Insight Bureau: Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar breathed her last while undergoing treatment at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital on Sunday. She was 92.
She was admitted to Hospital earlier last month, after testing positive for COVID-19 and was also diagnosed with pneumonia.
While the singer stayed in ICU, she showed slight signs of improvement around January 28 and was taken off the ventilator too.
She is widely considered as one of the greatest and most respected playback singers in India.
Lata Mangeshkar, who is popularly known as the ‘Nightingale of India,’ began singing to support her family after the death of her father Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar 1942.
In Bollywood, Lata Mangeshkar got her first major break with the song Dil Mera Toda from the 1948 film Majboor. Her song Aayega Aanewaala from the movie Mahal (1949) became her first major hit.
Lata has recorded songs in over thirty-six Indian languages and few foreign languages.
Lata Mangeshkar won the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1989. In 2001, she was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour.France conferred her its highest civilian award, the Officer of the Legion of Honour, in 2007.
Lata Mangeshkar was the recipient of 3 National Film Awards, 15 Bengal Film Journalists’ Association Awards, 4 Filmfare Best Female Playback Awards, 2 Filmfare Special Awards and Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1974, she became the first Indian to perform at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
Two-day national mourning to be observed in memory of Lata Mangeshkar. The National flag to fly at half-mast for two days, as a mark of respect. A state funeral will be accorded to the legend.