Lata Mangeshkar’s Golden Era From Nehru To Modi

Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar, who died on Sunday after battling Covid and pneumonia at the age of 92, was cremated with full state honours at Mumbai’s iconic Shivaji Park. This brings an end to the era and a huge void in the music fraternity. Fondly called the Nightingale and Queen of Melody, Lata Mangeshkar’s journey was full of ups and downs. However, the splendid and unique gift of her voice made it a journey worth living.

She started singing at the age of 13 and went on to become the holder of the Guinness world record for recording more than 35 thousand songs over the course of her career. Lata is someone to be remembered for generations to come. Lata ji is the only singer to have had an active singing career from the first Prime Minister of India till the current one. She had seen 18 Prime Ministers of India.

In 1963, the first PM of the nation, Jawaharlal Nehru was moved to tears by Lata Mangeshkar when she performed ‘Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon’, written by Kavi Pradeep, at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. The singer had also helped in raising funds for the Indian cricket team’s felicitation after winning the World Cup back in 1983. She did this through a concert that collected a whopping INR 20 lakhs. The then-PM Rajiv Gandhi was present at the concert.

She also shared a great friendship with the third PM of India, the late Indira Gandhi. Today, after Lata’s demise, the current PM Narendra Modi tweeted, “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.”

Lata Mangeshkar had a long and fruitful career as her technical prowess is among the best in the history of film music. Her pronunciation, enunciation, ability to leverage poetic prosody and uncanny knack to elongate vowels to just the right degree are second to none. In fact, she pretty much single-handedly defined the female lead voice in Hindi films, and it remained the de facto standard for decades.