Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar dies at the age of 92 on Sunday morning in an 80-year long career that started at age 13.
Her Illness
Lata Mangeshkar passed away due to a multi-organ failure in Mumbai on Sunday morning. Mangeshkar, who was known as the ‘Queen of Melody’ and the ‘Nightingale of India’, breathed her last at 8:12 am in Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital. She had tested positive for Covid-19 with mild symptoms on January 8 and was undergoing treatment at the hospital. She was 92.
Mangeshkar was admitted to the ICU of Breach Candy hospital, where she was being treated by Dr. Pratit Samdani and his team of doctors. The legendary singer was showing improvement until last week but her health deteriorated and she was put back on ventilator support on Saturday morning. The singer was also being treated for pneumonia. She recovered from COVID-19 and pneumonia on January 30.
On Saturday, several high-profile personalities visited the hospital including Union Minister Piyush Goyal, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, and NCP leader Supriya Sule to check on the singer.
In November 2019, Mangeshkar was admitted to the same hospital after she complained of difficulty in breathing and was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was discharged after 28 days.
Lata Mangeshkar’s mortal remains will be brought home from Mumbai’s Breach Candy hospital between 11 am to 2:30 pm, where several high-profile personalities will pay their last respects to the departed soul.
Lata Mangeshkar’s Life and Career
Born in Indore, Mangeshkar stayed the voice of screen idols for generations. She started her career at the age of 13 in 1942 and had sung over 30,000 songs in several Indian languages in an eight-decade-long career.
Lata Mangeshkar won almost every laurel conceivable, including the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor. In nearly every Hindi movie, you would almost be expected to know that Lata Mangeshkar composed its music.
‘Ram Ram Pavhna’ was her first film as a composer in 1960, and she preferred the relative anonymity of a male pseudonym. And so, it was Anand Ghan that gave music to Saadhi Maansa and won the state’s best music and best song awards for that year, not Lata Mangeshkar (Anand Ghan’s identity later became a popular question in school quizzes).
Her first breakthrough song, Dil Mera Toda, was for the film Majboor in 1948. In the following year, 1949, Lata Mangeshkar garnered massive popularity with the track Aayega Aanewaala from Madhubala-starrer Mahal. After this, there was no looking back for Mangeshkar, who went on to become the most iconic singer in Indian cinematic and music history.
Some of her most loved tracks were ‘Ajeeb Dastan Hai Ye,’ ‘Jab Pyar Kiya Toh Darna Kya,’ ‘Bheegi Bheegi Raaton Mein,’ ‘Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koi Shikwa To Nahin,’ ‘Lag Jaa Gale,’ ‘Ek Pyar Ka Nagma Hai,’ ‘Tune O Rangeele,’ ‘Aye Mere Wattan Ke Logo,’ ‘Maye Ni Maye,’ ‘Mere Khwabon Mein Jo Aaye,’ ‘Tere Liye,’ and ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’.
The Maharashtra state film awards for Saadhi Maansa are just two of the hundreds Mangeshkar won over a career traversing seven decades and more, in which she sang close to 30,000 songs.
Her last full album was for the late filmmaker Yash Chopra-directed 2004 film ‘Veer Zaara’. Mangeshkar’s last song was ‘Saugandh Mujhe Is Mitti Ki,’ which was released on March 30, 2021, as a tribute to the Indian Army. She was awarded the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honor in 2001.
Lata Mangeshkar was also the recipient of several awards including Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, Dada Saheb Phalke Award, and multiple National Film Awards.
In 1965, when Marathi film legend and later Dadasaheb Phalke award recipient Bhalji Pendharkar wanted to make a movie on the urban-rural conflict amid the rapid transformation of a stormy decade, he turned to Lata Mangeshkar to compose its music. The assignment not only required musical genius but also a keen understanding of the scores of Marathi dialects spoken across Maharashtra.
By then, Mangeshkar – already a ‘playback’ singing sensation across Indian languages – had composed music for three Marathi films. It was Pendharkar’s film Saadhi Maansa (Simple Folk) – her fourth – that would become a landmark. Two of its songs – ‘Airanichya deva tula’ and ‘Malachya malamandhi’ – became all-time classics in Maharashtrian households and won innumerable awards.
n the morning of February 6, 2022, when Mangeshkar passed away at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital, India not only lost one of its most prolific singers, but a musician who transformed the craft of film singing and became a benchmark for successive generations to emulate. She was admitted on January 8 due to Covid pneumonia. She initially responded to the treatment, doctors said, but her condition deteriorated in the first week of February and she had been on ventilator since.
Mangeshkar, or Lata Didi as she was fondly called, came from a household that worshipped music. Her father Dinanath Mangeshkar was a towering personality in Marathi theatre. He acted, produced and sang songs in plays that would change the face of Marathi theatre. He was one of the foremost exponents of Natya Sangeet and an accomplished Hindustani classical singer.
