I feel like 18-year-old: Lata Mangeshkar

The grand dame of Indian music, Lata Mangeshkar, who has been honoured with France`s highest civilian award, the Insignia of `Officier de la Legion d`Honneur` (Officer of the Legion of Honour), says she continues to grow young with age.

"I turned 81 on September last. But I am very young at heart. So I have reversed the order of the figure. I feel like an 18-year-old," Lata said while accepting the honour here last evening at a function organised by the French government.

"France and India have always stood for values like fraternity, equality and liberty. I thank the French Government for bestowing this highly prestigious honour on
me," Lata said.

The `Legion d`Honneur (Legion of Honour) is the highest distinction that can be conferred by the French Republic on a French citizen as well as on a foreigner.

Showering praise on France, which she says is a regular on her travel itinerary, Lata said, "France is the land of brave hearts as well as beauty. So are its perfumes, wine and champagne famous world over. I am a great fan of France."

"Besides other things, I found peace, which I am looking for, in a church there," said Lata, who was clad in her trademark simple saree.

Lata, famous as the `Nightingale of India` also thanked her family and film industry.

"It is because of them, what I am today. I consider myself to be very lucky," she said.

Jerrome Bonnafont, French Ambassador in India, bestowed the medal, a glittering broach, on Lata.

But it proved to be quite a tongue twister for Bonnafont when he tried to mentioned two particular songs of the singer -- `Aaayega aane wala....` and `Ae Mere watan ke
Logon....`

"It is this love in myriad forms, from personal to patriotic, that binds France with India," he said.

The function was attended by filmmaker Yash Chopra, Madhur Bhandarkar, Annu Mallik, and entire Mangeshkar family, except Asha Bhosale, who gave a miss to the event.

Other famous personalities who have been awarded this honour include Steven Spielberg and actor Gerard Depardieu.

The legendary singer who first broke onto the music scene with `Aayega Aanewaala` in Mahal (1949), is considered the greatest playback singer in Indian cinema having sung more than 30,000 songs in a career spanning six decades.

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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Lata Mangeshkar renders a new-age 'prison anthem'

Lata Mangeshkar sang 'Ae malik tere bande hum', a song that inspired prisoners in V. Shantaram's film 'Do Aankhen Barah Haath' in 1957. Now Madhur Bhandarkar has the singing legend render a new-age 'prison anthem' in his latest movie 'Jail'.

'We want Lata-ji's 'Daata sun maula sun' to be the new-age 'Ae maalik tere bande hum'. We want youngsters to embrace it and get to know the endless magic of Lata-ji's art. It has the potential to be hummed and sung in schools and colleges for all times to come,' Bhandarkar told IANS.

Lata's 'Ae malik tere bande hum' went on to inspire generations of Indians imprisoned in their prejudices and daily despondencies. Now 52 years later when Bhandarkar conceived the song, he wanted only Lata to sing it.

'I'm not just a Lata fan. I am her fanatic. When she agreed to sing 'Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahan par' for my 'Page 3', I felt I had achieved one of my biggest dreams. And now to have her sing for me again, and that too for a film that stars Neil Nitin Mukesh, whose grandfather Mukesh was very close to Lata-ji,' the director said.

The prison anthem in 'Jail' entitled 'Daata sun maula sun' is written by a first-time lyricist Ajay Garg.

'When he recited the lines for me, it was there and then decided that no other singer but Lata-ji has the right to touch these words,' said Bhandarkar, known for his creative excellence in films like 'Chandni Bar', 'Page 3' and 'Fashion'.

The director says it didn't take him much to convince the singer to go behind the mike for the song.

'I've kept in touch with Lata-ji since 'Page 3'. When I told her it was a song for my film composed by Shamir Tandon, who had done 'Kitne ajeeb' for her, she was immediately interested and asked us to send the tune,' he said.

Lata was also enamoured by the idea that the film starred her Mukesh-bhaiyya's grandson Neil. She is very close to the whole family.

Interestingly, in the last decade Lata-ji has sung two bhajans 'Oh paalan haare' ('Lagaan') and 'Ek tu hi bharosa' ('Pukar') - both for A.R. Rahman.