Talk:Lata Mangeshkar

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[edit] The neutrality of this article is disputed.

This article shows following problems

  • problem 1: It shows she sang 35 languages. if any body would like to show Please

please verify it. if which languages ? or which songs or just give a refrence of her official website.Reference site should be a standard. If any interview with her about her multi language songs ? if OK.

problem 2: The Nightingale of India. Sarijini Naidu is the Naighingale of India not Lata mangeshkar. It will mislead entire world. she may be something in Bollywood film industry or North India. But India has only one, she is Sarojini Naidu.

06:22, 6 December 2006 (UTC)Lata is widely known as India's nightingale. In fact, Padma Subramaniam (Bharatanatyam dancer) also called Lata as the nightingale 06:22, 6 December 2006 (UTC)on the highest perch (source: Raju Bharatan's book on Lata).


problem 3: In her Doctorate awards I found some university name. I am not sure that India has such like universities. or the certificate of such university is valid in India or not. Please clear such blunder like New york University, India.

problem 4: This article has no Quality.

[edit] NPOV

Apart from NPOVed, there are factual inaccuracies. Lata's sister Meena is not Mangeshkar, she is Meena Khadikar. And she is very much into Music. She is a composer and works with Marathi language songs. --Sunita Dharwadkar, 5th May 2006


Not only the part moved below, almost all of the article needs to be NPOVed and grammatically corrected.

moved from main page. The text appears to be unoriginal. It can be NPOVed and moved back

Lata Mangeshkar. The queen of playback. If you aren't convinced of Lataji's greatness, have a listen to the 1973 smash-hit Bobby soundtrack, and you will be persuaded. And listen to the soundtrack of Hum Aapke Hain Koun recorded some twenty-years later; you'll hear her greatness still alive and kicking.

Lataji's voice is the epitome of versatility. She can belt out an upbeat, playful number like "Ae Phansa" from Bobby, just as easily as she can bring you to your knees with a sad number like "Aankhiyon Ko Rehne De" of the same movie or "Mohabbat Ki Jhuthi" of Mughal-E-Azam. Lataji's voice at times can be smooth and flowing, and even "lilty." Then there are the times where her overpronuncialtion of words and short breaths between notes can be distracting, for example, in the song "Jo Tum Todo Piya" from Silsila, Lataji stresses the syllables too much, which in turn makes her voice screach into octaves not meant for her, clearly, alto pitch. Although, I am aware that it is common prractice for female singers in India to go beyond their pitch, but it should be noted that some singers cannot do that easily -- Lataji being one of those who can't.

If there is a true weakmess in Lataji's voice, then it's her runs. Lataji has never been able to hit clear, controlled runs. Her runs are often all over the place, which makes for unpleasant cringing when you hear her "going there." But to her defense, Lataji has done some great runs, too; like in "Thoda Resham Lagta Hai" from the movie Jyoti. Lataji hits every note, every run and every breath on key. It is one of her best songs. Some have also said that, unlike her younger sister, Asha Bhosle, that her voice has never been "sweet." I invite you to listen to the Mughal-e-Azam soundtrack, and especially to "Mohabbat Ki Jhuthi," where Lataji voice is at its sweetest.

Overall, Lataji has been an wonderful force in playback singing. And, although there are many singers have come after her, none have been able to capture her "hold". Every song that she has done, never have I felt like another singer would have been better. Lataji has a way of making a song her own. In her later years, Lataji voice has weakened, became more screachy, but still she is able to give a good performance. The Mujhse Dosti Karoge soundtrack, where she sings some of her old songs is done beautifully, and the queen is still there.

Although Lataji has never been a great ad-libber or flowing with her language, she is still the best versatile playback singer of her time, and maybe of all time.

This has been included in the article with modifications. More cleanup needed. Jay 15:19, 18 Jun 2004 (UTC)


Needs more shortening (probably splitting) and cleanup. Its also not NPOV. Take a look at the section titles.

1960s: Lata is the playback queen 1970s: Lata is ageless diva

The adjectives used to describe the decades dont look objective to me. I am considering an NPOV tag. --Soumyasch 10:48, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] TODO

- Aye maalik tere bande hum (Do Aankhen Barah Haath) - Lata and composer Ravi *Tumhaari Nazar kyon Khafa ho gayee(Do Kaliyan, duet with Rafi) *Milti hai zindagi mein mohabbat kabhi kabhi (Aankhen, Sahir Ludhiyanvi)

- Lata Mangeshkar and Yash Chopra * Silsila * Mere haathon mein nau nau choodiyan (Chandani) - musicians: Shiv-Hari(Shivkumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasiya)

- Lata and O P Nayyar - Lata and Asha's relationship - Heroines she sang for

[edit] Too many superlatives

The article is full of superlatives about the 'magic' of her voice. The article needs some major cleanup and re-wordings.

I agree with that. Also large portion of the article would be better served as a chronological table of her recordings. As plain text, it simply rambles. I don't know any Indian languages but it seems someone will need to check the consistency of the song title romanizations.

Yep, really in need of an npov edit. :-( Rick Boatright 14:43, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Standard english

Wikipedia is not a U.S. english language resource, but many of the sentence structures in this article are _very_ non-standard english. They "sound hindi." That said, it's an Indian-oriented article about an Indian singer. Perhaps the Indian-english syntax is appropriate. I'm reluctant to start editing syntax without someone elses comment on it. Rick Boatright 21:18, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I see no reason not to. Yes it may be Indian-oriented, but that isn't an excuse for poor grammar. Lots of things even in Hindi are misspelled (why are there underscores in names...?), punctuation is incorrect, etc. I don't find it to be a cultural matter so much as the original writer being too much of a fan and not all that given to formal writing. The article needs to be more objective and less adoring. I tried cleaning up a couple of the areas, so I hope others will take noticed and help out as well. Hidoshi 14:39, September 2, 2005 (UTC)
It's been a while since the post, but yes in general please do so. Hindi-english is no standard of English. I wouldn't change British spellings to US ones, but ungrammatical English, syntax errors etc. can always be corrected - and these are minor edits. Just fix them and don't worry about it. Tbyrnestl 05:39, 10 July 2007 (UTC)tbyrnestl

[edit] Copyediting

I have done substantial copyediting for consistency in the use of italics for song titles, and to convert to Standard English, and I have removed the cleanup tag.

