Lata's lasting legacy: Lilting lullabies, love-songs, leg-shakers to hot, high-paced, haunting & heavenly

Mumbai, Feb 6 In a music career spanning over seven decades, Lata Mangeshkar has bequeathed a rich treasure trove of immortal songs that are ingrained in the minds of as many generations of music lovers.

Starting in the black-and-white era when film songs were often recorded in congested studios or even in the open at the dead of night, to the modern-day 'auto-tuners', Lata blazed a glitzy comet-like trail that will dazzle for many millennia.

Her singing legacy comprises lilting lullabies, love songs, love-lorn numbers, leg-shakers, haunting, heavenly, high-paced, both solos and duets, classical and commercial, in multiple languages, rendered with ease.

She developed an unprecedented style of singing moulding her voice to suit the particular heroine on whom it would be shot on the screen like her male counterpart, the equally legendary Mohammed Rafi did with aplomb, and who remains evergreen 41 years after his death in July 1980, aged 55.

Dipping from the Melody Queen's vast repertoire of music would be tad unjustified and also akin to emptying a jug of water from the musical ocean... but there are definitely a few nuggets that are universally acclaimed and remain alltime favourites of millions.

After the initial mandatory days of struggle starting with playback singing for the Hindi film industry in 1945, she found a toehold with a Naushad Ali composition "Uthaye Ja Unke Sitam"