(b Indore, 28 Sept 1929). Indian film playback singer. The best-known and respected female singer in the history of Indian film music, Lata Mangeshkar has recorded more film songs than any other singer. As the eldest daughter of Marathi stage actor-singer and travelling theatre owner Dinanath Mangeshkar, she received no formal schooling and was forced to support her mother and four younger siblings when her father died in 1942. Lata immediately joined the film industry as an actress-singer with a Marathi film company, Prafulla Pictures in Pune. For a short time she also became a disciple of classical singer Aman Ali Khan Bindibazarwala, then after his departure to Pakistan in 1947 she studied with Amanat Ali until his death in 1951. Lata sang her first Marathi film playback song in 1942, and her first playback for a Hindi film in 1947, Pa lagun kar jori re for Aap ki sewa mein. Lata's high-pitched, thin voice differed from the prevailing full-throated style of Hindi film actress-singers Noorjehan, Suraiya, Zohrabai and others, but after the success of her songs in Majboor (1948), composed by director Ghulam Haider, all the leading Hindi film music directors offered her song recordings.
During the 1950s and 60s she recorded an average of five songs per day. With competition only from the few other leading female playback artists – namely Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum and her sister Asha Bhosle – Lata's songs gained enormous, widespread popularity via film, radio and commercial recordings. She won the annual Filmfare award for Best Female Playback Singer in 1958 (A ja re pardesi in Madhumati), in 1962 (Kahin dip jale in Bees saal baad), in 1965 (Tumhi mere mandir in Khandaan), and in 1969 (for Ap mujhe acche lagne lage in Jeene ki raah), after which she renounced all Filmfare awards in favour of younger singers, besides a Lifetime award. In addition to singing Lata has composed music for five Marathi films, four under the pseudonym Anandghan, and has produced films in both Marathi and Hindi. Her numerous honours include the Presidential Padma Bhushan award in 1969, honorary citizenship of the USA presented in Houston, Texas, in 1987, the Dada Saheb Phalke award for her lifetime contribution to cinema in 1989, and the 1996 Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana for her outstanding contribution to the nation through her singing. Lata Mangeshkar continues to record film songs and spends several months each year on concert tours around the world.
S. Mitra: ‘O Indisputable and Indispensable Queen’, Cinema Vision India, ii/2 (1983), 38–45
R. Bharatan: Lata Mangeshkar: A Biography (New Delhi, 1995)
H. Bhimani: In Search of Lata Mangeshkar (New Delhi, 1995)
ALISON ARNOLD