Meena Mangeshkar

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Meena Mangeshkar, later known as Meena Khadikar, was born in 1931 and is an Indian playback singer and composer who sings in Marathi and Hindi. She is the second daughter of Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar and the sister of the singers Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Usha Mangeshkar and Hridaynath Mangeshkar. She thus comes from one of the best-known musical families of Indian film music.

Music and breakthrough

In Hindi film she sang, among others, Duniya Mein Hum Aaye Hain To from Mother India, together with Lata and Usha Mangeshkar, Phagun aaya from Pilpili Saheb and the duet Aapne chheen liya dil with Mohammed Rafi in the film Farmaish. She also sang Hai mausam yeh mastaana from Aabroo and Are koi jaao ri piya ko bulao from Patrani.

Influence

She made her greatest name as a composer for the Marathi film industry. There she is best known for the children's song and children's album Asawa Sunder Chocolatecha Bungla, which was later also recorded in Bengali and Gujarati. The original version was sung by her children Yogesh and Rachna. Her song Saang Saang Bholanaath is also well known. In this way she shows that behind the big names of playback singing there were more musicians than just the front-row female singers, and that a family of singers could also produce composers.

Listening