Happy 90th birthday, Asha Bhosle!

With a goddess like Asha, and with her body of work, any list can be but a drop in the ocean. Here are some particular favourites:

C Ramchandra’s Navrang is a soundtrack for the ages, but Asha’s ‘voice acting’ here is a special treat (the song is repeated twice in this clip). Holy mother of god, what melodic phrases! And what strange and lovely camera compositions, featuring each musician!

Why do some songs become boring after years of listening to them, and some — like this Jaidev gem from Hum Dono — compel me to keep revisiting them? Sublime stuff, and with a gun to my head, I’d say this is the greatest love duet of Indian cinema. The lyrics flow so beautifully (he says, ‘Don’t go’, and she says, ‘But I have to’, and this goes on and on), and I love love love the single shot from 1:26 -2:40. And what phrasing from Rafi and Asha!

Very very hard to pick ONE song from the RD Burman treasure chest, but this number from Anamika is a great example of the great man’s out-of-the-box melody making and Asha’s ability to steer though it with great panache. The song below (Qatra qatra) is another I listen to a lot. Also, Ghar jayegi tar jayegi from Khushboo, which (for me) has the loveliest phase of Asha’s voice.

OP Nayyar-Asha means… Mere Sanam? Yes. But also, how about this beauty from Kismat! My god. What wouldn’t I give to have been born in the 1950s, so that my teen years are filled with “first listens” of these gems from the 1960s, with Asha-Lata-Rafi at their peak. (Plus, I would have discovered The Beatles first-hand!) Oh well!

By the time Naina was released, Shankar-Jaikishan had been knocked off their perch, but I love how they take Asha into the silky lower notes, and the mini-alaap bridge in the antara is just exquisite. (I think there’s a case to be made that Shashi Kapoor looks more beautiful in this song than Padma Khanna. LOL!)

I am NOT a fan of Lata/Asha in Tamil. (How I wish ‘Valiyosai‘ had been given to S Janaki. And how much better Sunanda’s version of ‘Shenbagame‘ sounds. Sigh!) By the time Raja brought the sisters to Tamil, both were in their sunset days and their voices were not what they used to be, and their pronunciations/pauses were really odd at times. Still, this apparently simple (i.e., ‘simple’ in only the way a genius can create a ‘simple’ song) Naan Sonnathe Sattam beauty, with the ageless SPB, is a song I like a lot.

Happy 90th, Asha Bhosle, and thank you for the voice!