Lata Mangeshkar

Any account of Indian playback music must start with Lata Mangeshkar. Among numerous other important playback singers (“playback” meaning she pre-recorded the songs to which the films’ leading ladies lip-synced), Lata Mangeshkar stands out because of her supreme stature and merits detailed attention. Born September 28, 1929 in Indore, India, Lata was active in all walks of Indian popular and light classical music, singing ghazals, bhajans, and pop music. She was the supreme voice of popular Indian music, and an Indian institution. Her importance rests not only with her prodigious output, but with her performances, many of which sound timeless despite her voice changing and maturing over the years. In effect, she sang the soundtrack of millions of Indians’ lives. Until 1991, she was listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the most recorded artist in the world with no fewer than 30,000 solo, duet, and chorus-backed songs, recorded in 20 Indian languages, between 1948 and 1987. By 1990, she had worked on over 2,000 film soundtracks.
Lata’s father owned a theatrical company and was a classical singer and gave her singing lessons from the age of five. She also studied with Aman Ali Khan Sahib and Amanat Khan. Her God-given musical gifts meant that she could master vocal exercises effortlessly in one take. Also in the family were brother Hridaynath, a music director, and sisters Meena, Asha (the famed Asha Bhosle), and Usha. Hridaynath’s soundtrack work included Lekin…, released in 1990 on EMI India. Although much of her family also performed on the album, Lata stole the spotlight. Her sister Usha also became a playback singer, using the moniker Asha Bhosle, and she’s the only singer whose work can be compared in any way to her sister’s award-winning output (although by 1994, press reports suggested that Asha had exceeded her big sister’s output).
Lata Mangeshkar began work as playback singer in the 1940s and became the most famous playback singer of the century. She was finally credited by name on actor/director Raj Kapoor’s 1949 film Barsaat (the first of a trilogy). She sang for every major actress, including Geeta Bali, Nanda, Nargis, Nimmi, Nutan, Padmini, Sadhana, and Meena Shorey. The sheer scale of her recording activity makes a thorough examination of her life and work virtually impossible. Lata Mangeshkar died on February 6, 2022 in Mumbai, India at the age of 92. ~ Ken Hunt