As a child, the revered Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar wasn’t allowed to go to the movies much. Her father, a strict and tradition-bound musician and theatre-company owner, didn’t care for the medium of film, especially not its songs. He weaned Mangeshkar and her four younger siblings on a diet of classical music, like the kind he himself sang, and carefully nurtured their voices through singing lessons. His sudden death in 1942, when Mangeshkar was thirteen, threw the family into financial uncertainty. So when the film actor and director “Master” Vinayak Damodar Karnataki, a family friend, offered to give Mangeshkar a break in the movies, she accepted. She slogged through minor roles in Hindi- and Marathi-language films as both a singer and an actress. Strangers told her what dialogue to recite, shone bright lights upon her, and doused her with makeup. She found the charade exhausting, and soon she sought refuge in the recording studio. Thus began Mangeshkar’s long career as what’s known as a playback singer, supplying her voice to film numbers so that performers could lip-synch her words onscreen. Mangeskhar’s honors came both at home and abroad: India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, in 2001; France’s National Order of the Legion of Honor, in 2007. Popular Hindi films underwent aesthetic shifts through the decades; the appetites of moviegoers often changed. But Mangeshkar, who died last Sunday from complications of covid-19 at the age of ninety-two, remained a critical link to the industry’s past.
The beginnings of her career were beset with difficulties. She told Kabir that in the early days, she sometimes worked without pay, with producers who kept her money for themselves. She hewed to a punishing schedule, recording six songs per day and often getting by on three hours of sleep. She refused to perform at the Hindi-language Filmfare Awards until a category was created to recognize playback singers, in 1959; she and one of her contemporaries, the vocalist Mohammed Rafi, came to loggerheads in the sixties when she insisted that playback singers receive royalties for their work. This legendary singer died on 6th February, 2022 at the age of ninety-two.
Lata Mangeshkar’s Unwavering Bollywood Melodies
As a child, the revered Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar wasn’t allowed to go to the movies much. Her father, a strict and tradition-bound musician and theatre-company owner, didn’t care for the medium of film, especially not its songs. He weaned Mangeshkar and her four younger siblings on a diet of classical music, like the kind he himself sang, and carefully nurtured their voices through singing lessons. His sudden death in 1942, when Mangeshkar was thirteen, threw the family into financial uncertainty. So when the film actor and director “Master” Vinayak Damodar Karnataki, a family friend, offered to give Mangeshkar a break in the movies, she accepted. She slogged through minor roles in Hindi- and Marathi-language films as both a singer and an actress. Strangers told her what dialogue to recite, shone bright lights upon her, and doused her with makeup. She found the charade exhausting, and soon she sought refuge in the recording studio. Thus began Mangeshkar’s long career as what’s known as a playback singer, supplying her voice to film numbers so that performers could lip-synch her words onscreen. Mangeskhar’s honors came both at home and abroad: India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, in 2001; France’s National Order of the Legion of Honor, in 2007. Popular Hindi films underwent aesthetic shifts through the decades; the appetites of moviegoers often changed. But Mangeshkar, who died last Sunday from complications of covid-19 at the age of ninety-two, remained a critical link to the industry’s past.
The beginnings of her career were beset with difficulties. She told Kabir that in the early days, she sometimes worked without pay, with producers who kept her money for themselves. She hewed to a punishing schedule, recording six songs per day and often getting by on three hours of sleep. She refused to perform at the Hindi-language Filmfare Awards until a category was created to recognize playback singers, in 1959; she and one of her contemporaries, the vocalist Mohammed Rafi, came to loggerheads in the sixties when she insisted that playback singers receive royalties for their work. This legendary singer died on 6th February, 2022 at the age of ninety-two.
Hardships of Life.
Life is beautiful but not always easy. It has problems too, and the challenge lies in facing them with courage, letting the beauty of life act like a painkiller, making the pain bearable during trying times by providing hope.
Happiness and sorrow, victory and defeat, day and night are just two sides of the coin. Similarly, life is full of moments of joy, pleasure, success, and comfort punctuated by misery, defeat, failures, and problems. There is no human being on Earth that is strong, powerful, wise, or rich who has not experienced struggle, suffering, or failure.
No doubt, life is beautiful, and every moment is a celebration of being alive, but one should always be ready to face adversity and challenges. A person who has not encountered difficulties in life can never achieve success. Difficulties test the courage, patience, perseverance, and true character of a human being. Adversity and hardships make a person strong and ready to face the challenges of life with equanimity. There is no doubt that there can be no gain without pain. It is only when one toils and sweats it out that success is nourished and sustained.
Thus, life should not be just a bed of roses; thorns are also a part of it and should be accepted by us just as we accept the beautiful side of life. The thorns remind one of how success and happiness can be evasive and instead of feeling disappointed and disheartened rather remember that the pain of thorns is short-lived, and the beauty of life would soon overcome the prick of thorns. Those who are under the impression that life is a bed of roses are disillusioned soon and become victims of depression and frustration. One who faces difficulties with courage and accepts success without letting it go to their head is the one who experience real happiness, contentment, and peace in life.
