Lata Mangeshkar: Encyclopedia II - Lata Mangeshkar - 1990s

Lata Mangeshkar - 1990s

By 1990, many of Lata's fans saw her as a living legend. She was the idol of many Indian girls, who were inspired to become singers themselves. In 1990, Lata launched her own production house. Her first (and the only) movie as a producer -- Lekin -- flopped, but the music (composed by her brother, Hridaynath) was well-appreciated. The haunting "Yaara seeli seeli", written by Gulzar, is considered to be one of the best songs that Lata has ever sung.

In 1990s, Lata also recorded many non-film songs, including ghazals with Jagjit Singh. One such popular ghazal is Dhuan banake fiza mein, recorded in 1992. The songs that Lata recorded for Ramlaxman in the Rajshri Productions film Hum Aapke Hain Kaun were huge hits. About Lata's Didi tera devar deewana, Madhuri Dixit once said "I just couldn't match with her coy 'ada's" . Lata also sang for all of the Yash Chopra films, including Dil To Pagal Hai.

New composers like A. R. Rahman, Jatin Lalit and Uttam Singh considered it an honor to work with Lata. Lata once said "the problem with new composers is that they respect me very much and don't dare correct me when I go wrong in singing a line. I don't want to sing much now, but I just can't refuse when people like A. R. Rahman come to me with a tune."

A. R. Rahman has recorded quite a few hit songs with Lata, including Jiya Jale (Dil Se, pictured on Preity Zinta) and Khamoshiyan gungunane lagin.

In 1999, she was awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "1990s", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki