Lata Mangeshkar, Iconic Singer for Bollywood Films, Dies at Age 92

Lata Mangeshkar, a vocalist lauded for her work in Bollywood films, who was also known as the Nightingale of India and Queen of Melody, died in Mumbai on Sunday. The Indian government declared a two-day period of mourning, with flags flown at half-mast, extending as far as the Indian Pavilion at the Expo 2020 in Dubai. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said via Twitter that her passing “leaves a void in our nation that cannot be filled.” Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, wrote, “listening to her songs has given so much pleasure to so many people all over the world.” The cause of death was reported as complications from Covid-19. She was 92 years old.

Mangeshkar’s seven-decade career leaves behind a reported 50,000 recorded songs in 14 different languages, which was listed, for a time, as holding the Guinness World Record for “Most Recorded Voice.” (These numbers were disputed, and the category was removed for a while. It is back currently, with a different name.) 

Most of Mangeshkar’s work was for Indian cinema as a playback singer. In most Indian movies, the actors rarely sing their own songs and instead lip-synch previously recorded work. As is evidenced by the nation’s response to Mangeshkar’s passing, however, these artists do not remain anonymous and are celebrated in their own right.

Early in her career, she appeared on screen, but as The New York Times noted, she disliked that work. “People ordering you about, say this dialogue, say that dialogue. I felt so uncomfortable,” she said in an interview published in 2009. “The day I started working as a playback singer, I prayed to God: ‘No more acting in films.’”

She was born in the city of Indore, and raised in Sangli. Her father was a celebrated classical musician active in Marathi theater. Her first recording was for a Marathi film, but it ended up on the cutting room floor. Her first substantial hit was in 1948, the song “Dil Mea Toda” for a movie called Majboor.

In 1949, she recorded “Aayage Aanewala” for the film Mahal, which secured her a spot in Indian musical history.

Though her work was primarily in film, she did perform live over the years. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, famously reported that seeing her sing the patriotic song “Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon” following the Sino-Indian war in 1963 left him in tears.

Her concerts continued until this century. Here she is singing the title song from the 1997 Bollywood hit Dil To Pagal Hai in 2002.

In addition to Prime Minister Modi, film star Shah Rukh Khan and his wife, designer Gauri Khan, performers Ranbir Kapoor and Shankar Mahadevan, poet Javed Akhtar, and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar attended her cremation ceremony.

Mangeshkar was never married and had no children. Her younger sister, Asha Bhosle, known as the queen of Indi-pop, also had a triumphant career as a playback singer, with thousands of recordings to her name.