September 29, 2003	Monday	Sha’aban 2, 1424

BOMBAY, Sept 28: India’s most celebrated singer Lata Mangeshkar, who has more than 40,000 recorded songs over a career spanning six decades, marked her 75th birthday on Sunday with tributes from top politicians to ordinary fans.

Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani will be among the thousands of people expected at a gala concert in the singer’s honour late on Sunday at a sports complex in Bombay.

The entrance to Mangeshkar’s house in Bombay was strewn with garlands and baskets of flowers offered by well-wishers.

Nicknamed the nightingale of India, Mangeshkar began her career as an actress at age 13 when her father died and she was obliged to help support her mother and four other siblings.

Five years later, she got her first break singing the score to the film “Aapki Sewa Mein” (“For Your Service”).

Within a few years, she established herself among formidable singers such as Amirbai Karnataki and Shamshad Begum and over the next decade became the topmost vocalist in the Indian film industry.

She and her sister Asha Bhonsle reigned as the queens of Indian playback singing until the 1990s, but it is Mangeshkar who is regarded as Indian film industry’s greatest-ever score singer.

Mangeshkar has cut down drastically on the volume of her work as she has grown older although she continues to record songs occasionally for Hindi films.

In one of the many tributes issued for Mangeshkar’s birthday, India’s main opposition leader Sonia Gandhi expressed hope “that we will enjoy the melody of your voice for many years to come.”—AFP