No name is as synonymous with the power and the magic of Hindi film music as Lata Mangeshkar whose mesmeric reign continues to amaze critics and fans alike even today. She is in fact a rare artiste who has realized her search for excellence.
Lata, known as ‘the nightingale of India’, was born in Indore in a lower middle class family. When her father fell terribly ill, Lata had to shoulder the entire responsibility of running the household as she was the eldest child. She was the sole bread winner and had to take care of all her siblings.
After the death of her father, Lata was forced to act in movies to make her ends meet. When Lata tried to make a foray into the Hindi Film Industry she was rejected outright. Her early film career was characterized by numerous changes in direction, false starts, and a general unsteadiness. Her thin voice was very different from the heavier voice quality that was in vogue. She received numerous rejections. However, she struggled for years to gain a strong foothold in the music industry until she finally succeeded.
Lata has sung in virtually all Indian languages with equal success. The Guinness Book of Records listed her as the most recorded artiste in the world with not less than 30,000 solo, duet and chorus-backed songs recorded in 20 Indian languages between 1948 and 1987. Today the number has crossed 40,000! The Government of India has conferred on her the title Padma Shri.
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