To write about Asha Bhosle in a 1,200-word article is to try to contain the ocean in one’s palms. She turns 90 today, and in a career spread over 75 years, she has sung more than 7,500 songs in Hindi and many more in other languages, making her the most recorded musician ever. Add to that her eclectic range and the epochs in Hindi cinema that she has traversed and it becomes clear that it would take several theses to do her full justice. Yet as she turns 90 and crosses another milestone in her life, it is important to celebrate the colossal body of work that she has created over the years.
In retrospect, it is difficult to believe that she struggled in her initial years. There were battles to be fought, won or conceded on the personal front, there was the struggle of a failed marriage and that of raising three children as a single woman and, of course, the struggle to establish herself in the world of Hindi film music. As a creative person, there was also the struggle to find her voice and to emerge from the shadows of her elder sister, Lata Mangeshkar. Mangeshkar herself had to cast her Noor Jahan burden away but Bhosle had to avoid being Mangeshkar on the one hand, and Geeta Dutt on the other. She was, as a young person, hugely influenced by both these great singers but it was her determination and the mentorship of three music directors that allowed the real Bhosle to emerge.
In the Bhosle who emerged from this struggle, you see someone who has gained from both but is so uniquely herself. If she brought raw energy and oomph to the club dances and cabaret numbers, she could at the same time bring the depth of vocal emotion to songs that gave her that scope. She was uninhibited in her passionate songs but there was a subtlety in that expression. In her romantic duets, she could always bring a gentle naughtiness which Lata-didi shied away from and if a folk song or a nautanki demanded it, she could make it more risqué. And when called upon to sing a bhajan as she was by Ravi in Kajal, she gave voice to Sahir’s most beautiful poetry – Tora Man Darpan Kehlaye – in a manner that showed her grasp of the depth of the lyrics or when she sang with sister Usha Mangeshkar for Rajesh Roshan’s Sancha Naam Tera in Julie.
S.D. Burman and O.P. Nayyar both discovered Asha at more or less the same time in the mid-50s and while she did films like Baap Re Baap with Nayyar, she got to sing Jeene do our jiyo for S.D. Burman in Taxi Driver, for a dance sequence enacted by the lovely Sheila Ramani. That worked so well that S.D. Burman got her to do Dum Hai Baki To Gham Nahi for a Sheila Vaz dance number in House No. 44.
Also read: Asha Bhosle at 90: Ten of Her Timeless Gems
But it was 1957 that was the defining year for Bhosle, some nine years after she had recorded her first Hindi film song. One of the top films of that year was B.R. Chopra’s Naya Daur and Chopra decided to go with Nayyar as music director for the film. Nayyar used Bhosle extensively and very effectively in the film and after that film there was no looking back for her. She had three songs with Mohammed Rafi – Mang Ke Saath Tumhara, Ude Jab Jab Zulfein Teri and Saathi Haath Badhana – all very big hits and an equally successful duet with Shamshad Begum – Reshmi Salwar Kurta Jaali Ka.
In the same year, S.D. Burman had her sing several songs in Nau Do Gyarah including two outstanding duets – Ankhon Mein Kya Ji with Kishore Kumar and Aa Ja Panchi Akela Hai with Rafi and two more brilliant duets with Kishore in Paying Guest – Chhod Do Aachal Zamana Kya Kahega and O Nigahe Mastana. If Nayyar followed these up with the classic Madhubala song Aaiye Meherbaan in Howrah Bridge, S.D. Burman, not to be outdone, had her sing the stunning Kaali Ghata Chhaye in Sujata and then a few years later, the outstanding Ab Ke Baras Bhejo Bhaiya Ko Babul for Bimal Roy’s Bandini.
Bandini was a 1963 film – the same year that Bhosle sang Dil Ki Manzil Kuchh Aisi Hai Manzil for S.D. Burman in Tere Ghar Ke Saamne but, around this time, she sang some beautiful songs for Nayyar in Ek Musafir Ek Hasina and in Kashmir Ki Kali. But when she worked with Nayyar in 1963 for Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon, she sang a song that brought out the quintessential Bhosle of the ’60s. This song was Ankhon Se Jo Utri and the tonal inflexions that she displayed in that song were to become the hallmark of her collaboration with Nayyar through the ’60s. There were many outstanding songs following somewhat similar melodic patterns that followed this, including the famous Yeh Hai Reshmi Zulfon Ka Andhera from Mere Sanam but two songs from this period stand out – the amazing Yehi Woh Jagah Hai from Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi and Aao Huzur Tumko from Kismat. The latter song is what Mangeshkar considered Bhosle’s best and for good reason, you will find out when you pay attention to the vibrato she manages in the antaras. Chain Se Humko Kabhi for which she won a National Award was her swan song for Nayyar – a song that possibly reflected her own feelings towards a difficult relationship she had with Nayyar.
Her creative journey, which blossomed into a personal one, with R.D. Burman started in the mid-’60s most notably with Teesri Manzil. Bhosle’s voice had the malleable quality that was hugely important in creating the new sound that RD Burman was trying to put in place and as he continued with his new experiments she became a willing partner. Between the two of them they completely redefined the club song in Hindi cinema with such gems like Mera Naam Hai Shabnam from Kati Patang, Piya Tu Ab To Aaja from Caravan and Duniya Mein from Apna Desh. In those heady years, there seemed to be no end to the creative output of R.D. Burman and Bhosle and if R.D. Burman got her to do what seemed impossible, Bhosle was there to show how she could achieve the impossible. Jaane Ja from Jawani Diwani alone suffices to make this point. It is a duet with Kishore Kumar and there is no other duet of the Kishore Kumar that comes to mind where he appears to have been put in the shade – that is how brilliant Bhosle was in it, just like she completely dominated Rafi in Chura Liya Hai from Yaadon Ki Baarat. And, in Hare Rama Hare Krishna where she launched Zeenat Aman into another orbit with her singing of Dum Maaro Dum; she also did an amazing duet with Usha Iyer (now Uthup) where in wanting to contrast with Iyer’s low, deep notes she hit the really high end with absolute control.
Given the enormity of her output, it is obvious that Bhosle has worked with virtually every music director in the last seven to eight decades and her repertoire was not limited to these but included everything from bhajans to ghazals to western pop. She has always been willing to sing every kind of song but to that willingness she brings immense talent. She can do almost everything any other singer can do but there are some things that only she could – like when in her early Filmfare Award winning song Parde Mein Rehne Do from Shikar she sings Allah Meri Tauba with a nuanced ornamentation. When you hear that you know that only Bhosle can do that – and that is the Asha Bhosle we all love.
K. Sridhar is a theoretical particle physicist presently working at the Azim Premji University in Bengaluru. He is a writer of fiction, and also engages himself in writing about visual arts and about popular culture. In this article, as in everything else he writes, the opinions and views expressed are his own and are not that of the organisation that he works for.