one who was a dream of every music composer to work with. She had lent her voice to generations of actresses and sung with generations of playback singers. For years, there was hardly any film in which she had not sung at all.

 

In 1974, The Guinness Book of Records listed Lata Mangeshkar as the most recorded artist (singer) in history with not less than 25000 songs in 20 languages between 1948 and 1974. 


In fact, she had sung in 36 languages - Indian and foreign. Known as the Nightingale of India and Queen of Melody in the film world, she has to her credit 50000 songs (mainly Hindi and Marathi besides other languages) – an awesome and staggering figure; isn’t it? 


Many Filmfare awards greeted her. She received honours many times, the important ones being Bharat Ratna (2001), Dadasaheb Phalke Award (1989), Padma Vibhushan (1999), Padma Bhushan (1969), and Legion of Honour (2007). She was also given the honour to be a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha between 22 November 1999 and 21 November 2005.

  

 

The Indian government also honoured her with the 'Daughter Of The Nation' award on her 90th birthday on 28 September 2019.

 

Her vocables – short and long – in the course of singing - beautiful and fascinating as they turned out - were a special feature to add colour and value to her songs.

 

A signature voice and other vocal talents, studio-savvy singing, sync with the orchestra, speed and swing modulations, improvisation, being in control, clear enunciation, consistency, musical phrasing, versatility, self-awareness,  suitable up and down variations,  oscillations and volumes, range awareness, etc. were  the special characteristics of a superb, exceptioal and outstanding singer. Lata-di had them aplenty.

 

Neither is there space here nor necessity to mention her hit songs and in which films they figured!

 

Needless to say, she has been a great source of inspiration for generations of singers and singing aspirants - past and present - and hopefully of the future as well!

 

 

(R.SAMPATH)

6/2/2022

Comments

  1. Anonymous8 February 2023 at 08:54

    Sampath ji. You have paid a rich and fitting tribute to our Dear Nightingale. I am impressed with your writing style. Lata ji....."Aap ki awaaz hi pehchaan hai" . You will live in our hearts 💕 forever.
    Kamala Subramanian

    ReplyDelete

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