Popular Bollywood singer, Lata Mangeshkar, dies at 92

Popular Bollywood singer, Lata Mangeshkar, dies at 92

Transcript¹

Lata Mangeshkar recorded more than 25,000 songs for Indian movie musicals. She died in Mumbai, where she had been hospitalized with pneumonia² and COVID-19.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Indian music sensation Lata Mangeshkar has died. She was the singing voice of the leading lady in countless³ Indian movie musicals. She recorded more than 25,000 songs. Mangeshkar was 92 years old. Sushmita Pathak has this tribute.

SUSHMITA PATHAK, BYLINE⁴: Lata Mangeshkar was a hugely popular star, even though she never actually appeared on screen.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WOH KAUN THI SONG")

LATA MANGESHKAR: (Singing in Hindi).

PATHAK: She was what we call in India a playback singer. Actresses would lip sync to the song she recorded.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

KEN⁵ HUNT: When she sings, it's unearthly.

PATHAK: That's music historian Ken Hunt talking to NPR in 2004.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

HUNT: She just has a tonal quality and a vocal⁶ range and an acting⁷ ability in song which is unlike anyone else's on the planet.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WOH KAUN THI SONG")

MANGESHKAR: (Singing in Hindi).

PATHAK: For several decades, Mangeshkar was the voice for Bollywood's top heroines, says cinema studies professor Shikha Jhingan.

SHIKHA JHINGAN: The music directors really wanted her and only her.

PATHAK: Jhingan says some of the actresses would sign contracts with the condition that only Mangeshkar would sing for them. An Indian magazine called it the Mangeshkar monopoly. One of her strengths, Jhingan says, was the ease with which she pulled off different types of songs.

JHINGAN: She was equally comfortable in a classical-based song or a sad song or a romantic song, or even kind of a naughty, teasing kind of a number.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "INHI LOGON NE")

MANGESHKAR: (Singing in Urdu).

PATHAK: Mangeshkar was born in 1929. Her first song came out in 1942, when India was still ruled by the British. When the country became free in 1947 and was partitioned, several top singers of the time chose to go to the new nation of Pakistan, leaving a vacuum in the Hindi film industry. Mangeshkar filled that vacuum. She continued to sing well into the 2000s.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LUKA CHUPPI")

MANGESHKAR: (Singing in Hindi).

PATHAK: In a 2018 interview, she said she would sing till her last breath. For NPR News, I'm Sushmita Pathak in Mumbai.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LUKA CHUPPI")

MANGESHKAR: (Singing in Hindi).

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

3 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

6 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

7 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。