Dhaka, Feb 6: Melody Queen Lata Mangeshkar stood by Bangladesh during the war of liberation in 1971. The legend also raised funds for the Bengali refugees by performing songs in different places. She used to go to different places on Indian Army planes with famous actor Sunil Dutt to perform songs.
During the war of liberation in 1971, Indian artists came forward to support the government of Bangladesh. As well as raising funds through singing, she created global awareness for Bangladesh. They also helped finance the establishment of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra.
Apart from Lata Mangeshkar, other artists like Asha Bhonsle, Sandhya Mukherjee, Kishore Kumar, Hemant Mukherjee, Mohammad Rafi, Manna Dey and Salil Chowdhury performed in musical concerts for the cause of Bangladesh. Lata Mangeshkar also sang in Bangladeshi films.
The legendary musician sang a song titled ‘O Dadabhai’ to the tune of Salil Chowdhury, renowned music director of Mumtaz Ali’s liberation war-based film ‘Raktakta Bangla’ in 1972. This is the only song sung by Lata Mangeshkar in Bangladeshi films.
Lata was born on September 28, 1929 in a Marathi family. Initially, she took acting and singing lessons from her father. She started singing in movies for the first time at the age of 13, in a Marathi film. She sang in a Hindi movie for the first time in 1948, in the movie ‘Majboor’.
The music queen lost her battle to Novel Coronavirus related complications this morning, after fighting for 28 days. She was 92.
