MUMBAI:

As India’s melody queen Lata Mangeshkar enters her 80th year on September 28, noted writer and poet Javed Akhtar says she is the only artiste to have achieved perfection and that her body of work is “beyond awesome”.

“Normally artistes strive for perfection. Only Lata Mangeshkar has achieved it. There are no boundaries to her excellence and reach,” Akhtar said.

He said people remember Lata’s songs more than the films they were in. “Film music outlives cinema. Today we remember Lataji’s songs. But not the films they belong to.”

Born on September 28, 1929, Lata started her music career at the age of 13 with a Marathi film. Having worked with almost all top music composers and singers in the industry, Lata has sung more than 30,000 songs in over 20 Indian languages. The singer featured in the Guinness Book of World Records from 1974 to 1991 for having made the most recordings in the world.

“Her body of work is beyond awesome. She has proved perfection is possible in this imperfect world,” said Akhtar. — HNS