Lata Mangeshkar: A career that spanned the arc of Hindi cinema

Lata Mangeshkar, known to millions as the “Nightingale of India” and a regular fixture of the country’s airwaves for decades, died Sunday morning at the age of 92.

We remember her contribution to music with a timeline of her life and career, which spans over nine decades.

September 28, 1929: Lata Mangeshkar was born in Indore in (now) Madhya Pradesh, the first of five children, to Pt Deenanath Mangeshkar, a renowned Marathi theatre actor and Hindustani classical musician, and Shevanti Haridas Lad. All other children — Usha, Meena, Asha and Hridaynath — became musicians and singers as well.

1930s: Lata acts and sings in Marathi plays written by her father.

1942: Lata recorded her first playback song for a Marathi film, Kiti Hasaal, at the age of 13, and even acted in a Marathi film, Pahili Mangalagaur. This was also the year her father passed away following an illness.

1946: Records her first Hindi film playback song for Aap Ki Seva Mein, directed by Vasant Jogalekar. The year before, she and her sister, Asha, acted in a film.

1940s: Lata trains under Ustad Aman Ali Khan, of the Bhendi Bazaar gharana, famed for his Merukhand style, a mathematical ordering of notes to convey thousands of taans (beats). “Khan saheb was a very kind-hearted, systematic and benevolent guru,” she once told an interviewer.

1949: Lata, now 20, becomes the go-to voice of the heroine after two films released that year. In Madhubala-starrer Mahal, she sang the breakthrough Aayega Aanewala and in Barasaat, she sang nine songs for three different stars in the film.

Also read: Lata Mangeshkar once helped raise ₹20 lakh for the 1983 World Cup-winning Indian cricket team

As HMV began to make records with singers, entering into exclusive contracts with them, music historians note that Lata Mangeshkar helped organise other singers to put pressure on music labels to credit the singers on the records.

1950s-60s: Lata cements her position as the most popular playback singer of Hindi cinema, working with some of the most notable music composers of her generation, including Anil Biswas, Naushad Ali, Madan Mohan, SD Burman, C Ramchandra, Khayyam, among others. She sang alongside some of the great male playback singers: from Kishore Kumar to Mohammed Rafi.

January, 1963: Lata performs Ae Mere Watan Ke in front of former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, moving him to tears. The song was written in honour of the Indian soldiers who died in the India-China War of 1962.

1969: Wins the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award for exceptional and distinguished service.

1970s-80: Lata sings prolifically across genres. She recorded over 700 songs for composers Laxmikant Pyarelal alone.

1972: Wins first National Award for best female playback singer for film Parichay.

1974: Performed at London’s Royal Albert Hall; Wins second National Award for best female playback singer for film, Kora Kagaz.

1989: Wins Dadasaheb Phalke award.

1990: Wins third National Award for best female playback singer for Lekin.

1997: AR Rahman’s composed Ma Tujhe Salam, sung by Lata, broke sales records at the time of its release. The song was made on the occasion of India’s 50th year of Independence.

1999: Receives second-highest civilian award, Padma Vibhushan.

2001: Wins the country’s highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna; also receives the first Maharashtra Ratna.

2007: Awarded Officer of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest civilian award.

2012: Launches music label, LM Music. By this time, she had thousands of songs in several Indian languages, from Punjabi to Tamil, Bengali to Chhattisgarhi, and across genres from Gurbani to ghazals to qawwals to classical compositions. As she enters the eighth decade of work, she begins to record fewer Hindi cinema songs.

January 8, 2022: The 92-year-old admitted to Breach Candy after testing positive for Covid-19, with mild symptoms. She died on February 6.