Moviechakkar talks to legendary Lata Mangeshkar wherein she shares with us about 10 ladies who she loves to sing for. Let’s find out who they are…

Shankar Mahadevan’s dream came true when he recorded his first-ever duet with Lata Mangeshkar earlier this month. A devotional the music for the song was composed by Mayuresh Pai. We now learn from very reliable sources that the enterprising Shankar Mahadevan is planning a peace album with the Nightingale. Containing songs about healing the world the songs, we are told, would convey the same therapeutic effect as Lataji’s Ae mere watan ke logon and Jo samar mein ho gaye amar.

Director Mahesh Kodyal’s Hindi film Mai where Asha Bhosle makes her debut as an actress is on release. The legendary songstress says it was not difficult to make the transition from singing to acting at this late stage of her life when she is 80. Says Ashaji, “It’s a mother’s role. I didn’t have to act. In fact I think acting is much easier than singing. While acting you get your emotions broken into several shots before they’re conveyed. While singing all the emotion have to come out in one go in one take. No, I didn’t find playing the mother in Mai too difficult.”

In no mood to celebrate, Lataji has quietly launched her music label L M Music with an album of Bhajans dedicated to Swami Samarth Of Akkalkot. The lavish launch party that was planned for 18 November was indefinitely postponed after Balasaheb Thackeray’s death. Interestingly Lataji sings with her youngest sister Usha after many years. The two sisters sang a number of hit film songs in the 1950s and 60s like <em>Apalam chaplam (Azad), Kis kaaran kamini sharmaye(Chandan Ka Palna)</em> and <em>Bahe jaiye na rani(Sabse Bda Rupaiya</em>).

The Nightingale Lata Mangeshkar is profoundly shocked by the death of Bal Thackeray. Says the concerned songstress, “I will tell you something very honestly. <em>Bala Saheb Thackeray they toh Maharashtra tha. Woh nahin to kuch nahin hai</em>. No one can equal what he has done for Maharashtra. We needed him to be with us for many more years. Look at the kind of turn-out his illness invited at his home Matoshree! He had a knack for forging enduring relations with people. It’s indeed a very rare gift he had. And his gift of oration! Oh, My God! <em>Bahut kamaal ke insaan they</em>.”

On 18 December (2012), Lataji launches her own label at a suburban luxury hotel in Mumbai. The function would be attended by the who’s who of the entertainment and business world including Neeta Ambani , Pandit Jasraj and Hridaynath Mangeshkar. Speaking on her decision to launch a music label so late in her career Lataji laughed, “I’ve been toying with the idea for a very long time. But somehow I never got down to doing it, maybe because I was too busy recording and singing to really bother with marketing my music.”

The ongoing tussle of interest between filmmaker Kalpana Lajmi and her mentor-companion-soulmate of 40 years the late Bhupen Hazarika’s immediate family has now taken a bizarre turn, with Kalpana resolving to take firm legal action against Bhupenda’s estranged wife Priyamvada Patel Hazarika for insinuating an affair between Hazarika and India’s Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar.

One of the legends of Indian cinema, Yash Chopra, breathed his last yesterday (21 October 2012). Lata Mangeshkar entered into a chat with MovieChakkar wherein she shared her views on this sad development.

On Monday morning singing legend Asha Bhosle who was in Singapore to attend a Marathi awards function, received a call in her hotel room from her driver in Mumbai informing her that her daughter Varsha had hurt herself. Asha<em>ji</em> immediately rang up a family friend requesting him to rush to the Bhosle-Mangeshkar residence Prabhu Kunjon Peddar Road.

Now here’s one birthday greeting that doesn’t come too easily. When Lata Mangeshkar turned 83 on Friday she was delighted to receive birthday greetings from the Pope Benedict XV1 straight from the Vatican. Feeling duly honoured Lata<em>ji</em> said, “It was a very pleasant surprise. The Pope is the most prominent and revered leader of the Catholic Church. To hear from him on my birthday was not just expected, it was a rare privilege.” Adding to her joy was the fact that the Pope’e greeting named her as ‘Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar’.