Like wine, Asha Bhosle refuses to age. On September 8, she turned 92 with minimum fanfare. “I don’t think about age. I just want to keep singing till my last breath.”
From Waheeda Rehman and Asha Parekh to Urmila Matondkar and Aishwarya Rai, Bhosle has sung for them all. Asha’s voice penetrates the very core of our popular culture.
The ‘sexy’ voice was cultivated by the 68-year-old singer to establish her own identity beyond that of her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar. Born in 1933 in Satara (Maharashtra), Asha, who sang her first song at age 16 in the film Chunaria, had to work her way around her sister’s supreme status in the singing stratosphere.
Ever since she sang her first solo number for the film Raat Ki Rani in 1949, Asha Bhosle began to hone her vocal chords into a westernized mould of expression. Her early songs like Inna Minna Dikka by C. Ramachandra were landmarks in the field of westernized Hindi songs. With the arrival of O.P. Nayyar and R.D. Burman in her singing orbit, Asha Bhosle’s vocal chords bloomed to unprecedented heights of self-expression.
While doing trendy westernized songs for Nayyar and Burman, the singing diva continued to expand her horizons in raga-based areas of film music. Her National Award-winning raga-honed songs in the films Umrao Jaan and Ijaazat proved Asha Bhosle to be uncannily versatile.
Actor Kamal Haasan claims to be Ashatai’s greatest fan after his wife. “What a singer! What a range! She can cover the entire music scale without feeling the pressure. I just adore her singing. I came into this world listening to her songs. I know her from when I was 3. As a child I was a great Hindi-film song buff. Personally, I know her through my guru and mentor Shivaji Ganesan Saab. Her family was very close to him. That’s how I got my first glimpse of the two great sisters (Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle). Later, when I came into Hindi cinema, I had the opportunity of knowing both Ashatai and her husband R.D. Burman Saab. Recently, when she sang in my Hey Ram, she took me into RD Saab’s music room and let me play his harmonium. No one is allowed to do that. It was a great moment for me. She has visited our home in Chennai a number of times. My wife Sareeka is not just her fan, she’s a fanatic. Ashatai became a legend twenty years back.”
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Life has never been easy for this singing phenomenon. At a very young age, she underwent a runaway marriage which isolated her from the rest of her family. With two children, daughter Hemant and son Varsha, to fend for, Asha Bhosle made a career for herself. Her personal and professional relationship with composers O.P. Nayyar and R.D. Burman were enormously turbulent and rewarding.
Some years ago, during the course of an interview with me, Asha Bhosle had spoken about her tumultuous life. “When the lyricist S.H. Bihari wrote the lyric Chayan se humko kabhi aapne jeene na diya (you never let me live in peace), he told me it was the story of my life. Perhaps he was right. If ever a film is made on my life, I’d like Shabana Azmi to play my role.” Uncannily, Sai Paranjpye did make a rather mediocre film Saaz based on Asha Bhosle’s life, with the mighty Shabana in the lead.
Today, Asha Bhosle says she would like to devote some of her time to classical singing. Hugely family-oriented and a tremendous cook, Asha Bhosle loves to have friends and relatives over to cook them a meal. She’s also a terrific mimic, who keeps friends in splits with her impeccable imitations.
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