VIDEO: Lata Mangeshkar cremated with full state honours
Body of Lata Mangeshkar is cremated during her funeral in Mumbai on Sunday. AP
Gulf Today Report
Amid chanting of vedic hymns and elaborate rituals performed by Hindu priests, legendary singer Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar's mortal remains were consigned to flames in a public funeral with full state honours, held at Shivaji Park, here on Sunday evening.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and family members, Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, State Cabinet Ministers, NCP President Sharad Pawar, and other top dignitaries along with the bereaved Mangeshkar clan were in attendance.
After the mourners paid their last respects to Lata's body draped in the National Tricolour on a flower-bedecked pedestal, the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force contingents sounded the Last Post and accorded a salute as the gathering stood in attention.
The National Flag was carefully removed from her body, ceremonially folded and solemnly handed over to Lata's nephew, Adinath Mangeshkar, who handed it to the other grieving family members present there.
Thereafter, a retinue of over half-a-dozen priests took charge and got down to the task of performing the Hindu rituals for the departed singer, along with a few male family members present alongside.
Shortly after the religious rituals were completed, the Mumbai Police contingent honoured her with another gun salute booming above the Shivaji Park.
Then, the sole brother among the five sibling, Hridaynath Mangeshkar stepped forward with other family members and he lit the funeral pyre with grief writ on his face - as his legendary Lata became immortal in a cloud of smoke - around 7.15 p.m., 11 hours after she breathed her last at 8.12am in the morning.
Earlier, Prime Minister Modi bid the final adieu to his beloved 'Badi Didi' (elder sister), and was among the first of the VVIPs at the venue where her body was kept for people to pay their last respects at Shivaji Park.
The iconic singer died of multiple organ failure at Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai, Dr Pratit Samdani told reporters. She was hospitalised on Jan. 11 after contracting COVID-19, according to The Associated Press.
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Bollywood superstar Lata Mangeshkar, who was known to millions as the "nightingale of India" and ruled the country's airwaves for decades, has died at the age of 92, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday.
Two days of national mourning will be observed with the national flag will flying at half-mast, the media reported, citing government sources.
"I am anguished beyond words," Modi wrote on Twitter.
"The kind and caring Lata Didi has left us. She leaves a void in our nation that cannot be filled. The coming generations will remember her as a stalwart of Indian culture, whose melodious voice had an unparalleled ability to mesmerise people."
Born in 1929 in pre-independence India, Mangeshkar began singing in her teens, and in a career spanning 73 years sang more than an estimated 15,000 songs in 36 languages.
She enthralled music-mad Indians with her lilting voice and sheer range, singing everything from patriotic songs to romantic numbers, both in films and albums.
The world of Bollywood — where movies were unthinkable without at least six songs and where everything from romance to grief was narrated with the help of a ballad — was where Mangeshkar cut her teeth and later made her name.
Other Bollywood personalities and politicians offered condolences.
Singer Lata Mangeshkar (right) and her sister Asha Bhosle attend a ceremony in Mumbai. AFP
The only songs she refused to sing were cabaret numbers and songs that had bawdy or racy lyrics, saying in later interviews those did not fit with her personal values. Mangeshkar nevertheless dominated the Hindi film industry for almost five decades until the 2000s, along with her younger sister Asha Bhosle.
Over the course of nearly eight decades, Mangeshkar was a major presence as a playback singer, singing songs that were later lip-synced by actors in India’s lavish Bollywood musicals. She was also fondly revered as the "Melody Queen” and "Nightingale of India.”
Mangeshkar’s songs, always filled with emotion, were often sad and mostly dealt with unrequited love, but others involved national pride.
Born in Maharashtra on Sept 28, 1929, Mangeshkar first sang at religious gatherings with her father, who was also a trained singer. After she moved to Mumbai, India’s film industry capital, she became a star with immense popular appeal, enchanting audiences with her smooth but sharp voice and immortalising Hindi music for decades to come.
