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Friday, September 28, 2007

India’s Nightingale’s Birthday falls today _ Happy Birthday Lata

India’s Nightingale’s Birthday falls today
Happy Birthday Lata
Pyar ki pyar pale

Lata Mangeshkar
Background information
Born September 28, 1929 (age 78)
Indore, Central India.

----Friday' News

Lata Mangeshkar (born September 28, 1929) is India’s foremost female singer. Focusing mainly on Hindi and Marathi film music (playback singing), she has sung in over twenty major Indian languages.
Lata Mangeshkar is only the second Indian singer to have received the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, the other being M. S. Subbulakshmi. In fact, no other Indian singer of non-classical music has been awarded anything higher than the Padma Bhushan, the nation’s third highest civilian honour as of April 2007.

Mangeshkar was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records from 1974 to 1991 for “most recordings” in the world. The claim was that she has reportedly recorded not less than 25,000 solo, duet and chorus-backed songs in 20 Indian languages between 1948 to 1974 (30,000 songs between 1948 and 1987, according to 1987 edition). However, reputed sources introduced concerns for its veracity, claiming that the number of songs was highly exaggerated, and Mangeshkar’s sister, singer Asha Bhosle has recorded more songs than her.

Childhood
Lata Mangeshkar was born in a Maharashtrian family at Sikh Mohalla, Indore in Central India Agency now in Madhya Pradesh. Her father Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar was a classical singer and theatre actor. Her mother Shudhhamati was Deenanath Mangeshkar’s second wife. The family’s original surname was Hardikar, but Pandit Deenanath later changed it to Mangeshkar to identify with his native village, Mangeshi in Goa. Lata was originally named “Hema”, but was later renamed after Latika, a character in one of her father’s plays, Bhaan Bandhan. She was the firstborn child, to be followed by siblings Hridayanath, Asha, Usha and Meena.

Lata Mangeshkar’s first music teacher was her father, Deenanath Mangeshkar. Raised in Maharashtra, she started working as an actress in her father’s musical plays (sangeet nataks) at the age of five. Deenanath’s recitals and lessons left a strong impression on his daughter, as did the songs of K.L. Saigal, who was her favorite singer and idol. Her formal education was limited to one day in the school. On the first day in the school, she started teaching songs to other children. When the teacher stopped her, she was so angry that she stopped going to the school.

Early cinema career
In 1942, when she was just 13 years old, Lata Mangeshkar’s father died of heart disease. She was taken care of by Vinayak Damodar Karnataki (better known as Master Vinayak), a close friend of the Mangeshkar family. Master Vinayak was the owner of Navyug Chitrapat Film Company, and the father of actress Nanda. He helped Lata Mangeshkar get started with her career, and was a godfather to the five Mangeshkar siblings.

To earn money, Lata Mangeshkar played cameo roles in many Hindi and Marathi films. Her first film as an actress was Navyug Chitrapat’s Marathi movie, Pahili Mangalagaur (1942), in which Master Vinayak ensured a bit part for her. Her first film song was Naatli Chaitrachi Navalai from the same film, composed by Dada Chandekar. She had earlier recorded the song Naachu Ya Gade Khelu Saari Mani Haus Bhari, composed by Sadashivrao Nevrekar, for the Marathi movie Kiti Hasaal (1942), produced by Vasant Joglekar. However, the song was dropped from the film. Her first Hindi song was Mata Ek Sapoot Ki Duniya Badal De Tu for a Marathi film Gajabhau (1943).

Lata Mangeshkar moved to Mumbai in 1945, when Master Vinayak’s company shifted its headquarters to the city. She learnt Hindustani classical music under Ustad Amanat Ali Khan Bhendibazaarwale. Her first song in a Hindi film was Paa Lagoon Kar Jori, composed by Datta Davjekar, for Vasant Joglekar’s Aap Ki Seva Mein (released in 1946). She and her sister Asha played minor roles alongside Noor Jehan in Master Vinayak’s first Hindi film, Badi Maa (1945). Lata also sang a bhajan, Maata Tere Charnon Mein, which was picturised on Asha. She was introduced to major music director Vasant Desai during the recording of Master Vinayak’s second Hindi film, Subhadra (1946). After Ustad Amanat Ali Khan migrated to Pakistan following the partition of India in 1947, she learnt classical music under Amanat Khan Devaswale. She was also trained by Pandit Tulsidas Sharma, a pupil of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan.

After Master Vinayak’s death in 1948, the music director Ghulam Haider mentored Lata Mangeshkar as a singer. At that time, the most popular female singers in Hindi film industury were the ones with heavier, and often nasal voices, such as Noor Jehan, Shamshad Begum and Zohrabai Ambalewali. Haider introduced Lata Mangeshkar to the producer Sashadhar Mukherjee, who was working on the movie Shaheed (1948). Mukherjee dismissed her voice as “too thin”. Haider was annoyed and stated that in coming years, the producers and the directors will fall at Mangeshkar’s feet, begging her to sing in their films. He gave Lata Mangeshkar her first major break with the song Dil Mera Toda in the film Majboor (1948).

Initially, Lata Mangeshkar tried to imitate Noor Jehan, the most popular singer of that time, but later, she developed her own unique style of singing. After a remark from Dilip Kumar about her Maharashtrian accent, Lata Mangeshkar took Urdu lessons from a maulvi called Shafi, as many of the Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) film songs were composed by Urdu poets in that period.

In late 1940s, several mainstream music directors started patronising Lata Mangeshkar. Her first superhit song was Aayega Aanewaala from the movie Mahal (1949), composed by Khemchand Prakash and picturised on Madhubala. Mahal was a hit film and a turning point for both Madhubala and Mangeshkar.

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