On Lata Mangeshkar's Birthday: Five Songs That Make Her The Voice of The Feminine

Veteran playback singer and living legend Lata Mangeshkar has turned 91 today. She is known for her contribution to Indian music and the film industry for decades.

Her sister and renowned playback singer Asha Bhosle shared memories in monochrome on the occasion of the legend's 91st birthday.

People across four generations know her as the "nightingale" who has sung in many Indian languages.

She is known for her extensive music repertoire (that includes a vast number of devotional and patriotic), collaborations, range and the ability to mould herself into the numerous moods, rasas, thematic needs, situations and characters.

However, there is one aspect that we would celebrate on her 91st.

It is: her prowess and grip over the portrayal of the feminine. Within it, her ability to represent the woman through all quests blended in the different scripts. She, over her countless visits to the music studios, would become the voice of the woman. The evolving woman of the different eras.

She took to her throat to sing over the many expressions of pride in gender.

Many songs fail to even convey a woman's journey in love. Her singing to the beloved. Oh, that's a thing of the era of Geeta Dutt, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and their few peers. In the 1990s, Lata ji swept the space for romantic songs for the third generation of actors in the industry. The trend continued -- till the early half of the previous decade.

We take five songs where Lata Mangeshkar speaks the heart and mind of the woman. The credit for these memorable songs cannot and does not go to the male lyricists alone. The songs are who Lata Mangeshkar is -- in throat, heart and mind. In moods. In the life of every woman.

1) Vande Mataram

The bold and proud celebration and tribute to the divine feminine. This rendition cannot be imagined in any other voice for a reason more than voice and work. It reaches, it calls, and it appeals to listeners across the country. It is pan Indian.

2) Ayega Aanewala

3) Paapi Bichhua

4) Dil hoom hoom kare

5) Luka Chhupi