Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar, ‘the living legend’, ‘the Queen of Melody’ completed 80 years on September 28th. Her voice is the soul of Indian music. 

Suman Chaurasia, who has a collection of over 28,000 albums of the singer, which he has turned into a museum, cut birthday cake along with children.

"This museum has collection of her songs beginning from 1932 till 1990. We have published a book taking into account 80 best songs. Today, we are dedicating it to her," said Chaurasia.

Lata is an ever green star her music touches not only heart but soul starting from ‘Aayega Aanewala’ six decades back and following it up with romantic hits like ‘Pyar kiya to darna kya’ in Mughal-e-Azam, there is no one like her.

Lata Didi says, “I want to continue singing till my last breath”. She has sung over 30,000 songs in 20 different languages.

Lata recalls her old times and says, those times were testing period of her life when she remained hungry for the whole day, “Everyone went for lunch but I was in the recording room and left only after it was over. I had only one or two rupees. I used to walk instead of taking a tonga, to save money. I didn’t want to trouble anyone at home.”

She also said she wanted to be a classical singer but couldn’t afford as she couldn’t put in long hours of practice that were required and had many other responsibilities. Her song ‘Ae mere watan ke logon’ was released and met Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who cried on hearing her voice.

Lata has given some of the biggest romantic hits apart from patriotic songs like ‘Aaja Re Pardesi’ in ‘Madhumati’, ‘Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Yeh’ from ‘Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai’ to present-day films like ‘Dil To Pagal Hai.

Her beauty lies in simplicity. Being such a big singer, she is still down to earth in nature and looks as simple as a flower. She has sung mostly all types of songs. Her journey to the victory and success is just the result of her hard work and efforts.

Although Lata worked with almost every big music director and singer of her time, she had a special bond with Laxmikant-Pyarelal.

Lata proudly said, “They didn’t want to work with any other female singer but me. They offered me songs from Bobby, I had at first refused because Raj Kapoor and I had been in an argument over royalty on songs”.

A recipient of the nation’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna in 2001, Lata has featured in the Guinness Book of Records and won international accolades.

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Related Books:
In Search of Lata Mangeshkar
Classic and Romantic Music: A Comprehensive Survey
Music as Discourse: Semiotic Adventures in Romantic Music

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Posted by Naresh Koshti on 30 September, 2009 11:46:12 AM IST #