Latas Decline

All things come to and end, and Latas professional career was no exception. Over the decades, the actresses for whom she was singing became younger, and Lata was growing older. It was inevitable that at some point it was no longer going to be a workable match.We cannot pinpoint a time where her career started to decline. However by 1980 it was clear that it was not a necessity to have Lata sing for a film. Furthermore, there was a change in the style of the new songs. Emerging music directors such as A.R. Rahman just did not see Latas voice as fitting into their approach to creating music (although Lata did lend her voice for some of his work). The result of all of this was that Lata Mangeshkar gradually moved from the peak of her career into todays state of semiretirement.Never the less, this period shows some of Latas most interesting work. Songs such as Sun Sahiba Sun (Teri Ganga Maili 1986), Yaara Seeli Seeli (Lekin 1990), even today stand our as some of her most memorable work.In 2001 Lata Mangeshkar was awarded Indias highest civilian honor the Bharat Ratna,