Asha
Asha ki awaaz to paani hain” – Asha’s voice is like water that mixes homogeneously with anything. These were Panchamda’s words for his and also our beloved enchantress Asha Bhosale and the whole world cannot deny this fact. Asha tai sang for his father for years. In the early sixties decade Asha was the only singer who recorded maximum for Sachin Dev Burman. The young Rahul assisted his father and also gave the singers rehearsals. Later he also ghost directed S.D’s films. R.D then established himself as a music director and worked with her in some films when they realised the compatibility between them. He as a versatile musician and she as a versatile singer went all lengths in music. The musical duo later settled as a happy couple after tying a knot in July’1979.
Also other musicians of yesteryears experimented but the common factor in their experiments was Asha. Sachin da recorded the first ever cabaret in her voice for Dev Anand’s ‘Taxi driver’ – “jeene do aur jeeyo”, C. Ramchandra tried so many like in Rock’n’roll and in classical in Navrang. Roshan gave her the best qawwali “Nigahen milane ko jee chahta hain” in ‘Dil hi to hai’, O.P Naiyyar and Asha were again a wonderful team.
Also her brother Hridaynath tried most of his difficult to sing songs on Asha tai and succeeded. Similarly Pancham da’s experiments in music were frequent and to see them succeed he needed Asha. Both shared a wonderful chemistry when they sang or composed. Both experimented regardless the consequences. It all started after ‘Teesri manzil’. Asha was a bit skeptical whether to sing to his tunes initially because he had a different style of composing but she took it as a challenge and just listen to the sheer magic in all its songs. “O mere sona re”, “aaja aaja”, “o haseena zulfonwali” are obviously the most famous songs in this film but as ever Asha was always one-up in all her duets be it with any musician or singer one cannot deny her grace in “Dekhiye sahibo woh koi aur thi” where in every verse she sounds just ‘DIFFERENT’. Panchamda and Asha tai sang their first duet in ‘The train’ and then teamed up for many numbers including the beautiful “Sapna mera toot gaya” in ‘Khel khel mein’.
Some of the greatest songs of this phenomenal couple are “mar dalega dard-e-jigar” (Pati-patni), Jaane jaan dhoondta phir raha”(Jawaani deewani), “Kitne bhi tu karle sitam”, “jaane jaan o meri”(Sanam teri kasam), “Kya ghazab karte ho jee”(Love story), “Sharma naa yoon”(Joshila), “Do lafzon ki hain dil ki kahani” (The great gambler), “Hawa ke saath saath”, “Zindagi hain khel”( Seeta aur Geeta), “Piya tu ab to aaja”(Caravan), “Mera naam hain Shabnam” (Kati patang), “Bechara dil kya kare”, “Ghar jayegi” (Khushboo), “Dum maro dum”(Hare Rama Hare Krishna), “Bheega badan jalne laga”(Abdullah),”Choro choro solah singar karoongi”(Manoranjan), “Hai hai thanda paani” (Bombay to Goa), “Mausam mastana”, “Jhuka ke sar” (Satte pe satta), “Yeh ladka hai Allah”(Hum kisise kam nahi), “Aur kya ahd-wafa hote hain”(Sunny), “Piya bawari”, “Sun sun sun didi tere liye”( Khoobsurat), . In all these songs one can find a range of styles and experiments. Also some of their not much famous songs like “oye tauba mujhe toone badnaam kar diya”(Jawaani deewani), “Hey baba hey baba”(Manzil manzil), “Badal jo barse to”(Gardish), “Jashn-e bahara”(Abdullah), “Chotisi kahani se” (Ijazat), “Aaja mere pyaar aaja”(Heeralal Pannalal), “Wallah kya nazara hain”(Ishq Ishq Ishq) are substantial but ignored by the intelligent listeners.
“Baat adhoori kyun hain”(Majdoor) and “Meri nazar hain tujhpe”(The Burning Train) are best examples of western and Indian classical fused and presented by this team. “Hain agar dushman” in ‘hum kisise kam nahin’ and the “Pal do pal ka saath hamara”in ‘The burning Train’ (in both Asha excels
over Rafi) are the evergreen qawwali’s in film history. They go high altitudes in ‘yaadon ki baaraat’ with “Aap ke kamare mein koi rehta hain”, this is possible only with a team like Asha-Kishore-RD. RD confidently moved when Asha accompanied him and so came up with utter classics. The Gulzar-Asha-Pancham team was always enthusiastic to innovate and always succeeded, but 1987 was a special year for them when they created waves with ‘Dil padosi hain’ in the non-film music world and on the filmi front with ‘Ijazat’ which had beautiful songs like “mera kuchh samaan”, Katra katra milti hain” and “Khali haath shyam aayee hain” Asha Bhosale and Gulzar both won the national award for their work in ‘Ijazat’.
Asha never let down his hopes. Both can be rightly termed as the best musical couple. Neither was he less nor was she a loser, both Titans, both excellent, both equally in love with music and each other. Both married to music, both married to each other. Asha Rahul Dev Burman, one name that says/sings all.
