Incredible singer Lata Mangeshkar passed away 92 years at a private medical clinic in Mumbai on Sunday. The ‘Nightingale of India’ and ‘Queen of Melody’, as she was affectionately known, were admitted to the hospital toward the beginning of January subsequent to testing positive for Covid-19. She was later diagnosed to have pneumonia and was conceded to the ICU with mild symptoms and was recovering slowly. At the end of January, she was even taken off the ventilator when she showed slight improvement.
Nonetheless, on February 5, her condition disintegrated and she was back on ventilator support. Her condition was termed critical and she was back on aggressive therapy and was undergoing procedures before her demise. Her doctor released a statement that reads, “It is with profound grief we announce the sad demise of Latha Mangeshkar Didi this morning at 8:12. She had died because of multi-organ failure after more than 28 days of hospitalization post her COVID.”
She started singing at 13 years old and recorded her first melody in 1942 post her father’s death. She has sung more than 30,000 tunes in various languages including Telugu. She was given the Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awards. While her Hindi melodies are notable, many don’t have the foggiest idea about a couple of tunes she sung in Telugu.
Her Wikipedia page uncovers that her first Telugu melody was in 1955 for the film Santhanam. Named Niddurapora Thammuda, the song was composed by Susarla Dakshinamurthy and had Ghantasala as her co-artist. In 1988 for the film Aakhari Poratam. She sang the melody Thellacheeraku with SP Balasubrahmanyam with Ilaiyaraaja composing the number.
However, Google her name and you observe more Telugu melodies that she has sung with Balasubrahmanyam for the film Sreedevi, which is a named form of the Hindi film Chandini. The songs in Telugu are called Mogutunnayi Gajula, Nagaralaku Tal Nagaramidi, and Neevoo Nenoo Oohalalo and are composed by Shiv-Hari.
