Asha Bhosle

Best songs of Asha Bhosle by RD Burman

Wishing Asha Bhosle a very Happy 92nd Birth Anniversary (b. 8 September 1933- ) with her best songs by RD Burman

At the beginning of blogging, I remember, I made a comment, talking about the blog that, On this blog you would not find best songs of Asha Bhosle by RD Burman. Today I can say, that was a flippant and immature comment. Not because circumstances have made me celebrate this year as the year of RD Burman, but also because I have come across some songs of the combination which I can easily put among her best by any music director.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Usha Khanna’s best songs for Lata Mangeshkar, and other female singers

Concluding the series of tributes to Usha Khanna with her best songs for Lata Mangeshkar and other female singers

Usha Khanna’s debut score in Dil Deke Dekho (1959) sounded so much OP Nayyar-ish that you may get the impression that she too would exclude Lata Mangeshkar completely and her female singer would be predominantly Asha Bhosle as she was in Dil Deke Dekho. But from her very second film Hum Hindustani (1960), just as she showed great felicity with Mukesh, she also composed a superlative Lata Mangeshkar song in the film, Chori chori tori ayi hai Radha, kadam tale haule haule. Usha Khanna showed remarkable competence for composing for most of the prominent female playback singers, such as Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Suman Kalyanpur and others. My first post was on her best songs for Rafi, and second on Mukesh and other male playback singers. In these two posts I have also included their male-female duets. The third and last post in the series of tributes to Usha Khanna is on her best songs for Lata Mangeshkar and other female singers. Since their duets with male singers are already covered this would be limited to their solos, and female-female duets.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Kalyanji-Anandji’s best songs for Lata Mangeshkar and other female singers

Kalyanji-Anandji were extremely melodious composers. But in a crowded field at the top comprising Naushad, SD Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, OP Nayyar, Roshan, Madan Mohan, etc. they were not among the elite at the High Table. But 70s onwards the gods were kind to them. Kalyanji-Anandji showed amazing talent to adapt themselves to the new voices (read Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle) and new kind of music. They were undisputedly part of the Big Troika with RD Burman and Laxmikant-Pyarelal.

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Dattaram Part 2: Breaking out of the Banyan Tree with ‘Other’ Singers

Second and final part of tribute to Dattaram (1929 – 8 June 2007)

DattaramWe saw in Dattaram Part 1 dealing with his songs for Mukesh and Manna Dey, how his association with the Big Banyan tree, Shankar-Jaikishan, made it difficult to get out of the comfort zone of SJ. The readers Mahesh and Hans Jakhar opined that Dattaram was himself part of the Banyan Tree. We need not presume that it was a millstone around his neck. The association gave him steady work and a sense of importance. Not everyone is entrepreneurial, he was contented with his station in life.

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N Datta: The Third Musketeer for Asha Bhosle

Guest article by Hans Jakhar wishing Asha Bhosle (b. 8 September 1933) a very happy 87th birth anniversary and also greeting the unlucky genius N Datta

(By now we all know that Asha Bhosle is the most recorded singer, and has sung far more songs than her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar. Yet Lata Mangeshkar came to be acknowledged as the apogee of female playback singing in the Golden Era. She was the singer of choice of every music director for their best and most complex compositions, except a handful of MDs for whom Asha Bhosle was the main singer. N Datta is one of them, and what superb songs he gave for her as well as other singers! He was an unlucky genius. When Hans Jakhar wrote on Asha Bhosle’s last birth anniversary on her songs by Ravi, Arvinder Sharma commented that her predominance in N Datta’s music is relatively even more pronounced than Ravi.

I have no hesitation in admitting that I am an unabashed Lata-partisan, and that may be reflecting on SoY too, but fortunately we have a large band of Asha Bhosle fans. Hans Jakhar is the undisputed flag-bearer of this brigade which provides more than balance if there is any hint of bias on the other side.

But in my defence, in the very early stage of this blog, I wrote my first post on Asha Bhosle on her 78th birth anniversary nine years ago. Thereafter, I have written a number of posts on her songs by different music directors with great respect, because those songs are very special to me. Hans, in this article, has fairly acknowledged it. N Datta’s songs for Asha Bhosle are very dear to me, yet if someone has to write on this combination, no one could do it better than Hans. I am happy that he accepted my request to write this tribute to them as our greetings to Asha Bhosle on her 87th birth anniversary.

Hans brings his legal and commerce degree and long working with the government to full use in writing on film music, too, with his mastery over data and reasoning. It gives me great pleasure to present his third guest article for SoY which has all the hallmark of his sharp skills. – AK)

N Datta-Asha BhosleThe year 1955 was a special year for Asha Bhosle. Two composers who were inclined to use her more than any other female singers came out of the stable of pro-Lata Lata Mangeshkar composers and straight-away started using her as the main female singer. One of them, Ravi, was discussed last year. The other was N Datta who was an assistant to SD Burman. In the same year, the third pro-Asha composer who later became only Asha, OP Nayyar also had a big success with her in Baap Re Baap which, though not a block-buster, was quite a successful film. Success of the songs like ‘Raat rangili chamke taare‘ and ‘Piya piya piya mora jiya pukare‘ gave him the confidence to use her extensively, especially after moving out of Guru Dutt films. At a personal level, her biggest achievement was recording 300+ songs, which no singer had yet achieved.

