Lata Mangeshkar is not just a name, it is a tune undefined. The most popular singer, India has ever known, received the Dadasaheb Phalke award at the 21st renewal of the series in 1990, for the year 1989.

Hailing from an orthodox Maharashtrian family, Lata Mangeshkar was born at Indore on 28th September 1929. Her father was the noted stage personality, Dinanath Mangeshkar, also a musician of great renown, and he introduced his eldest daughter to the intracacies of classical Indian music from the age of only four. When she was seven, Dinanath encouraged her to give her first concert on the stage.

When Dinanath Mangeshkar died, in 1942, Lata was thirteen years old. The responsibility of tending to the family fell upon her young shoulders, and it was just a week after her father's death that she acted in Master Vinayak's Pahli Manglagour, a successful Marathi film. However acting was not her ambition, and she took the wise decision of concentrating on her singing. An opportunity arose for her, in 1947, when she rendered a playback song for the Marathi film Kiti Hasal. In the same year, she entered Hindi movies with her song for Aap Ki Seva Mein.

Music director Ghulam Haider introduced her Bombay Talkies which was to be her stepping stone to the big time. Over the years, she was won the hearts of millions of music lovers, and according to the Guiness Book of Records, she has rendered more songs than any artiste anywhere in the world, over 30,000 is the book's estimate.

Apart from her film songs, Lata Mangeshkar has personally adapted the works of leading Marathi poets and set them to music for private recordings. She has recorded devotional songs by Sant Tukara, and her recording of the Bhagwat in Sanskrit is recognised as her crowning achievement.

Her most famous non-film song is Aye Mere Waton Ke Logo tuned by C. Ramchandra and written by poet Pradeep, it was this song that had brought tears in the eyes of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru..

Late Mangeshkar has never hesitated to help budding music directors by offering to render playbacks for them, and in the past five decades, there must be very few, indeed, who have not benefited from Lata's great talent. She has sung in virtually all Indian languages with equal success. She has also composed music for some films, with the adopted name of Anand Ghar. They were Ram Ram Pahune, Mohityanchi Manjula, Maratha Tituka Melwawa, Sadhi Manse and Tambadi Ati. She acted in Pahili Mangala Gaur, Majhe Baal, Gaja Bhau, Badi Maa, Jeevan Yara, Samudra Mandir. She produced Marathi and Hindi films like Wadal (Marathi), Kanchan (Hindi) and Lekin (Hindi).

Lata Mangeshkar Filmography