Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan, politicians and celebrities offered rich tributes to the late Bollywood playback singer Lata Mangeshkar, attesting to her cult status among South Asia's music lovers.
"With the death of Lata Mangeshkar the subcontinent has lost one of the truly great singers the world has known. Listening to her songs has given so much pleasure to so many people all over the world," Imran said in a social media post.
"A legend is no more, Lata Mangeshkar was a melodious queen who ruled the world of music for decades," Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said.
"The people of my generation grew up listening to her beautiful songs that will remain part of our memory," opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, aged 70, said in his remarks.
The singer died on Sunday (Jan 6) morning at a Mumbai hospital where she was admitted last month after contracting Covid-19.
She recorded songs for hundreds of Bollywood films, whose lingua franca "Hindustani" is easily understood by both Urdu and Hindi speakers.
A museum in Indore in central India, where she was born in 1929, about 580km from the film hub of Mumbai, will preserve her memory in a collection of 7,600 gramophone records of her songs.
"She was part of every family who had radio," Pakistani journalist Rauf Klasra said in a tweet, recalling how people used to listen to old film songs on the radio before the era of compact disks and YouTube videos.
"Lata Mangeshkar defined an era of melodic, virtuoso singing, cinema playback and more," Senate member Sherry Rehman said, tweeting a video of the song Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna Hai (Today It's The Wish To Live Again!) lip-synched by actress Waheeda Rehman in the 1965 movie Guide.
Comedian and actor Sohail Ahmed, better known as Azizi, told Pakistan's Dunya television channel that Mangeshkar was totally immersed in her singing and he doesn't see anyone like her in the world of music.
Famous cricketer and Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ramiz Raja called Mangeshkar "the epitome of grace, humility and simplicity and therefore greatness”.
Mangeshkar's name is so well-known in the two countries that she needs no introduction.
The duets produced by her collaboration with Bollywood's male singing greats Mohammed Rafi, Kishore, and Mukesh might never be matched in quality.
While Mangeshkar is described as "the Melody Queen of India", she herself was a fan of Pakistani singing legend Noor Jehan, who is referred to as Malika-e-Tarannum (the queen of melody).
Just as Mangeshkar enjoys a legion of fans in Pakistan, there is no shortage of aficionados in India who are in love with Noor Jehan's voice.
The Indian icon was also an admirer of the Pakistan-born legendary vocalist Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and idolised singer Mehdi Hassan, whom she called the "King of Ghazals”.
Mangeshkar's last rites were performed at Mumbai's Shivaji Park with full state honours on Sunday evening.
Those present included Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra state chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, and Bollywood celebrities Ranbir Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan. - Bernama
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