What I am not capable of doing is copyediting the song titles themselves... someone from India will need to take care of that, I suppose.

I have tried to tone down some of the superlatives, not out of disrespect for Lata Mangeshkar, but in order to pursue the encyclopedic ideal of WP:NPOV. Additional work may still be needed in this area. In particular, it would be useful to quantify the "hits" and "superhits" if there is an equivalent of the "top 40 songs" in the Indian market. Mamawrites 16:03, 5 September 2005 (UTC)

Hi all! Zora has enlisted me to contribute to the overall editing jumbo endeavour. Honestly, this is going to be a more fun page to edit than Asha Bhosle's which I have just begun to tackle. Please speak to me on my discussion pages as well if I can combine elsewhere. My first task must be to put the nomenclature into Wiki/Encylopaedic form - namely calling the subject Mangeshkar as opposed to Lata. This is not meant to be a fan-site but should speak to the disinterested too. As to the structure of the page, I will venture cautiously!Autumnleaf 15:08, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] In need of major shortening

as with the aforementioned usage of too many superlatives, there are other problems with this article.

to wit, the sections have a lot of superfluous information in them. they are little more than lists of songs and producers that the singer has worked with.

this could easily be cut down to a few lists of producers and songs, perhaps in a tabular format to keep the relationships intact.

otherwise, it's just a way for fans to note just how many people she has worked with, and to insert comments about how great she is. --Yoasif 21:13, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

I think I can agree with most of what you say. When I have time I will be going section by section and pruning in any case. Meanwhile - I realise that she has some rather unusual sponsorships and a venture into the jewellery trade by the looks of it! Incidentally, could all of you contributors please sign in with four tildes ~ ~ ~ ~? Autumnleaf 19:50, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Way too long

Should be shortened. Also the division of sections should be reconsidered. Rather then descrbing in detail each decade, a broad overview of her career may be presented, followed by a graphical timeline, that will contribute significantly in reducing the length. And her songs may be copiled into a new discographic article. --Soumyasch 18:54, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

One reason is probably the large amount of copyright violations, especially from here. I've just caught a few and am working on that mess. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 07:53, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
And have reverted attempts to keep it in. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 06:10, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] NPOV, cleanup, english

I have slapped an NPOV template on the top of the page again. This article is clearly POV per reasons mentioned above. It is very long and needs to be shortened a bit. Various petty and trifling matters are also mentioned on the page which need to be weeded out. The English used is substandard. This article has clear potential of reaching a Featured Article status, but before that there is a lot of work to be done. Perhaps an INCOTW. --Andy123(talk) 15:28, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

I fixed some of the language problems. I suggest that in the future, instead of putting the NPOV and other disclaimers, it would be more productive to point out and fix actual problems in the article. Jayanta Sen 20:01, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Albert Hall

"Mangeshkar was the first Indian to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London, in 1974." Do we have a source? Can this be right? Seems hardly likely!Cravenmonket 03:08, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hema Hardikar

Can somebody add that Lata Mangeshkar was born as Hema Hardikar which is her real name ?? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 60.240.187.133 (talk) 13:32, 29 April 2007 (UTC).


Can someone please add source for Lata's birthname being Hema Hardikar, if we are going to add this information in main article? I am Maharashatrian and this is a news for me!!! info4all

http://books.google.com/books?q=hema+hardikar -- The Mangeshkar family's original surname was Hardikar, and Lata's birthname was Hema. Lata's father changed their surname to "Mangeshkar" to identify with their village, Mangeshi. utcursch | talk 03:31, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Voice

Why is there no discussion of her voice? Criticisms of her and Asha Bhosle's alleged monopolization of playback singing in 60's and 70's (even 80's) Bollywood? Lata's undoubtedly a great singer, but the nasal quality of her tone has been largely ignored. It seems to me this article reads more like hagiography than biography.--128.59.26.54 18:20, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


Lata is good but her voice just doesn't seem to touch the heart. Or is it just me? Her voice is too thick. Unlike Alka Yagnik. I think Alka would've made a better rating if she was in Lata's Place.

Well, please add then, and find sources. The problem is finding sources for all this stuff. Lata's voice becomes much more nasal as she ages, but quite frankly I find most Indian classical vocalists a bit nasal. So I assume the acceptable nasal quality in a singer is just a matter of taste. What I hear in Lata's voice is first an obviously profound ability to intuit ragas. The sound just feels right. Her tropes, ornaments, shading: it sounds classical without being classical. But she also sounds personal. You can hear the voice itself speaking in a way that doesn't happen amid the depth of classical indian vocal style with it's baroque ornamentation. Of course none of this sort of thing belongs here in wikipedia. It's all personal opinion. What one would need to bring this sort of thing into the article would be the opinion of a musicologist specializing in Indian music. Even an album liner by a famous musician would help. (E.g. for Asha the liner notes on Legacy talking about her classical ability etc. are fair game). Tbyrnestl 05:49, 10 July 2007 (UTC)tbyrnestl

[edit] Song List

anybody can add the list of song that sung from Lata? not all of them, but as growing list. 125.163.31.162 (talk) 14:35, 14 December 2007 (UTC)