When Veer Savarkar said, he left his dream of politics: Lata Mangeshkar’s family members used to say – this girl will spoil the name of the family.

Today is the 94th birth anniversary of Swar Kokila Lata Mangeshkar. Sung more than 50 thousand songs, there was no honor that she did not get, yet she used to say that if she were born again, she would not want to be Lata Mangeshkar.

It has been almost one and a half years since Lata Didi passed away. From an early age he had to prove himself at every step. After the death of her father, some people said that this girl would bring bad name to the family while others considered her thin voice as her weakness. However, he proved everyone wrong with his singing style.

In this photo, Lata didi is seen with sisters Meena, Asha and Usha.

Five important people have a hand in giving Lata Mangeshkar the status of the Nightingale of India. Have a look at those 5 personalities at the beginning of the story…

Dream was to enter politics, Veer Savarkar advised to take up music

According to Lata Mangeshkar’s biography, Lata: Sur-Gatha, the first dream that Lata Didi had was to serve the country. He had also taken a vow for this. For this she had told Veer Savarkar that she would adopt the path of politics for social service. After listening to him, Veer Savarkar had said – Your father has a great name in the music field. He is serving the country through this. You too should serve the society through music like him.

On the persuasion of Veer Savarkar, Lata Didi gave up her dream of politics and resolved to serve the society through music.

Ghulam Haider and Anil Biswas gave secret tips of music
Lata Mangeshkar has mentioned in every interview that the personality of Master Ghulam Haider and composer Anil Biswas had a deep impact on her. Lata Didi had told that Master Ghulam Haider had taught her that a little more weight should be given to the lyrics coming on the beat. This is what gives rise to the song.

At the same time, Anil Biswas taught him to pause his breath while singing. He told Lata Didi how to exhale at certain places while singing, so that the audience does not find it awkward to listen. Anil Biswas told him that while breathing, one should slowly move the face away from the microphone and quickly come back again.

Lata Didi always used to say that if these two personalities had not told these nuances, perhaps today there would have been a huge lack of perfection in her singing.

Lata did a small role in Master Vinayak’s first Hindi film Badi Maa (1945) along with sister Asha.

Dilip Kumar has a big hand in improving pronunciation
Lata didi was brought up in Mumbai. This was the reason that his spoken language was also Marathi. When he started singing in Hindi cinema, people used to taunt him for being a Marathi. The story related to this is that one day Lata was going to Goregaon by local train with music composers Anil Biswas and Dilip Kumar.

Anil Biswas, while introducing Lata to Dilip Kumar, said – Dilip, this is Lata Mangeshkar and she sings very well. On this Dilip Kumar asked where she was from. Anil Biswas told that this is Marathi.

As soon as he heard the word Marathi, Dilip Kumar made his face strange and said – Isn’t it, the dialect of Marathi people has a little flavor of dal-bhaat (Marathi people do not know Urdu). Lata didi felt very bad about these words. After this he decided to learn Urdu and learned it also. She used to say that it was Dilip Kumar, thanks to whom she learned Urdu and her pronunciation improved.

Noorjahan could have given competition to Lata Didi
The last name in this list is that of Pakistan’s Mallika-e-Tarannum Noorjahan. When Lata Didi started singing for Marathi films, Noorjahan was a well-known face in the industry. Lata Didi herself considered him as her idol. She had said in an interview that there cannot be another Noorjahan like Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi.

If reports are to be believed, Swara Kokila Lata Mangeshkar was compared with Noorjahan. It was also said that if Noorjahan had not gone to Pakistan during Partition, Lata’s singing career would not have been at such heights. In this respect, it was better for Noorjahan to go to Pakistan and Hindi cinema got a better voice.

On the other hand, Noorjahan, after seeing 14 year old Lata, had said that one day she would become a great singer. Lata was also a big fan of Noorjahan and considered her her idol and used to listen to her songs in her free time.

Now read some interesting stories related to the life of Lata Mangeshkar….
Lata Didi was born on Saturday 28 September 1929 in her aunt’s house in a Sikh locality of Indore. Lata didi started teaching music at the age of 5. At the age of 9, she started going to shows with her father Dinanath Mangeshkar. Around 1940-41, Lata Didi went with her father for recording on the invitation of AIR (All India Radio) in Delhi.

This was the first time that she had gone with her father to sing for the radio. Before this, she used to do shows with her father in his drama company. This was his last program with his father. After this, only about a year had passed that on 24 April 1942, father Dinanath Mangeshkar died.

After the death of her father, the entire responsibility of the house fell on the shoulders of Lata Didi. During this time, Master Vinayak approached him for his Marathi film Pehli Mangala Gaur. He needed money so he said yes and also did a small role in the film. Along with this he also sang the song Natali Chaitrachi Navalai from the film. He got a fee of Rs 25 for this song and a total of Rs 300 for the role in the film. After this he worked in Master Vinayak’s company.

