RIP Lata Mangeshkar: A Few Lesser Known Facts About This Legendary Singer
India’s singing icon Lata Mangeshkar ji passed away this morning at 8 AM. She breathed her last at the age of 92 in the Breach Candy hospital. She was tested positive for Covid-19 a few days ago and from then she was getting treated in ICU itself! Well, here are a few lesser known facts about this legendary singer…
Lata Mangeshkar was born on 28 September 1929 in Indore and belonged to a family of performers as her father ran a theatre and thus Lata ji grew up with a love of music. Then with the help of her sister Asha Bhosle, she took her father’s legacy forward!
Reminiscing about her childhood, Lata ji said, “It so happened that once my father asked his shagird (disciple) to practice a raag while he finished some work. I was playing nearby and suddenly a note of the raag that shagird was rendering, jarred. And the next minute, I was correcting him. When my father returned, he discovered a shagird in his own daughter.”
But her journey didn’t start that easily… as Lata ji’s first song was removed from the film. She first recorded “Naachu Yaa Gade, Khelu Saari Mani Haus Bhaari…” song in 1942 for a Marathi movie ‘Kiti Hasaal’ but in editing, it was removed!
One more interesting fact about Lata ji is that she never listened to her own songs. If she did it then, she would find a hundred faults in her singing!
Lata Mangeshkar’s favourite music director was Madan Mohan as she had a special bond with him. Once in an event, she said, “I shared a special relationship with Madan Mohan, which was much more than what a singer and a music composer share. This was a relationship of a brother and a sister.”
Lata ji also served as the Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha from 1999 to 2005. But she described her tenure to be an unhappy one!
Lata ji also holds the honour of being the first-ever Indian to perform in the prestigious Royal Albert Hall, London. Even the government of France conferred her with the Officer of the Legion of Honour in 2007 which is the country's highest civilian award.
Popular songs of Lata Mangeshkar are, ‘Lag Ja Gale’, ‘Ek Pyaar Ka Nagma Hai’, ‘Hamko Hamse Chura Lo’, ‘Didi Tera Dewar Dewana’, ‘Dushman Na Kare Dost Ne Wo Kiya’, ‘Tujhe Dekho To’, ‘Dagli Wale Dafli Baja’, ‘Kanchi Re Kanchi Re’, etc
Lata Mangeshkar was honoured with 3 National Film Awards, Bharat Ratna, 4 Filmfare Awards and 12 Bengali Film Journalist's Association Awards.
Lata Mangeshkar totally crooned songs in 36 languages like Bengali, Assamese, Tamil, Marathi, Bhojpuri, etc.