Pune-based Manjushree Oak who sang 121 songs in different Indian languages in one concert sets Guinness world record

A notice of Oak’s feat is up on the website of the Guinness Book of World Records.

She was “born and brought up with music” as her father was a scientist and singer. He passed away in 2016. “In my childhood, I would hear him and his friends sing together till 2 am,” says Oak, who has a postgraduate degree in Indian classical vocal. The first songs she learnt were in Marathi, her mother tongue, followed by Hindi. Near her wada on Laxmi Road, she would hear the radio and pick up songs instantly.

In 2017, Oak made it to the ‘India Book of Records’ for singing 121 songs of Asha Bhosle in Marathi, Hindi, Bengali and Urdu. The following year, she paid tribute to her guru, Mangeshkar, by singing 151 songs composed or sung by him in Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Sanskrit and Rajasthani. “After that, I was thinking about my next challenge. I decided that time had come to work towards an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records,” says Oak.

She adds that it was hard to find and familiarise herself with the songs. She visited the Tribal Research and Training Institute in Pune as well as linguists. Oak wrote the songs in Devanagari and inculcated their meaning, spirit and body language. “The songs ranged in genres from love ballads to lullabies to songs with messages such as ‘beti padhao’ (educating the girl child) to those on the environment. There were Rajasthani ditties and mystical sufi pieces as well as gurbani,” she says.

The song list had started with the Marathi piece ‘Dnyandev Baal Maza Sange Geeta Bhagawanta’, about the power of the Marathi language. “This helped us set the tone for the importance of languages in our country,” says Oak. Other songs included ‘Jyoti Kalash Chalake’ in Hindi and ‘Prem aekbari eshechchilo Nirobe’ in Bengali as well as a Mishimi tribal song from Arunachal Pradesh and the song ‘Kudarizaka Fumikiri’ made of the Ao tribe of Nagaland. “In Nikobari, I sang ‘Kin long la gni panam re in’,” she says.