Bad times make a person helpless. This statement fits perfectly with the life of Lata Didi. There was a time, when her father was alive, Lata Didi had received offers to work in the film industry, but her father had refused. But after his death, Lata Didi had to accept this offer for the survival of the family.

Due to lack of money there was a need to vacate the house.
After the death of Dinanath Mangeshkar, Lata didi came to Kolhapur with her entire family. Here his father’s close friend Master Vinayak gave him a house to live. Master Vinayak died in 1947. After this her relatives started pressurizing Lata to vacate the house.

Meanwhile, a cameraman came to meet Lata. He said- There is one Harishchandra Bali, who wants to meet you and listen to your song. The next day he went and met him. He heard Lata and gave her a chance to sing. In return he gave a huge amount to Lata. With that money Lataji paid the house rent. Only then was he allowed to live in that house.

Uncle said- this girl will spoil the name of the family
At the age of 14, Lata didi came from Kolhapur to Mumbai with her aunt to sing in a show. Here she stayed at her uncle Kamalnath Mangeshkar’s house. As soon as she reached home, she started practicing. His only effort was that no one should raise questions on his father’s name.

His uncle was very angry about this. He said – This girl will spoil the name of Bhai Dinanath Mangeshkar. Where is he a good singer and where is this girl. This girl will not be able to sing properly and the name of the entire family will be ruined.

His aunt Vijay also had the same thoughts as his uncle. Hearing these words of those people, Lata Didi became very hurt and started crying. Then his aunt explained to him that he should just concentrate on his singing without listening to anyone.

Next day Lata didi gave her performance with more enthusiasm. Actress Lalita Pawar was also present in that show as a spectator. He liked Lata Didi’s song very much. Lalita Pawar presented him gold earrings as a reward.

When the voice was rejected as thin
When she was recording songs for Harishchandra Bali’s film, a Pathan heard her voice. Without stopping, the man went to meet Ghulam Haider Ali. Pathan told them – A new girl has come, who sings very well. You must call him and listen to him once. Master Ghulam Haider Ali agreed to meet. Lata Didi got a message to meet Master Haider Ali.

The next day she along with her cousin sister went to meet Master Ghulam Haider Ali’s studio. She kept waiting for him there from morning till evening. Eventually he met Master Haider Ali. He apologized for making us wait so long, then asked to play the song. He was very impressed by Lata’s singing.

Master Haider Ali introduced Lata to producer Sashadhar Mukherjee, who was working on the film Shaheed at that time, but he refused to give Lata the job. Mukherjee said- This girl’s voice is very thin. On this, Master Haider Ali said – In the coming days, producers and directors will fall at the feet of this girl and request her to sing a song in their film.

Due to lack of money, she used to go to the studio on foot.
In the initial days of her career, Lata Didi used to go from home to the recording studio on foot. After recording the songs, she used to sit in the recording studio even in her free time. She used to spend the whole day without eating anything. The reason was that he did not know that there was a canteen in the recording studio also.

The second reason was that they had less money. She used to have one or two rupees, so she would go to the studio on foot from home, so that she could buy vegetables for her family with the remaining money. She believed that even if she remained hungry, her family members should not have to sleep without eating.

Song sung on phone to sick Mehboob Khan
In 1958, filmmaker Mehboob Khan went to the Oscar ceremony in America. It had only been two days since he reached here that he had a heart attack. Lata didi called him to know his condition. Mehboob Khan said during the conversation – I feel very keen to listen to your songs abroad, but from here where can I get the recording of your songs.

Lata Didi replied- Which song do you want to listen to? On Mehboob Khan’s request, Lata Didi sang him the song ‘Rasik Balma’. Mehboob Khan’s health definitely improved due to this song.

Bade Ghulam Ali Khan said – You bastard, there is never any loss of voice.
This incident happened in 1961. Classical singer Pandit Jasraj had gone to Amritsar to meet Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. There they were talking on some issue, when Lata Didi’s song played on the transistor. The lyrics of the song were – This life belongs to someone who has become someone’s. As soon as the song started, Ghulam Ali became completely quiet. After the song was over, he said – Damn it, it is never dissonant. His words included both love and jealousy.

I regretted not being able to become a classical singer all my life.
After the death of her father, all the responsibilities at home fell on the shoulders of Lata didi. Due to which he started working in films as an actor and singer. Later, he did not get enough time to practice classical music. As a result, he missed classical music completely. Even after reaching the heights of her career, she still regretted that she could not become a classical singer.

Dissatisfaction with Rafi Sahab was such that I did not work with him for 4 years.
Once a debate broke out between Lata Didi and Rafi Saheb over the royalty of the songs. Lata ji was in favor of singers getting royalty, whereas Rafi said that if singers are getting fees for singing, then what is the need for royalty. There was such an argument that both of them decided that they would not work together. Neither sang any song together nor shared any stage for almost 4 years.