Next to her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle has been the most iconic female playback singer in Hindi films. Born on September 8, 1933, the 92-year-old songstress has recorded an estimated 11,000 songs in a career that began in 1948!
Touted to thus be the most-recorded singer in the world, she also has a reputation for moving with the times. Her range spans from classical to cabaret, with every genre in between. Besides being a singer, Asha-bai, as she is known, is also famous as a cook among her social circle and is a well-known and global restaurateur.
She is also, like Lata, a Dadasaheb Phalke award laureate. What’s more, she has also acted as the protagonist in the 2013 Marathi (her mother-tongue) film, Mai as well! At 79, Bhosle played a 65-year-old mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease.
Picking up even her 100 best songs would be an impossible and very subjective task. Let us thus limit ourselves to choosing her milestone songs in a career (she has yet not announced retirement from new recordings!) of 82 years!
Chalaa chalaa nav baalaa / Maazhe Baal / 1943
Asha Bhosle sang her first film song for the Marathi film Maazhe Baal. The music was by Datta Davjekar, who also introduced her sister Lata Mangeshkar to Hindi films in 1947 as an adult singer.
Saawan aaya / Chunaria / 1948
Bhosle made her Hindi film debut with composer Hansraj Behl in Chunaria. Geeta Dutt (at that time known as Geeta Roy and Asha’s role-model) and Zohrabai Ambalewali were her co-singers. The song was written by Mulkraj Bhakri.
Hai mouj mein apne begaane / Raat Ki Rani / 1949
This was her first solo song in Hindi. Hansraj Behl composed this song as well. It was written by Arzoo Lucknowi. Bhosle once said that Behl was the first composer who thought that she had a voice comparable to her already- established elder sister and was like her guru and mentor.
Yeh ruki ruki hawaen / Daaman / 1951
The very first Lata-Asha song of about 70 duets and ensemble songs was this K. Dutta composition. Asha also sang many songs with her other sisters, Usha Mangeshkar and Meena Mangeshkar. She also has sung songs composed by her brother, Hridaynath Mangeshkar and even her son, the late Hemant Bhosle, completing the family associations, so to speak.
Maang ke saath tumhara / Naya Daur / 1957
The B.R. Chopra blockbuster was the first big-budget film in which Asha got to sing all the songs for a big-name star—Vyjayanthimala. She sang three duets with Mohammed Rafi—Saathi haath badhana and Udejab jab zulfein teri were the other two besides the most popular song mentioned above. Ek deewana aate jaate (a solo) and Reshmi salwar kurta jaali ka (with Shamshad Begum) were the other songs.
The music was by O.P. Nayyar, who gave her a major break here, and with whom she went on to establish a major team and was linked personally as well. It is not clear whether this was her first film with Mohammed Rafi as co-singer. The two recorded the highest duets in Hindi cinema: over 900!
Aaiye meherbaan / Howrah Bridge / 1958
This O.P. Nayyar beauty established Bhosle’s lasting association with the Western / nightclub / cabaret / seductive song, soon to become a major genre in the films of the 1960s and 1970s. The song, enacted by Madhubala, was written by Qamar Jalalabadi. Classics from Bhosle in this genre later were as varied asJewel Thief, An Evening in Paris, Aadmi Aur Insaan, Johny Mera Naam, Caravan, Lootmaar and others.
Dum maro dum / Hare Rama Hare Krishna / 1972
Probably, this is the first song with which the youth relates with Bhosle. The song that made Zeenat Aman a huge star and redefined, forever, the image of the heroine, was written by Anand Bakshi and composed by R.D. Burman in Dev Anand’s lost-and-found drama.
Yai re / Rangeela / 1995
Despite her impeccable track-record, Bhosle hit an inexplicable career low from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. And then, A.R. Rahman became her savior and brought her back into the reckoning with this song as well as Tanha tanha for the sexy new sensation, Urmila Matondkar. And Asha sounded as young as ever, if not still younger, at 62.
