GODDESS OF MELODY

It was 28^th September 1929, The couple Deenanath Mangeshkar and Shevanti Mangeshkar gave birth to a girl child and named her as “Hridaya”, Deenanath used to call her as Lata in memory of his first wife’s (Narmada/shrimati elder sister of his second wife Shevanti who died soon) daughter Latika who died in infancy, Soon the name Lata Mangeshkar became her  name.

                  Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar had 4 siblings Asha Bhosle, Usha Mangeshkar ,Hridayanath Mangeshkar and Meena Khadikar. Father Deenanath Mangeshkar was a well-known Marathi theatre artist, musician and an exceptional Hindustani classical vocalist.

I wish to share few incidences of Lata mangeshkar’s life which is an inspiration for all of us.

1) It was in 1942 when Deenanath died, and then Lata was just 13 years old, soon after realising that her dad was no more Lata cried a lot, after sometime she suddenly stopped weeping and asked her mother

“Where can I work? How do I earn money?”
Mother was surprised hearing the commitment of the small kid for sustaining family’s economic condition and to carry responsibility of her 4 siblings. She permitted her to work, Lata started to act in small role for Marathi and Hindi movies. Even though he sang a song for a Marathi movie in 1942, it was deleted from movie.

2) Though Lata sang for few movies her voice was not recognised as Noorjehan dominated the industry. Lata Mangeshkar voice was thin compared to Noorjehan and hence all music directors preferred Noorjehan for songs. It was in 1947 after India and Pakistan separated Noorjehan migrated to Pakistan, Lata started to work under famous music director Ghulam Haider. At the same time Sashadhar Mukherjee decided to make a movie with Dilip kumar as hero and Ghulam Haider as music director, Ghulam haider decided to give a chance to Lata mangeshkar to sing a song in that movie named Shaheed. Soon after the audition Mukharjee rejected Lata Mangeshkar voice as it was thin, hearing it Ghulam Haider became anger and replied him,

“In the coming years the producers and the directors would fall at Lata’s feet and beg her to sing in their movies”.

“Aayega Aanewala” was the first super hit song of Lata mangeshkar from the movie Mahal released in the year 1949. Since then Lata never looked back.

3) It was in 1962 India lost a crucial war with china due to many reasons let us not debate on it, but after 2 months of war famous poet Kavi pradeep thought of dedicating a song for Indian soldiers who martyred in the war, and came up with a beautiful song “ Aye mere watan ke logo” composed by C.Ramachandra. Kavi pradeep approached Lata Mangeshkar to sing the song on the eve of Republic day at National stadium in presence of prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru at Ramlila maidan, Delhi. As there was less time to prepare, Lata Mangeshkar rejected the offer, but Kavi Pradeep requested and helped her to prepare. Finally on January 26, 1963 Lata Mangeshkar stunned country and even Prime Minister through her melodious voice. Prime Minister Nehru cried listening to song and the beautiful lyrics, he stated that

“Those who don’t feel inspired by ‘Aye mere watan ke logo’ don’t deserve to be called a Hindustani”.

This was the magic of the lyrics and voice of Lata Mangeshkar.

4) Actor Dilip kumar once made a remark that Lata Mangeshkar songs in Urdu had lot of Marathi Accent, taking this as challenge Lata Mangeshkar learnt Urdu through a teacher and came back with much fluent accent similar to Urdu speaking people.

5) During those time Filmfare award was given to only one person either male or female, Lata mangeshkar protested and made film fare to create 2 sections for male and female category.

6) In 1999, Lata Mangeshkar was nominated as MP from Rajya sabha but she had not attended many sessions this led to lot of criticism, she gave reason that due to her ill health she took long leave and she showed her ethics by not taking single penny as salary and not taking any facility given by govt for MP.

 7) It is estimated that Lata Mangeshkar has sang more than 48000 songs!! She holds Guinness record for singing most number of songs.

8) In 2001 she established the Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital in Pune, managed by the Lata Mangeshkar Medical Foundation, which concern towards health of poor section of pyramid. 

9) In 2005, she designed jewellery with the old gold received from her parents and named it as Swaranjali, which was crafted by Adora, an Indian diamond export company which raised raised £105,000 at a Christie’s auction, and a part of the money was donated for the 2005 Kashmir earthquake relief.

Lata Mangeshkar has reached the Indians and music lovers across the world with lot of melodious songs, her life is inspiration for all of us. She might not sing again but her songs will be ever green for centuries.

Let us wish our “GODDESS OF MELODY” a very good health.

                               Bharata Ratna Lata Mangeshkar…. Jai hooooo

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Ranganadhan.S

Sh. Ranganadhan.S (Twitter account @Ranganadhans) si still a student but he is very keen observer of life. He has already written many beautiful stories for this blog “Yug Vani”

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