Lata Mangeshkar, one of India’s best known cultural icons and a singer who defined music for generations of her countrymen, died on Sunday and was given a state funeral as politicians and bollywood personalities united in mourning.
Mangeshkar, 92, made her name in the world of Bollywood and her voice has rung out on television sets, on crackly airwaves and from movie theatres for most of independent India’s three quarters of a century, earning her the name “the Nightingale”.
The government will observe state mourning with the flag at half-mast through Monday, the Home Ministry said. Mangeshkar died of “multi-organ failure after more than 28 days of hospitalisation post COVID-19”, said Pratit Samdani. Who was treating her at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital, according to TV partner ANI.
“The coming generations will remember her as a stalwart of Indian culture, whose melodious voice had an unparalleled ability to mesmerise people,” Modi wrote. Other Bollywood personalities and politicians also paid their tributes. “The voice of a million centuries has left us,” veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan said.
The state of West Bengal declared a half-day holiday and urged the administration to play Mangeshkar’s songs at important crossings all over the state for 15 days. Born in 1929 in pre-independence India, Mangeshkar began singing in her teens. And in a career spanning 73 years sang more than an estimated 15,000 songs in 36 languages.
She enthralled music-mad Indians with her lilting voice and sheer range. Singing everything from patriotic songs to romantic numbers, both in films and albums. Classically trained, Mangeshkar moulded her voice to the demands of singing for Bollywood movies. Even voicing songs in her 60s for actress who was in her 20s.
Her songs motivated millions of Indians during wars with China and Pakistan to pay homage to the defence forces.