Ask any Bollywood music aficionado about choosing between greats and they will tell you that they are torn between the two doyennes of playback singing, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle.
The iconic singer takes the stage in Dubai and delivers a thunderous performance while reminding the world that you have to keep adapting to the changing times.
Dubai
Ask any Bollywood music aficionado about choosing between greats and they will tell you that they are torn between the two doyennes of playback singing, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. Taking a side is as difficult as asking a millennial to choose between Facebook and Whatsapp. But when Asha Bhosle sings ‘Lag Ja Gale’ (an iconic song originally sung by Lata Mangeshkar), it is the closest one can come to a state of equilibrium. Moreover, it’s a rare opportunity where you get to experience the best of both worlds in such fashion. The opportunity presented itself through a live show that emerged in Dubai recently and those in attendance would agree unanimously about the equilibrium effect.
Bhosle, a veteran singer whose career spans generations, is a voice that is both loved and revered in equal measure and has seeped into South Asian consciousness in a permanent sort of way.
Her recent gig in Dubai, for which she collaborated with Javed Ali, has been touted as her farewell to live singing on an international stage. “You know I turned 84 last month and I have been thinking over these past few weeks about mortality and how so many of my peers, from [Mohammad] Rafi saheb to Kishore [Kumar] da, are no more. I have this feeling that this could well be my final show overseas,” she said to a daily.
This obviously generated a lot of interest and disappointed many as realisation dawned on listeners that the songstress is bidding farewell to the stage. How would she sound? She was so very personal to everyone. Having lent her voice to a number of actresses across generations, her songs were deeply embedded in the lives of people who grew up in the sixties and the seventies and all the way to the mid nineties (during the period of Aditya Chopra’s permanent hit, Dilwale Dulhaniye Le Jayengay).
I, too, like so many others, have a deep connection to Asha’s enduring songs. Living in Dubai for almost 4 years, listening to old Indian music on radio is a daily routine for me. And though I count myself as a Lata (Mangeshkar) loyalist, I have also never felt the need to change the channel when Asha’s songs appear on-air.
Meeting Lata Mangeshkar may very well remain an unfulfilled dream as more time passes by but I was equally excited to have the opportunity to meet another legend in the family. During the conversation, I almost cracked the reason for her longevity in music. “I changed with the times,” she said. With a degree of awareness that few possess and a smart head, she knows about all the latest mediums through which music is consumed such as YouTube and SoundCloud.
She is also a very active Twitter user. Speaking to a daily in the UAE, Asha stated recently: “We cannot shy away from the fact that the world has moved on and we have got to move along with it. Online music piracy has dealt a death blow to record sales and the advent of technology means that very few people will buy a record, cassette or CD anymore. People, especially youngsters, are only going to tune into their iPhones and iPods and that’s how music shall survive. It is a part of the evolution of things and one must embrace it.”
When asked about singing and whether she felt bored from it after so many decades and what keeps her going, she pondered on the questions for a while and stated thoughtfully, “I’ve suffered a great deal of pain and anguish in the six decades that I have been in the film industry but somehow I managed to take it all in my stride…a time comes in our lives where you begin to think that you didn’t come this far to only come this far. Had it not been my devotion to music, I wouldn’t have got this far. You will be surprised to know that four generations of music lovers listen to my songs. Presently I find myself faced with the iPhone generation who I’m told live-stream my music. What more appreciation can one seek?”
Coming back to the concert, it started on time and with Javed Ali setting the tone for the night. But it was Asha Bhosle’s entry that the impatient crowd was longing for. Dressed in a blue sari accessorized with her signature diamond bracelet, she held the mic tightly and bowed her head momentarily before welcoming the crowd with a timeless version of ‘Aiye Meherban’. The original song where Madhubala looked her sensuous best was also being played on the life-size screens placed across the hall. Considering her health, Asha took regular breaks in between. She interacted with the audience, responded with ‘I love you too’ to shouts of ‘Asha ji we love you’ and shared numerous anecdotes.
Like her elder sister, she too sings barefoot. She also mentioned that in between songs, she takes sugar candies (Khadi Shakkar) to keep her mouth from getting dry. When artists share such intimate details about their lifestyles, they endear themselves to people.
As a performer, she knew what songs to sing and presented memorable tunes like ‘Chura Liya Hai’, ‘Yeh Mera Dil’, ‘Jhumka Gira Re’, ‘Le Gayi Le Gayi’ and ‘Dum Maro Dum’ adding to a spell that was cast when she first appeared onstage.
Much to the delight of those present, she paid tribute to her elder sister Lata by singing two of her songs, ‘Lag Ja Gale’ and ‘Rahein Na Rahein Hum’ that had fans jiving along.
When she took a final bow after the song ‘Piya Tu’, she was greeted by a standing ovation and a thunderous round of applause. Some listeners questioned the choice of songs and wondered why she didn’t sing Umrao Jaan or Taal. The simple answer is that no matter how many songs she sings, one can never get enough of Asha.
– Sadiq Saleem is a Dubai based entertainment journalist. He is also an Instep
correspondent and can be contacted on his page fb/sidsaidso.
