Asha Bhosle: The Voice That Had No Expiry Date

Words can barely capture the depth and beauty of Asha Bhosle's voice, at once ethereal and ineffable. Her demise has created a void but the songs she sang will never die.

• ASHA BHOSLE, SEPTEMBER 8, 1933 TO ETERNITY

Asha Bhosle's was a voice -- and a spirit -- set free. She was a soul that knew no shackles. The trail she blazed in an eight-decade singing career can never be replicated by a lesser mortal.

Bhosle, who passed away in Mumbai on Sunday at the age of 92, was indeed inimitable as a versatile vocalist.

Breaking the mould and catching her collaborators and admirers alike by surprise came easy to her. She sang a wide array of film and non-film songs -- totaling over 1,200 in 20-plus languages -- and created a niche entirely her own despite having to reckon with the shadow of her elder sister, the great Lata Mangeshkar, for a significant part of her career.

Early Career and Breakthrough

Asha Bhosle was reportedly assailed by self-doubt when Rahul Dev Burman (whom she was to marry in 1980) asked her to sing the western rhythm-heavy dance number Aaja Aaja Main Hoon Pyaar Tera (with Mohammed Rafi as the voice of the mercurial Shammi Kapoor) for Teesri Manzil (1966). She eventually decided to give the number a shot but not before rehearsing for 10 straight days. The outcome, as we all know, was nothing short of what her fans had come to expect from her -- exceptional.

Born in 1933 in the family of Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar, Asha began singing professionally at the age of 10. Her first song was Chala Chala Nav Bala for the Marathi film Majha Bal (1943).

Her Hindi break came a few years later. The song was Saawan Aaya in the 1948 film Chunaria, which also had numbers by Geeta Dutt, Lata Mangeshkar and Rafi.

In the early 1950s, the Hindi film playback singing scene was dominated by Lata, Geeta and Shamshad Begum but Bhosle found her way around. In those years, she sang mainly for B films that had music by the likes of Sardar Malik, Ghulam Mohammed and Sajjad Hussain.

The influence of both Lata and Geeta Dutt was understandably difficult to shrug off and comparisons were frequently made. But once Bhosle found her own voice, there was no stopping her.

Forging Her Own Path

The tide began to turn when O P Nayyar employed Bhosle's voice in 11 of the 12 songs in the 1952 film Chham Chhama Chham. The wider visibility brought her into the orbit of Bimal Roy, who was then making Parineeta, and Raj Kapoor, who was producing Boot Polish. In the latter film, Bhosle sang half a dozen songs.

Her creative partnership with Nayyar was further cemented in 1957's Naya Daur. The B R Chopra blockbuster marked the beginning of a new era in Bhosle's career that was to last until the 1990s. Both Chopra and Nayyar, alongside the two Burmans, figured prominently in the story of her steady rise to greatness.

Bhosle's songs in Naya Daur were duets with Rafi, Hindi cinema's dominant male playback singer of the 1950s and 1960s. Her songs with Rafi and thereafter with Kishore Kumar, a contemporary whose ascent began roughly at the same time as Bhosle's but whose career graph was markedly different because he wore many hats, defined much of Hindi film music for three decades and a bit.

Bhosle was always special. She could pack incredible range and vivacity into her voice, no matter what kind of song she was called upon to render. She imparted a distinct timbre to everything -- sad songs, peppy numbers, soulful ghazals, lilting bhajans coquettish love ditties and gentle lullabies.

Collaborations and Enduring Legacy

She struck it rich with every music director she worked with, from Sardar Malik to Anu Malik, S D Burman to R D Burman and from Ilaiyaraaja to A R Rahman. These are only a handful of names. Bhosle was the go-to female playback voice for every composer who was in the business when she was churning out hit after hit.

Each of them knew that she could be trusted as much to be Vyjayanthimala's voice as Helen's. Bhosle's breezy cabaret numbers for the latter became an integral part of Hindi movies and foreshadowed today's item numbers.

She sang O Haseena Zulfon Waali Jaane Jahan in Teesri Manzil (1966) and opened the floodgates that allowed Piya Tu Ab Toh Aaja (Caravan, 1971), Aaj Ki Raat Koi Aane Ko Hai Re Baba (Anamika, 1973) and Yeh Mera Dil Pyaar Ka Deewana (Don, 1978) to change the musical soundscape of Hindi cinema.

But all those perennial chartbusters were just one facet of Bhosle's remarkable oeuvre. In 1981, when Director Muzaffar Ali and Music Director Khayyam pencilled her in to sing a slew of ghazals for Rekha in Umrao Jaan, the singer baulked but, as always, delivered absolute magnificence.

As she did when she sang for A R Rahman in Rangeela (1995). She was 62 but when she crooned Tanha Tanha Yahaan Pe Jeena she did not sound a day younger than the film's leading lady Urmila Matondkar. That was who Asha Bhosle was -- a voice that had no expiry date.

One of the Umrao Jaan ghazals, Dil Cheez Kya Hai Aap Meri Jaan Lijiye, fetched Bhosle a National Award. She was to repeat the feat with a song that was a breakthrough of another kind, lending sublime musicality to strikingly conversational lyrics, Mera Kuch Saaman Tumhare Paas Pada Hai (Ijaazat, 1987).

The world was already accustomed to magic being created by the R D Burman-Asha Bhosle-Gulzar trio -- be it in the form of Bechara Dil Kya Kare (Khusboo, 1971) or Piya Baawri (Khubsoorat, 1980). Ijaazat was only the apogee.

There were many strewn across her long, legendary career. Words can barely capture the depth and beauty of Asha Bhosle's voice, at once ethereal and ineffable. Her demise has created a void but the songs she sang will never die.

Music of the quality she produced never does.

Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff