B'Day Special: Rare Photos of Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar (born September 28, 1929) is a singer from India. She is one of the best-known playback singers in the Hindi film industry.[1][2] Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over six and a half decades. She sang in over a thousand Bollywood movies and has sung songs in over twenty regional Indian languages, but primarily in Hindi. She is the elder sister of the equally accomplished singer Asha Bhosle and lesser-known singers, brother Hridayanath Mangeshkar and sisters Usha Mangeshkar and Meena Mangeshkar. Lata is the second vocalist ever to have received the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.[3]

Mangeshkar was featured in the Guiness Book of World Records from 1974 to 1991 for having made the most recordings in the world. The claim was that she had recorded no 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 the 1987 edition). Over the years, while several sources have supported this claim, others have raised concerns over its veracity, claiming that this number was highly exaggerated and that Mangeshkar's sister, Asha Bhosle, had more song recordings than she had.

Lata Mangeshkar was born in a Maharashtrian family in Sikh Mohalla, Indore, in the State of Madhya Pradesh. Her father, Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar who belonged to a Konkani speaking Kalavant Family from Goa, was a classical singer and theater actor. Her mother Shudhhamati, who was from Thalner, was Deenanath's second wife. The family's last name used to be Hardikar; Deenanath changed it to Mangeshkar in order to identify his family with his native town, Mangeshi in Goa. Lata was named "Hridaya" at her birth. Her parents later renamed her Lata after a female character, Latika, in one of her father's plays, BhaawBandhan.[4] Lata is the eldest child of her parents. Asha, Hridayanath, Usha, and Meena are her siblings in sequence.

Lata took her first music lessons from her father. At the age of five, she started to work as an actress in her father's musical plays (sangeet naatak in Marathi). Her father's recitals and lessons left a strong impression on her, 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.[4] Other sources cite that she left school because they would not allow her to bring Asha with her, as she would often bring her younger sister with her.

Lata Mangeshkar has won several awards and honors, including Padma Bhushan (1969), Padma Vibhushan (1999), Dada Saheb Phalke Award (1989), NTR National Award (1999), Bharat Ratna (2001), three National Film Awards, and 12 Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards. She has also won four Filmfare Best Female Playback Awards. In 1969, she made the unusual gesture of giving up the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award, in order to promote fresh talent. She was later awarded Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993.

In 1984, the State Government of Madhya Pradesh instituted the Lata Mangeshkar Award in honor of Lata Mangeshkar. The State Government of Maharashtra also instituted a Lata Mangeshkar Award in 1992.

In 1974, The Guinness Book of Records listed Lata Mangeshkar as the most recorded artist in the history, stating that she had reportedly recorded "not less than 25,000 solo, duet and chorus backed songs in 20 Indian languages" between 1948 and 1974. Her record was contested by Mohammed Rafi, who was claimed to have sung around 28,000 songs.[18][19] After Rafi's death, in its 1984 edition, the Guinness Book of World Records stated Lata Mangeshkar's name for the "Most Recordings", but also stated Rafi's claim. The later editions of Guinness Book stated that Lata Mangeshkar had sung no fewer than 30,000 songs between 1948 and 1987.[20]

Although the entry has not been printed in Guinness editions since 1991, reputable sources claim that she has recorded thousands of songs, with estimates ranging up to figures as large as 50,000.[21][22] However, even the earliest Guinness claim of 25,000 songs (between 1948-1974) was claimed to be exaggerated by other sources, who stated that the number of songs sung by Lata Mangeshkar in Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu films till 1991 was found to be 5250.[23] Mangeshkar herself stated that she does not keep a record of the number of songs recorded by her, and that she did not know from where Guinness Book editors got their information.[24]

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