Born in September 1929, Lata was the first of a set of siblings – sisters Meena, Asha (Bhosle), and Usha, and brother Hridaynath – that ruled over Marathi and Hindi film music for decades. She was originally named Hema, but her father changed it to Lata after a character in one of his plays.
Though Lata had started singing in movies by the age of 13 in 1942, it was her breakthrough performance in Majboor in 1948 that catapulted her into mainstream Hindi films. Her mentor: music director Ghulam Haider, who, the urban legend goes, was so angry when a producer rejected Mangeshkar for being “too thin” thundered to the man that he would one day fall at Lata’s feet and beg her to sing in his movies. There is no record of whether this actually happened, and Mangeshkar herself never confirmed it, but she has, on several occasions credited Haider to be her mentor. “He was the first music director who showed complete faith in my talent,” she said in an interview in 2013.
The next year, 1949, she sang the soul-stirring Aayega aanewala in the hit Mahal, whose music director Khemchand Prakash was later also credited with mainstreaming another great singer, – Kishore Kumar. With Aayega aanewala, Mangeshkar had truly anchored her fame stepping out of the shadows of another film singing legend, Noor Jehan.
Between 1950 and well into the 2000s, Lata Mangeshkar lent her voice to scores of actors in not only Hindi and Marathi movies, but in languages as diverse as Bangla (in which she sang nearly 200 songs), Assamese, Gujarati, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, and Bhojpuri, among at least 25 others. Her career spanned from being Madhubala’s voice in the late 1940s to singing a devotional song depicted on Mugdha Godse in 2009, when Mangeshkar turned 80.
In between, Mangeshkar won the Bharat Ratna, the Dadasaheb Phalke award, the French Legion of Honour, five Maharashtra state film awards, three national film awards, and countless other honors and citations, making her easily the most powerful Indian film singer of all eras outshining gender and time.
Condolences Pour Out
I consider it my honour that I have always received immense affection from Lata Didi. My interactions with her will remain unforgettable. I grieve with my fellow Indians on the passing away of Lata Didi. Spoke to her family and expressed condolences. Om Shanti.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 6, 2022
Received the sad news of Lata Mangeshkar ji’s demise. She remained the most beloved voice of India for many decades.
Her golden voice is immortal and will continue to echo in the hearts of her fans.My condolences to her family, friends and fans. pic.twitter.com/Oi6Wb2134M
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) February 6, 2022
So sad to hear that Lataji is no more, going to miss her so much.End of an Era!Lataji,Nightingale of India,whose voice hs made generations sing,dance & cry wil forever feed our emotion.Heartfelt condolences to Ashaji,family & friends.Nation wil miss her. Om Shanti#LataMangeshkar pic.twitter.com/eIOUxydQYm
— Sunny Deol (@iamsunnydeol) February 6, 2022
I pay my heart-felt tribute to the departed icon of India, Bharatratna Lata Mangeshkar. (1/3)
— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) February 6, 2022
Mortal Woman, Immortal melodies ! She will continue be with us. Devastated to hear the news of #LataMangeshkar passing away. pic.twitter.com/DjeamqNuub
— Dr. Shama Mohamed (@drshamamohd) February 6, 2022
भारत की स्वर कोकिला महान लता मंगेशकर जी का निधन भारत में संगीत के एक युग की समाप्ति है। उनकी सुरीली आवाज़ हम सबके बीच और पूरी दुनिया में सदा अमर रहेगी।
प्रभु से प्रार्थना है कि दिवंगत पुण्यात्मा को अपने श्री चरणों में स्थान दें। ओम शांति 🙏 https://t.co/OWullKkQ7v
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 6, 2022
My wife @mvadera joins me in wishing #LataMangeshkar ji the speediest recovery. Didi remains in our thoughts and in the collective prayers of our country & her fans and admirers from across the world . #LataMangeshkar pic.twitter.com/NhVOqn8YYc
— Tehseen Poonawalla Official 🇮🇳 (@tehseenp) February 5, 2022
End of an era… #LataMangeshkar pic.twitter.com/M0I2tHGJQJ
— sohit mishra (@sohitmishra99) February 6, 2022
Deeply saddened to know about the passing away of legendary singer Bharat Ratna #LataMangeshkar ji. She was the melodious voice of India, who dedicated her life to enriching Indian music in her more than 7 decades long rich contribution. pic.twitter.com/oIXyl55Xl5
— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) February 6, 2022
Her memory echoes in every corridor of Indian movies, a lady who lived a good life nearly a century is indeed a blessed one.
You might want to read https://hamslivenews.com/2022/01/27/constitution-of-india-teaches-us-unity-and-we-the-people-of-india-look-equal-constitutionally/