Wednesday, August 14, 2013
LATA MANGESHKAR (born 28 September 1929),
commonly referred to as Lataji or Queen Of Melodies, is an Indian
singer, and occasional music-composer. She is one of the best-known and most
respected playback singers in India. Mangeshkar's career started
in 1942 and has spanned over seven decades. She has recorded songs for over a
thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional
Indian languages and foreign languages, though primarily in Marathi and Hindi.
She is the elder sister of singers Asha Bhosle, Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Usha
Mangeshkar and Meena Mangeshkar. She is the second vocalist to have
ever been awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.
Mangeshkar was featured in the Guinness Book of World
Records from 1974 to 1991 for having made the most recordings in the
world. The claim was that she had recorded approximately 25,000 solo, duet, and
chorus-backed songs in 20 Indian languages between 1948 to 1974. The category
was removed in 1991 and re-introduced in 2011. In 2011 Guinness officially
acknowledged Mangeshkar's sister Asha Bhosle as the most recorded
artist in music history.
Lata Mangeshkar has won several awards and honors, including Bharat
Ratna (India's Highest Civilian Award), Padma Bhushan(1969), Padma
Vibhushan (1999), Dada Saheb Phalke Award (1989), Maharashtra
Bhushan Award (1997), NTR National Award(1999), Bharat Ratna (2001), ANR
National Award (2009), 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 honour 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. 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.
Although the entry has not been printed in Guinness editions since
1991, several sources claim that she has recorded thousands of songs, with
estimates ranging up to figures as large as 50,000. However, even the
earliest Guinness claim of 25,000 songs (between 1948–1974) was claimed to be
exaggerated by several other sources, with one of them stating that the number
of songs sung by Lata Mangeshkar in Hindi films till 1991 was found
to be 5250. 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. In 2011 Asha Bhosle was officially
acknowledged by Guinness as the most recorded artist in music
history, surpassing Mangeshkar.
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