Lata Mangeshkar had dominated Indian Playback singing for such
a long period of time that she can be considered uncrowned
queen of Indian playback singing. She made her presence felt
right from the time of Mahal, picturised on Madhubala, with hits
songs like “ayega anewala”, in 1947, till Dil to Pagal Hai, picturised
on Madhuri Dixit. Not only was she sublime in her performance,
she had been the role model of numerous female singers of the present generation.

She was blessed with a romantic voice which had classical training
and outstanding range which could suit any situation in a film.
Her association with all the composers (excepting OP Nayyar),
creates a separate identity along with Rafi. Her everlasting performances
include “duniya kare sawal” picturised on Meena Kumari, composed
by Roshan, “aja re pardesi” picturised on Vaijayantimala, composed
by Salil Chowdhury, “aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai”, picturised
on Wahida Rehman, composed by Sd Burman, “aji ruth kar ab”
composed by Shankar Jaikishan for Sadhna, “alla tero naam”
composed by Jaidev for Nanda, “aya sawan jhumke” composed
by Laxmikant Pyarellal for Asha Parekh, “dil dhoonta hai”
composed by Madanmohan for Sharmila Tagore, “o jab tak hai jaan”
for Hema Malini, “is more se jate hai” for Suchitra Sen, composed
by RD Burman. The list can go on. Even composers like
Naushad, Ravi, Kalyanji Anandji, Khayyam loved her the most.


Even actresses like Madhuri Dixit, Kareena Kapoor, Sri Devi,
Rani Mukherjee, Preety Zinta had given lips in her songs. She
had sung for all the big banners of Bollywood, including
Raj Kapoor’s Banner, Dev Anand’s Navketan Banner, Dilip Kumar
production, GP Sippy Banner, etc. She had sung between
25,000 to 30,000 songs in a span of 60 years. So her
contribution cannot be highlighted in a small article.


Neither do the awards given to her including filmfare
awards, national awards project her domination in
the industry. Other than Rafi, no other playback singer
had dominated the Indian silver screen like Lata. She
also had sung huge number of duet songs with Rafi, Kishore,
Mukesh, Manna Dey, etc. Singers of the new generation
should follow her footsteps for sustaining the challenges
in playback singing according to the need of the present time.