90 Years Young: The Magic That Is Asha Bhosle
Publish date: 2024-08-14
I don't know the exact moment when the connection was made. When Asha Bhosle became Asha-aai, I do not know. It could have been when I was a child and I saw the first ever TV program of hers. Yeh Hai Asha had me hooked. Or maybe it was that one rainy evening in Prabhu Kunj when she read pages from her autobiography, which is yet to be published.Knowing the real Asha Bhosle is as simple as it is complex. Simple because what you see is what you get. There is no dissembling. No mask. As crystal clear as her voice in Yehi woh jagah hai (Yeh Raat Phir Naa Aayegi, 1966) and as real as Mera kuch samaan (Ijaazat, 1987).
Complex, because it's a lived-in voice. It has a history. She has given birth. She has lived through death. At close quarters. So when she sings, you can hear the eddies and currents of life churning in her voice. And that's why the pregnancy of Ambar ki ek pak Surabhi (Kadambari, 1976) or Yeh kya jagah hai doston (Umrao Jaan, 1981) is so tactile. You can almost touch it and feel it.
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Asha Bhosle’s voice belongs as much to Dada Burman's O panchhi pyaare and Ab ke baras bhej in Bandini (1963) as it does to SD Burman's other gem, Ek hans ka joda in Lajwanti (1958). Asha's voice found its metier in OP Nayyar's Akeli hoon main (Sambandh, 1969) as much as it did in Jaidev's Abhi na jaao (Hum Dono, 1961).
Asha's feisty spirit and her robust vocals can never be the suzerainty of any one person. If they gave her flight, she soared with her voice to the skies. Asha's voice belongs as much to LP's Man kyun behka (Utsav, 1984, with Lata Mangeshkar) as it does to Kalyanji Anandji's Husn ke lakhon rang( Johny Mera Naam, 1970), to Bappi Lahiri's Raat baaki (Namak Halaal, 1982, with Bappi Lahiri), and to A R Rahman's Tanha Tanha (Rangeela, 1995).
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The answer is the voice. It emerges from her throat, melds with the musician's beat, makes its way into your memory files, and stays there forever. There is also identity. You've heard it before, so you recognize it.
In real life, she camouflages grief through sporadic bouts of anger or absolute silence. And when she speaks, it's not from the heart. It's from the gut. It's a voice that has travelled through more than seven decades of music; she has outlived redundancy. Happy 90th Ashaji. Thank you for the music. And the memories.
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