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Ravi and Asha Bhosle: A class combination

Wishing Asha Bhosle a very happy 86th birth anniversary (b. 8 September 1933) with a guest article by Hans Jakhar

(Asha Bhosle, despite being the most recorded artiste by miles, remained the ‘other’ singer for most music directors of the Golden Era. All the accolades and the most melodious songs went to her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar. Ravi is among the rare major music directors whose ‘first’ female playback singer by choice was Asha Bhosle. In the ongoing series on Ravi it was natural that her primacy would be highlighted, and no one is better suited than Hans Jakhar to pay a tribute to her on her 86th birth anniversary with her songs for Ravi. Hans is puzzled that some of us are hesitant to count Ravi among the ‘greats’. He is not only a fan of Asha Bhosle, but he also has a deep empathy for her for having suffered the ‘Sister Tax’ in her career.

With this article Hans debuts as a guest author. I am sure the readers would not be surprised by it, the surprise is why it has taken him so long. His comments on the blog posts are full of facts, analysis and insights. Hopefully we would see more from his pen.

Hans is a B. Com and LLB, which reflects in the way he presents his arguments. After working for over 20 years in the central secretariat service in various ministries, he took voluntary retirement and now straddles between two worlds: the rural Haryana, which is his home state, and the urban metropolis of Delhi. The series on Ravi inspired him to write on his songs for Asha Bhosle, for which I am sure the readers of SoY would be grateful to him. Thanks a lot Hans – AK)

Ravi and Asha BhosleSome time back Dr Shetty made a comment to the effect that Asha Bhosle could sing all the songs Lata Mangeshkar could, and in addition she could sing many which Lata could not, so why should Asha be not called the best singer. This thought of his has stuck with me, because, I have come across many who held the same view. There were some who rated Suman Kalyanpur  the better singer. My elder sister who is four years older than me held the same view. In fact, in those days of the late 60s and early 70s, there were a number of magazines in circulation which gave stories about Lata’s manoeuvres. My sister made very angry remarks against her on that count, Suman Kalyanpur was her favourite by far. Though I was younger, I tried to cool her down. At that time I did not have much knowledge about these things and was also a bit hesitant in arguing, especially with elders, so I gave just one argument, that Lata must have special talent and because of that the composers were giving her more songs.

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Ravi’s best duets for Rafi

Ravi-RafiIn my last post I covered Ravi’s best solo songs for Rafi. He composed about 250 songs for Rafi, including duets. It is a huge number in absolute as well as relative terms. Only two, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Shankar-Jaikishan, have undisputedly composed more Rafi songs than him, as can be expected. Chitragupta is in the same range or marginally more than him. About 42% of these songs are duets, including male-male duets, and songs having more than two singers. Over 100 duets is a significant number, and several of them are so good, no discussion on Ravi’s songs for Rafi is complete without mentioning his duets.

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Hemant Kumar’s duets with ‘other’ singers

A tribute to Hemant Kumar on his 99th birth anniversary (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989)

Hemant Kuma-Asha Bhosle-Geeta Dutt

I had written on the best duets of Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar in my first year of blogging. Then I had said: “Hemant Kumar in his voice brought the beauty of Bengal and melody of Rabindra Sangeet. When he joined with Lata Mangeshkar the effect was magical. Easily the best duets of Hindi films are of Hemant-Lata”. I further described these duets as the ultimate in melody. Now Songs of Yore has entered the tenth year, and Hemant Kumar would have entered his centenary year today. All this while I have been struck by the beauty of his fascinating duets with ‘other’ singers like Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle, and was looking for some opportunity to write a post on them. While Lata Mangeshkar personified melody and sweetness with Hemant Kumar, the ‘other’ singers brought their own unique verve and joy, and combining with his deep melodious voice created a different kind of charming effect.

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Rafi’s duets by Roshan

Rafi with RoshanMy post on Rafi’s solos by Roshan appeared more than six years ago, several years before I started the series on the stalwart music directors. And the reason was simple: Roshan ranked among the top in my reckoning for Rafi songs, along with Naushad, SD Burman and OP Nayyar. Duets have no less importance in creating this imprint on my mind. It just so happened that I am coming back to the duets of this combination after six years when DP Rangan set off a tandem series on Roshan and Madan Mohan.

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Roshan aur Madan Mohan ki Asha

Greeting Asha Bhosle on her 85th birthday (b. 8 September 1933) with her best songs by Roshan and Madan Mohan

Roshan-Madan Mohan-Asha BhosleIn Lata Mangeshkar era, music directors could be divided into two groups: Those who were like their wings chopped-off without her; and those who equally wanted her, but could survive even without her. (OP Nayyar was in a class of his own.) The first group had some of the greatest names, such as Naushad, C Ramchandra and Shankar-Jaikishan. I have earlier said they probably used Asha Bhosle ‘reluctantly’. But another Master, SD Burman, could not only survive a long hiatus with Lata Mangeshkar, but also produce some of the best music with Asha Bhosle and Geeta Dutt. Roshan and Madan Mohan were among the privileged few who, as per the popular literature, didn’t ever face the ire of the Empress. Though their Lata Mangeshkar songs far outweigh Asha Bhosle’s in quality and stature, and possibly in numbers, they have used Asha Bhosle very prominently to create some of her and their best songs. DP Rangan has set off a series on these two great composers in tandem. We can add another commonality between them: their willing and voluntary use of Asha Bhosle.

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